Bart Simpson might quickly have a brand new catchphrase in his repertoire: “Don’t have a Cowboy, man.”
The Walt Disney Co., the NFL and ESPN and teaming as much as debut one other animated various broadcast of an upcoming NFL recreation, however this time they’re going huge with “ESPN’s The Simpsons Funday Soccer.”
On Dec. 9, Disney+ and ESPN+ will stream the Dallas Cowboys-Cincinnati Bengals matchup, however it can happen in Springfield’s Atoms Stadium, with all of the gamers changed by dozens of animated characters based mostly on these from the Fox and Disney+ collection The Simpsons.
It is going to be the second 12 months in a row that Disney+ will stream an animated model of an NFL recreation, however this 12 months’s recreation shall be greater on a number of fronts: For starters, it’s a Monday Night time Soccer matchup, not a Sunday morning recreation like final 12 months’s Toy Story recreation.
And in contrast to final 12 months’s recreation, which noticed the Hollywood strikes restrict the power of Disney to make the most of expertise from these movies, this 12 months’s Simpsons recreation will function a full roster of Simpsons voice expertise collaborating, together with Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith. They may lend their voices to prerecorded bits and skits (written by the Simpsons manufacturing group) that may run earlier than and throughout the recreation, together with some that contain gamers from every group and ESPN expertise like Stephen A. Smith and Peyton and Eli Manning.
The altcast will even have its personal announcer sales space, with animated variations of Mina Kimes, Dan Orlovsky and Drew Carter calling the motion.
For components of the sport, Bart Simpson will seem on the sphere for the Bengals (or a minimum of an animated model of Bart, changing an precise Bengals participant), whereas Homer Simpson will play for the Cowboys. Marge and Lisa will interview gamers throughout the recreation, whereas Maggie mans the SkyCam.
The Simpsons-themed altcast implies that ESPN may have three totally different variations of that week’s Monday Night time Soccer, with the normal presentation led by Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on ESPN, ABC and ESPN+, the Manningcast led by Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN2 and on ESPN+, and the Simpsons model on Disney+ and ESPN+.
The sport would be the highest-profile reside sports activities occasion to stream on Disney+.
The Simpsons — which Disney acquired in tis 2019 Fox deal — hits a youthful male demo that the NFL needs to achieve, making for a barely extra logical animated choice as in comparison with the Toy Story effort a 12 months in the past. Whereas new episodes of the present nonetheless run on Fox (and usually get a rankings enhance when the community has a Sunday NFL doubleheader), Disney+ has additionally streamed a number of shorts and may have an unique vacation particular in December.