Gramma Alice got to put her grandson in his place during this year’s NHL Big City Greens Classic 2, securing the win as the coach for the Boston Bruins in the specialty alternative broadcast of a live hockey game.
Last year, fans of both Hockey and the hit Disney Channel series Big City Greens were treated to a new experiment when the NHL Big City Greens Classic hit the airwaves, presenting a live telecast of the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers going head to head in an alternative NHL broadcast. Last year, Cricket and the Green family from the hit animated series ushered the NHL into their world featuring player and puck tracking technologies, presenting the live game from the animated world of Big City.
Animated hijinks were featured throughout, including zoo animals getting loose and taking up residence along the side of the ice watching the game. Characters from the series would call in throughout and really brought the world to life alongside a real NHL game.
This year, under the guise of getting too arrogant after winning last year, Gramma needs to put Cricket in his place and teach him a lesson about being humble, so with more cast than last year we’re treated to that battle.
Gramma serves as the coach of the Boston Bruins, with Bill, Tilly, and Gloria filling in on the team alongside animated Brad Marchand. The Pittsburgh Penguins are led by Cricket, who’s team consists of Remy, Nancy, and Vasquez. Vasquez does a far better job at being a bodyguard for Remy than he does as a hockey goalie. Under his watch, “replacing” Penguins Player Alex Nedeljkovic, the Bruins were able to score five times.
Two of those goals came from Gloria, Gramma’s business partner and non-blood member of the Green family. “Filling in” for Bruins player Pavel Zacha, Gloria came in with two goals and an assist. Tilly, “replacing” player Jake DeBrusk, also scored another goal for the team.
The animated fun took over when ever there was a goal, turning the telecast into a party with the playing of the Big City Greens theme, an animated disco ball, and the populous of the crowd being turned into that team’s animal. I’ll bet a lot of kids who tuned in today learned that a bruin was a bear thanks to today’s game.
Last year, the intermissions between periods were showcasing how the tech behind the live animated game worked, but alas, this is the second year so that was pushed aside. Instead, we got treated to entertaining speed skating demonstrations and accuracy practice featuring Remy and Tilly that were more akin to what would be featured on the arena’s jumbotron.
The presentation blended two types of tracking technologies – NHL EDGE positional data (NHL Puck and Player tracking) and Hawk-Eye Innovations optical tracking – to create more dynamic player and character movement to help fans better visualize detailed limb and stick movement and mannerisms. The ESPN commentators calling the action on the animated telecast – Drew Carter, Kevin Weekes and Arda Öcal – got in on the fun by wearing virtual reality headsets for motion capture, to immerse them in the animated environment of Big City’s Times Circle.
This year, there was also more Big City Greens voice talent featured in the presentation, including creator and executive producer Chris Houghton (Cricket), Marieve Herington (Tilly), Zeno Robinson (Remy), Artemis Pebdani (Gramma) and creator and executive producer Shane Houghton (various characters). Last year, as mentioned earlier, there were phone calls throughout from various characters while hijinks played out. This year, there was a lot of checking in with Cricket and Gramma and that’s okay, it was still highly enjoyable. I also think, pure speculation and not confirmed at this time, that there were a bit of technical difficulties early on, as a conversation seemed to have been cut short and it was quite a bit of time before character conversations resumed.
This year’s broadcast also seemed to focus more on the actual game but keeping it in the Big City Greens universe – which I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Carter and Weekes’ intense knowledge of the show. I don’t know if they had stacks on stacks of notes, binged seasons of the show prior to viewing, or if they are just fans of the show, but they were making references (some more obscure than others) throughout the game.
At this point, alternative broadcasts like this are becoming more normal and less novel. Not only is this the second foray into the NHL with Big City Greens, the NFL has gotten in on the fun with similar broadcasts (including the Super Bowl) on Nickelodeon, and last year with a Toy Story-themed game. As we do more of these, the tech gets better and better, which is true of this NHL game compared to last year’s. The animation seemed to run smoother, and they had more filler when it was needed, including characters like Gregly and Andromeda fully realized in 3D animation, peppered throughout.
Social media seems to have a fondness for this broadcast as well, with an overwhelming amount of positivity surrounding the telecast from fans of both the sport and the animated series.
If you didn’t catch the game live, if history repeats itself, you can catch a replay of the NHL Big City Greens Classic 2 on Disney+ and the DisneyNOW app. And, if you didn’t know, you were reminded at nearly every commercial break during the game that that Big City Greens movie is getting closer! You can read more about Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation here. Commercials also revealed new episodes of Big City Greens are set to resume on the network in April.
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