Dunk the Halls‘ is a new TV program and the first ever animated NBA game to air in real-time. It comprises the combined efforts of Disney, ESPN, the NBA, and Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology. The game is set to air in real-time on December 25th, Christmas day, at exactly noon Eastern time. It will be appearing on the channels Disney Plus, ESPN2, and ESPN Plus, and will be regularly showing the real spots that it is set on, which are Main Street USA, and multiple locations within Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
Dunk the Halls
Unlike the game which will be played at the NBA, the animated parts of ‘Dunk the Halls‘ will be played at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The way they will combine the real-time events of the game with live animations is through this, though it is still not very clear how specifically, but that only adds to the excitement. All the animations will likely only be shown when shots of the locations listed above show up, including animations of the popular or iconic Disney characters.
Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, plus their friends, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck will be animated to be playing in the NBA. More animated characters such as Chip and Dale, for example, will be cheering them on, and Daisy Duck will be making an appearance as a sideline reporter. She will appear next to Drew Carter and Monica McNutt, who will appear animated, just like the rest of the real people who will appear during animated shots.
The Technology Making this Possible
Disney does have experience mixing animated parts with reality in the past, and they have animated a big sports event. For example, they rendered an NFL game to appear as though the players were having a game in Andy’s room from the Toy Story movie franchise. As impressive as that project was, it doesn’t compare to the scale of the new Dunk the Halls special scheduled to play live on Christmas.
Dunk the Halls will be mixing animations with reality, not just with the New York City Madison Square Garden, but also with the different castles in the Magic Kingdom. One example is Cinderella’s Castle located in Walt Disney’s Resort. Real characters will also be rendered to appear animated alongside the Disney characters. This is due to each of the players having a personalized avatar programmed to be motion-enabled.
Descriptions of the technology that will be used for this scale were described as “first-of-its-kind“, and “state-of-the-art”. They will be using real-time visualization technology, along with optical tracking technology provided by Sony’s Haw-Eye Innovations. Drew Carter and Monica McNutt will be provided with Meta Quest Pro Headsets, enabling them to use VR technology to experience and comment on the game and the animated shots.
NBA Partnering with Disney
The trailer for ‘Dunk the Halls‘ was posted on YouTube three weeks ago, by Disney Television Animation News. It is a half-minute animated video of Mickey writing a letter, with an animator excitedly telling the audience about Mickey’s wish, to play with his friends in the NBA. Fully animated, it doesn’t give us any example, spoiler, sneak peek, or snippet of what the live streaming will be like.
The NBA and Disney have several partnerships together and that will now include the ‘Dunk the Halls‘ program. Together, they have now also recently signed a new eleven-year extension on media agreements with the NBA and WNBA. Disney currently has eighty regular season games and twenty contests, and the two listed above are part of their international deal, which can be aired globally on Disney Plus.
Conclusion
The virtual, live recreation of The New York Knicks, ‘Dunk the Halls‘, will be the first-ever official presentation of an NBA game. It will be airing live and globally from the USA to Africa, and for Africa, it will be played on ESPN2. The story the children can imagine of how this crossover between the beloved characters and reality happened can be told with the trailer. Mickey Mouse wrote to Santa about his wish to play in the NBA with his friends, and Santa was able to make it come true with the help of multiple types of technology for broadcasting and combining different media.