Know About The Capitals vs Rangers Animated Game That’s Turning Heads

They’re giving it a shot. The Capitals vs Rangers animated game!

Know About The Capitals vs Rangers Animated Game That’s Turning Heads

The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals game on Tuesday will be followed by a first-of-its-kind animated NHL show.

NHL Edge positioning data (player and puck tracking) is used in the “NHL Big City Greens Classic” broadcast to replicate the actual on-ice action taking place at Madison Square Garden.

The show, which can be seen on ESPN+, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney+, also includes characters from the Disney comedy series “Big City Greens” skating next to animated NHL players.

“Hockey is an incredibly exciting and animated sport, but we felt it wasn’t animated enough,” Shane and Chris Houghton said, the creators and executive producers of “Big City Greens.” “We’re thrilled to be partnering with the NHL and ESPN to see the Greens lace up their skates and add a generous dash of ‘Big City Greens’ comedy to what is sure to be an entertaining game.”

The motion-capture costumes that ESPN announcers Drew Carter and Kevin Weekes are wearing while calling the virtual game allow full-body animations of them to appear in the Big City.

Facial recognition technology is being used to imitate the reactions of Chris Houghton, the animated series’ co-creator/executive producer, and actor Marieve Herington, who voices Tilly.

“I really want my curiosity to be deep, my excitement for it,” Weekes, a former NHL goalie, told NHL.com.

“Hopefully that ends up translating into the broadcast itself because we’re being transported, certainly for me, I’ll be transported into a different world. And more importantly, we want to be able to transport the viewer, the listener, into a different world.”

“Not only are the players the artists, but so too are the characters, and now we’re going to kind of merge and integrate those two in the storytelling via the animation and via that technology,” Weekes added.

A partnership between ESPN, Disney Channel, and the NHL produced the special broadcast. The NHL EDGE Innovation partners Verizon, Beyond Sports, and Silver Spoon along with the ESPN Edge Innovation Center generated the real-time animation.

There will be a regular broadcast between the Rangers and Caps on ESPN and ESPN+.

What is “Big City Greens”?

“Big City Greens” is an animated comedy show on Disney. It debuted on the network in 2018 and has three seasons.

The premise of the show revolves around Bill Green and his family. Bill lost his farm in a country town and was forced to move in with his mother, Alice (or Gramma), who lives on a small farm in a city called, “Big City.”

In addition, Bill has two small children which the story is centered on: Cricket, a younger boy, and Tilly, the older sister. The show also features Nancy, Bill’s ex-wife and the mother to Cricket and Tilly, and Remy, Cricket’s best friend in “Big City.”

Why did Disney broadcast an NHL game?

The NHL and Disney worked together in partnership through the NHL’s TV deal with ESPN, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, to bring a unique broadcast, catering to the younger audience.

“Working with Disney Channel and the NHL, we are producing a telecast that will reach a new and different audience and help to grow hockey fandom even more,” Ilan Ben-Hanan said, the senior vice president of programming and acquisitions at ESPN. “‘Big City Greens’ has a huge following in a younger audience that we are excited to tap into, offering a fun and creative way to enjoy the game across Disney platforms.”

It is similar to what is happening in football with the NFL on Nickelodeon. In addition to traditional broadcasts, the NFL has certain games available to watch on Nickelodeon, which features more animation and kid reporters as well.

What is unique about the ‘NHL Big City Greens Classic broadcast?

The “NHL Big City Greens Classic” did something that has never been done in the game of hockey — provide a fully animated broadcast of the game Capitals vs Rangers.

“We’ve said from day one that our partnership with The Walt Disney Company is a big win for our fans and our League,” Dave Lehanski said, the NHL’s executive vice president of business development and innovation. “We’ve spent years investing in a fast and accurate puck and player tracking system to help us grow the game.

The ‘NHL Big City Greens Classic will demonstrate how we can leverage data from NHL EDGE — our puck and player tracking system — to create entirely new fan experiences for a younger audience in collaboration with incredible partners like The Walt Disney Company, ESPN and Beyond Sports. What a testament — to have the greatest animation company of all time leverage its incomparable creativity and IP to promote and grow our game.

In the presentation, “Big City Greens” characters skate alongside animated representations of the NHL players,” according to an ESPN news release, “using NHL Edge positioning data (puck and player tracking) to reproduce the action on the ice as it is happening.”

The “NHL Big City Greens Classic” was still called by ESPN pundits like Kevin Weekes and Drew Carter, but “Big City Greens” actors like the Houghton brothers and Marieve Herington, who plays Tilly, were also present.

 

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