ESPN, Disney, Pixar and the National Football League are all set to bring a real-time, animated Monday Night Football game Monsters Funday Football on 8 December.
This will be featuring the defending Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles at the Los Angeles Chargers, inside the iconic Monsters Inc building. Powered by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats and Sony’s Beyond Sports visualisation technology and Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations, this season’s immersive Funday Football experience will transport fans to Monstropolis for ESPN’s Week 14 MNF matchup.
Monsters Funday Football marks the third consecutive season ESPN, Disney+ and the NFL have presented a Funday Football telecast with the alternate presentation, for the first time, available on ESPN2, Disney Channel, and Disney XD, and the new ESPN App (via ESPN DTC or pay TV authentication), while continuing to stream on Disney+ and, on mobile, NFL+. Video on Demand will be available on Disney+ shortly after the live broadcast.
The traditional Monday Night Football telecast, with Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge will be available on ESPN, ABC, ESPN Deportes and streaming live on the ESPN App. Both presentations begin at 8 p.m. ET.
Again this season, Funday Football will be available internationally, live on ESPN platforms and/or Disney+, in Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia & New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Canada (TSN+). Video on demand will be available on Disney+ shortly after the live broadcast in these markets and in other regions such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and more for a total of more than 155 markets.
Every Eagles and Chargers player will appear as a motion-enabled, animated version of themselves brought to life through NFL Next Gen Stats, Sony’s Beyond Sports, and Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking, which have been utilised throughout each iteration of Funday Football. Using the player tracking data, Beyond Sports’ virtual recreation engine animates gameplay in real time within Monstropolis that mirrors the live action from SoFi Stadium.
Monsters Funday Football follows the success of The Simpsons Funday Football (December 2024) and Toy Story Funday Football (October 2023).
“Each iteration of Funday Football has pushed the boundary of what’s possible in sports technology. By blending real-time NFL data and tracking with cutting-edge animation, we’re transforming the way fans experience an NFL game,” said ESPN VP graphics innovation Michael ‘Spike’ Szykowny. “Our continued innovation with partners like the NFL, Beyond Sports and Disney+ showcases how technology can turn a live game into a fully immersive world, giving fans an additional way to consume sports.”
Adored monsters Mike Wazowski and James P. ‘Sulley’ Sullivan will make their football debut, joining Jalen Hurts and the Eagles and Justin Herbert and the Chargers, respectively. The action will unfold on the Cheer Floor- a reimagined version of the film’s famed Scare Floor and will be adorned with a full-length football field filled with thousands of cheering monsters. Continuing a hallmark of every Funday Football presentation, this edition’s setting builds on previous imaginative worlds following Andy’s bedroom in Toy Story Funday Football and Atom’s Stadium in Springfield from The Simpsons Funday Football.
Additional characters, film references and aesthetics will bring a regular day at Monsters Inc into an exciting Monday Night Football atmosphere.
