‘Monsters Funday Football,’ ESPN’s Latest Live Animation Effort, Advances the Altcast Art Form Again

ESPN, Pixar, Beyond Sports blend live NFL tracking data, add attention to fun sound effects

Monsters Funday Football will pull tonight’s Monday Night Football deep into Monstropolis, transforming the Philadelphia Eagles–Los Angeles Chargers matchup into ESPN’s most ambitious real-time animated broadcast yet.

The game will be reimagined on the “Cheer Floor” inside a meticulously crafted virtual Monsters, Inc. factory, blending live NFL tracking data with 30 minutes of new Pixar animation and a stadium packed with 5,000 animated monsters roaring along with every play.

For Michael “Spike” Szykowny, VP, edit, animation, graphics innovation, and creative production, ESPN, the mission remains what it was when ESPN began experimenting with animated altcasts: every edition has to move the bar forward.

“In every area,” he says, “it always gets a little bit better, and that’s what we strive for. Everything about the tracking is getting better, the environments are getting better, and the storytelling gets better. The secondary storylines — we always try and be better than the last one or add something new or different.”

This year, the leap is unmistakable.

Better Tracking, Smoother Motion, More-Natural Gameplay

Under the hood, Monsters Funday Football is powered by a merger of NFL Next Gen Stats RFID data and Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking, combined inside Beyond Sports’ real-time virtual re-creation engine. Beyond Sports synchronizes each play from SoFi Stadium onto the Cheer Floor, generating player movement, ball trajectory, crowd reactions, and environmental behaviors live.

MORE:

• SVG Sit-Down: ESPN Director Jeff Nelson on Calling the (Animated) Action on ‘Monsters Funday Football’
• ‘Monsters Funday Football’: Louisiana Philharmonic Delivers Again With Orchestral Mashup of ‘MNF’ Theme and ‘Monsters, Inc.’ Score

As NFL executives noted at the ESPN Edge Conference last month, the improved fusion of optical and RFID data removes many occlusion issues and allows more-natural body articulation, especially in pile-ups and downfield plays.

Monsters Funday Football, the latest animated alternative broadcast from the team at ESPN, will pit the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Chargers in a game played in the world of the popular Disney/Pixar film, Monsters, Inc.

This season marks the league’s first year capturing optical tracking in every venue, which Szykowny says shows up immediately in the animation. Incremental but essential improvements are stacking up. “For example, we couldn’t get on kicks, field goals. and extra points. We couldn’t get the holder to get on the knee, so the ball kind of landed at his feet. Now we’ve got that solved.”

Operations: Sound Worlds, Beyond Sports Operators, Bigger Crew

On the operations side, ESPN Manager, Studio Operations, Mo McMeekin has watched the show evolve into a deeper, more complex production. A major addition to this year’s production is a dedicated sound-effects room, staffed by sound designer Jason Finberg alongside A1s Zach Casey and Jason Severance, with A2 Kevin Rosa supporting. This team enhances the animated world with custom sound cues, from monster reactions to in-world machinery.

“When you add those little sound effects,” notes McMeekin, “it can add those little moments and make you smile.”

This year introduces another innovation: selected sound effects originating from the Beyond Sports engine itself — Scare Pig squeals, conveyor-door swooshes, speed effects tied to fast runs — are routed into the Bristol, CT, control room’s mix.

The production depends on a broad crew that includes TDs Nick Potzka and Aaron Bedenbaugh; Media Operators Adam Oliphant, Lupe Marquez, Drew Smith, Carl Baker, Julian De Leon, Kinsley Sharp, and Jason Shusteric; Technical Operations Managers Haili Menard and Erik Barone; and AD CL Carter, who helps maintain the timing of an incredibly layered show.

ESPN has built a strong culture within a team that has become a regular foundation to these animated broadcasts. The ideal operator for this project, McMeekin says, blends creativity, composure, and a willingness to experiment. He also emphasizes the scale: a normal studio show might involve 20-30 people, but Monsters Funday Football easily doubles that. “You really appreciate how much time, effort, teamwork, and collaboration go into a production like this.”

Extending the Monsters, Inc. Universe for a Live NFL Game

A foundational creative challenge emerges any time ESPN adapts a major IP: respecting the original story world while expanding it just enough to work in a live sports environment. For Monsters Funday Football, that meant rethinking the film’s core mythology.

Players from the Eagles and Chargers will be animated in real time on the backbone of NFL Next Gen Stats RFID data and Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking.

Early in development, Szykowny and ESPN Senior Director, Creative Animation, David “Sparky” Sparrgrove asked whether humans could even appear on the field with monsters. In Monsters, Inc., the answer was initially “no.” But, as anyone who has seen the original film knows, by the end of the story, it’s revealed that humans aren’t dangerous to Monstropolis, and the power source the company is mining shifted from screams to laughter. That opened a door.

“We were like, wait, monsters and humans really don’t mix,” Szykowny recalls. “But, toward the end of the movie, they did. They discovered that humans were okay, and they went to laughter. We took it one step further: why not a Cheer Floor?”

Thus, the MNF game plays out inside a reimagined version of the factory: a field that collects the energy of cheers and an audience of thousands of background creatures drawn from original Pixar concepts.

The main characters of Monsters, Inc., Sully and Mike, will be inserted into live game action throughout the night.

Sparrgrove takes special pride in that environment. “Not only is it true to the Monsters IP, it’s an extension of Monsters Inc.”

ESPN has years of experience collaborating with Pixar on animated altcasts. But Szykowny notes that ESPN Creative Studio handles the majority of the work, with contributions from Toronto-based graphic-design agency Big Studios.

The animating of Pixar characters was grounded in a base requirement: each monster had to be humanoid enough — two arms, two legs — for the animation system and optical tracking to work. For character authenticity, Pixar provided direct access to one of its franchise animators.

The animator’s feedback transformed the work. “He knows the characters really, really well,” says Sparrgrove. “He gave us best practices for animating Mike and Sully. We had a good animation [for them]. Then he took a look and gave some notes, and they became great.”

Attention to detail extended to recalibrating movement physics — the weight of Sulley’s stride, the tracking of Mike’s eye — and even rebuilding Sulley’s famous hair from scratch. “Being able to redo [Sully’s] very iconic hair, show that to Pixar, and get a sign-off was a huge accomplishment for our team,” Sparrgrove says.

And yes, the team embraced the Pixar tradition of Easter eggs. “We love those moments,” says Szykowny. “Sparky might throw in a prop here or there, something that only you would know. It is a Pixar thing that we’re aware of and we try to contribute to during these Funday Football telecasts.”

Staying Humble and Resetting Ground Level

After multiple successful animated altcasts, ESPN could easily fall into a rinse-and-repeat mindset. Szykowny is adamant that they do not: “We never go into this saying, We got this. We always try to reset the ground level. The fun part about these projects is, they’re different from everything else we do.”

ESPN’s animation team re-created an entire world, a “Cheer Floor” based in the Monsters, Inc. environment, which includes thousands of fans and even a more active and engaging Cannister Club, which will be visited frequently throughout downtime in the game.

That open mind also encourages late-breaking creativity. Nelson recently pitched a gag where a made field goal would stick into the back of the character Oop. It didn’t make the cut this year, but everyone involved sees it as the type of idea that keeps the project fresh.

“We want to hear people’s new ideas,” Szykowny notes. “We want to see if somebody has something that can take it to another level.”

With Pixar’s universe as a playground, Hawk-Eye and Beyond Sports fueling real-time motion, and ESPN’s teams stretching the boundaries of presentation, Monsters Funday Football becomes more than an altcast. It is a glimpse into how data, animation, and live sports production continue to converge, one scream-powered touchdown at a time.

ESPN’s third iteration of Funday Football, Monsters Funday Football, makes its debut on ESPN2, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and the ESPN App; returns to Disney+; and is on mobile on NFL+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET. The traditional Monday Night Football telecast airs on ESPN, ABC, and ESPN Deportes.