ESPN Teases Look for Dunk the Halls NBA Animated Altcast With New Player Animations
ESPN offers a first-look at San Antonio Spurs stars Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama, New York Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns
Story Highlights
In advance of its Dunk the Halls animated broadcast of the San Antonio Spurs vs. New York Knicks game on Christmas Day, ESPN has unveiled its next set of visual assets, including the first-look at Spurs stars Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama and Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Disney, ESPN, and the NBA are teaming up to present Dunk the Halls, a real-time animated broadcast of the Spurs-Knicks matchup on Christmas Day. The virtual, live re-creation of the game will leverage Sony’s Beyond Sports technology. Set on iconic “Main Street, USA” in Magic Kingdom Park, Dunk the Halls will be presented on ESPN2, Disney+, and ESPN+. The special alt-cast marks the first animated presentation of an NBA game and the first NBA game to stream on Disney+.
Dunk the Halls is the latest chapter in Disney and ESPN’s real-time animated-broadcast effort. ESPN recently announced that, on Dec. 9, it will produce an animated, real-time alt-cast, titled The Simpsons Funday Football and streaming on Disney+ and ESPN+, for Monday Night Football. Other animated alt-casts include Toy Story Funday Football in September 2023 and editions of the NHL Big City Greens Classic in both March 2023 and March 2024. Dunk the Hall will be the first animated alt-cast in a sports without helmets, thereby requiring more facial details than previous efforts that primarily utilized generic player animations.
Each Spurs and Knicks player will appear as a motion-enabled, animated player for the special Christmas matchup. Real-time visualization technology enabled by Sony’s Beyond Sports, combined with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations’ optical tracking, will enable fans watching Dunk the Halls to see all the action from the game at Madison Square Garden as it happens.
In addition, ESPN has released the official explainer video for Dunk the Halls:
