'Big City Greens,' NFL & ESPN Team For Animated Hockey Game Telecast!

Big City Greens is getting an animated hockey game!

Disney Channel, ESPN and the NHL have teamed up to bring the first-ever live, animated hockey game telecast, which will feature the Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers.

This will be a first of it’s kind telecast, featuring live, real-time volumetric animation of players and teams modeled after characters on Big City Greens.

Find out more inside…

“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, senior vice president of Programming and Acquisitions, ESPN, said in a statement. “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.”

“Hockey is an incredibly exciting and animated sport, but we felt it wasn’t animated enough. 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,” Big City Greens creators and executive producers Shane and Chris Houghton said.

“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, NHL’s executive vice president of Business Development and Innovation, added. “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.”

How are they making this happen?

They will “leverage NHL Edge positioning data (puck and player tracking) to recreate the action on the ice as it is happening while featuring Big City Greens characters skating alongside animated versions of the NHL players. The real-time animation will be produced in association with ESPN Edge Innovation Center and NHL EDGE Innovation partners Verizon, Beyond Sports and Silver Spoon.”

NHL commentators will call the action, while BCG voice actors, including the Houghton brothers and Marieve Herington (Tilly) will also be featured.

The NHL Big City Greens Classic telecast will take place on March 14th at 7pm ET/PT. The live, animated telecast will air on ESPN+, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney+, while the main telecast will be available on ESPN and ESPN+.

If you missed it, a Big City Greens movie musical is happening!