Win or Lose is an upcoming American animated television series produced by Pixar Animation Studios for the streaming service Disney+. It was created, written, and directed by Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, who also served as executive producers with David Lally, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lindsey Collins. The series revolves around a co-ed softball team at middle school named the Pickles in the week leading up to their big championship game, with each episode showing the perspective of each member in the same events, each reflected in a unique visual style.
The series' cast includes Will Forte, Ian Chen, Izaac Wang, Jo Firestone, Milan Ray, Josh Thomson, Erin Keif, and Rosie Foss. Pixar was developing the long-form original series following the creation of Disney+. It was officially announced in December 2020, during Disney's Investor Day, with Hobson and Yates on board who conceived the idea. Win or Lose draws inspiration from the conversations between Hobson and Yates, who would have very different reactions to the exact same events upon working on Toy Story 4 (2019). The animation style appears to shift, distinguishing itself further from usual fare in each episode, with Brendan Beesley, Brandon Kern, and Tom Zach as the heads of animation. Docter described the series as "a comedy about love, rivalry, and the challenges we all face in our struggles to win at life". Its musical score was composed by Ramin Djawadi. Win or Lose is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on February 19, 2025, and will consist of eight episodes.[1]
Synopsis
Win or Lose follows a co-edmiddle schoolsoftball team called the Pickles in the week leading up to their big championship game. Each 20-minute episode takes the same events from one different member of the Pickles and their perspective as the game approaches, such as players, their parents, and the umpire, with two stories being showcased in particular.[2]
Voice cast and characters
Main
Will Forte as Coach Dan, the coach of the softball team known as the Pickles.[3]
Milan Ray as Rochelle, the catcher who is having a bad day when everything goes wrong. Despite this, she is an excellent student who takes the initiative in everything in her life. The character is described as a "teenage CEO".[5]
On December 10, 2020, during Disney's Investor Day meeting, Pixar announced an original series titled Win or Lose for its parent company Disney's streaming service, Disney+. Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates were announced to be creating, writing, and directing from an idea they conceived, while David Lally was announced to be producing the project. "It's not so much about softball as it is a comedy about love, rivalry, and the challenges we all face in our struggles to win at life," Pixar's Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter stated. The series will consist of 20-minute episodes.[2][7] When working on Toy Story 4 (2019), Hobson and Yates realized that they had pretty different interpretations of how their creative meetings went, so they used these differing interpretations to develop the idea of an animated series revolving around one event but with each character having their own conflicts surrounding the event.[8] Hobson explained that Win or Lose has all the humor and heart of a Pixar feature film, but with a different type of storytelling. She also stated: "It's less of a Rashomon and more... You think you know a character, and then you pull back the curtain and reveal they have their own thing going on".[9] Hobson and Yates also executive-produced the series alongside Lally, Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lindsey Collins.[10][11]
Win or Lose is Pixar's first long-form animated series, as well as the first not to be based upon an existing property, as most of Pixar's television projects are based upon an existing property and short-form.[2] Pixar began considering developing a TV series following the creation of Disney+.[11] Yates and Hobson said one of the reasons a TV show format was selected for the series was the idea of experimenting with the format and longer storytelling, particularly regarding character perspectives, as well as a love for television.[12] Another reason was how television would allow Pixar to do things a feature film format would not allow to.[12] Hobson and Yates noted they both had to learn how to work on an episodic format.[12] On July 17, 2023, Lally confirmed on X that post-production for the series was completed.[13]
Writing
According to Hobson and Yates, a major theme on the series is how things are not as they seem, and seeing things from different perspectives, particularly how people in one place can suffer different experiences.[12] Each episode centers on a different character; characters are first introduced in a different episode, after which their episode further explores the said character after the perception first given in their debut.[12] Hobson said the characters were inspired by her and Yates, as well as by people they have met through their lives and their own experiences.[12]
Casting
On September 9, 2022, during the D23 Expo, it was announced that Will Forte would voice the lead character Coach Dan, ahead of a first look image released on the same day.[3] Forte's voice performance as Coach was inspired by Robin Williams as the Genie from Aladdin (1992). Yates said, "Will was constantly improving. It was an overflow of great stuff. The hardest part was having a five-minute scene with constant belly laughs and having to get it to three minutes!"[9] On June 16, 2023, at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Milan Ray and Rosa Salazar joined the voice cast.[5]
Animation
Mark C. Harris and Gini Cruz Santos both serve as the animation supervisors on the series, while Kevin Andrus, Lucas Fraga Pacheco, and Stefan Schumacher all serve as directing animators on the series.[14] Animation is provided by the artist crew that worked on feature films.[15]Win or Lose used more animators than a feature film.[12] The series makes heavy use of visual metaphors, with some characters featuring multiple metaphors.[12] In each episode, the animation style appears to shift, further distinguishing itself from Pixar's usual fare. For example, Rochelle's story appears to mimic a cardboard diorama, and the actual softball footage mimics that of a traditional sports anime.[8] This was made in order to visualize each character's perspective.[11] The production team worked closely with the animators in order to define how each character would move in a way that showcases their characterization.[11] The series also made use of 2D animation, which the producers said was determined regarding what the story mandated.[11]
Music
On June 16, 2023, Ramin Djawadi was revealed to be composing for the series. He began recording the score on August 14, 2023.[5][16] Original songs for the series were written and produced by the duo Campfire (Shane Eli and Jonny Pakfar) based on themes by Djawadi. The duo also provided additional music for the series' score.[17]
Release
Win or Lose was initially announced to premiere on Disney+ in December 2023.[2][18][13][19] However, on November 15, 2023, it was announced that the series was delayed to 2024.[20] The series was then slated to premiere on December 6, 2024,[21][4] before being delayed again to February 19, 2025, swapping release dates with fellow Pixar series Dream Productions.[1] The series will consist of eight episodes, which will be dropping weekly.[5][1]
Marketing
On November 12, 2021, during Pixar's special for 2021's Disney+ Day, the first look at the concept art was revealed, offering a sneak peek at some of the characters featured in the series.[22] It received mostly positive response from Pixar fans.[23] On September 9, 2022, during the 2022 D23 Expo, Hobson and Yates presented a first look at the series.[8] On June 16, 2023, footage of the episode "Vanessa: The Cool Mom" was shown at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.[24][5] The official trailer was released on August 9, 2024.[21][4]
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