Greg Wyshynski
Multiple Authors
Hockey is an emotion-filled sport. But on April 5, players from the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers will skate alongside Joy and Sadness in the “Inside Out Classic,” a real-time animated alternative broadcast featuring characters from the hit Pixar films.
The alternative broadcast — airing on ESPN+, Disney+, Disney Channel and Disney XD with a 7 p.m. ET start — will feature “Inside Out” characters skating with animated versions of the NHL players who will mimic the actions of their real-world counterparts. The game will take place on Hockey Island inside the mind of Riley, the teenage hockey player whose emotions are the main characters in the Pixar films.
Voice talent from “Inside Out” and its sequel will be featured during the broadcast, including Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Lewis Black (Anger), Tony Hale (Fear) and Maya Hawke (Anxiety).
This is the third ESPN/NHL real-time animated presentation delivered through the league’s puck and player tracking technology. When the NHL started its new media rights deals in 2021, brainstorming began on ways to use that technology for an alternative virtual broadcast.
“In a really short window, it kind of exploded. At one point, we were just thinking of doing something a little small,” David Lehanski, the NHL’s senior vice president of business development and global partnerships, said at the time. “Then it quickly grew and grew because of the buy-in from Disney.”
The previous two alternative broadcasts featured characters from Disney Channel’s animated series “Big City Greens,” including the first one in 2023 that also featured the Capitals against the Rangers. Among the animated enhancements to the game were intermission interviews with the show’s characters and replacing the on-ice referee with a chicken.
Like those broadcasts, the “Inside Out Classic” will blend two types of tracking technologies — NHL EDGE positional data (puck and player tracking) and Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking — to help fans better visualize detailed limb and stick movement and mannerisms. The real-time animated telecast will be produced in association with the ESPN Edge Innovation Center.
Using Sony’s Beyond Sports’ virtual commentator technology, ESPN’s Drew Carter, Kevin Weekes and Arda Öcal will wear virtual reality headsets for motion capture, immersing them in the animated environment to call the action.
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