Review: ESPN's "Inside Out Classic" Misses as a Core Memory, Still Brings Joy to Fans

The first ever Inside Out Classic - a real-time animated altcast of a live NHL game - aired across various Disney and ESPN platforms this evening from streaming to traditional broadcast. In this event, the third of its kind (for hockey), we saw the New York Rangers take on the Washington Capitals but in the animated environment of Hockey Island, inside the mind of Riley from the award-winning Inside Out franchise from Pixar Animation Studios. It's a well known world, as the 2024 sequel, Inside Out 2, was the biggest animated movie of all time shortly after its release back in 2024 - though, that record has since been surpassed.

Regardless, real hockey and Inside Out are a good fit, as Riley plays hockey throughout both films though it is a significant plot point of the sequel. That's why we're inside her mind for this altcast, as she is dreaming this live hockey game and her emotions will be the ones playing. That's the premise of tonight's event, and the reasoning why we're seeing animated real players from both teams playing alongside Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anxiety from the films. While some vocal talent returned for the event, including Lewis Black (Anger), Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Tony Hale (Fear), and Maya Hawke (Anxiety) did return to reprise their roles, others did not. I wish I could say it wasn't noticeable, but alas, it was.

Interestingly though, unlikes its NHL Altcast predecessors which both took place in the world of the hit Disney Channel animated series, Big City Greens, the emotions were interchangeable for each team. Joy, who achieved a hat trick in the real game - scoring three goals - at one point was playing for the Washington Capitals when she scored, and the others for the New York Rangers. In fact, it was Joy who scored the only goal for the Capitals, as the Rangers would go on to win the game with a near-shut-out score of 8-1. I did find this a bit odd as throughout the broadcast they kept emphasizing the ESPN Take Back Sports youth initiative - a campaign to get kids into playing and watching more sports. Why would they interchangeably swap the Emotions on the teams, making it harder to follow, while simultaneously teaching phrases, terms, and rules of the game.

In terms of other missed bits, the commentators for the game were a low point for me. Not in terms of the broadcasting talent of Drew Carter, Kevin Weekes and Arda Öcal, but in terms of the tech used to bring them to life in an animated world. In the Inside Out universe, it makes perfect sense for them to be mind workers - the amorphous blobs with arms and legs that permeate the inside of Riley's mind. However, this real-time tech that puts them in the animated world really translated poorly in this space - barely moving their arms and occasionally moving their mouths. Its in stark contrast to the second evolution of an NHL altcast that was made with the NHL Big City Greens Classic 2 in 2024. The same announcers were brought to life in 3D animation, while still retaining the style of the 2D show. This being the third version of the same idea should not be a reversion in achievement.

That's kind of an idea that stretched upon the whole of the Inside Out Classic. The jump from the first NHL altcast, featuring Big City Greens - which, coincidentally also featured the Washington Capitals vs. the New York Rangers - to the NHL Big City Greens Classic 2 was substantial. We had mic'd players, live voice talent from the show, and of course, the live commentary from the same team of broadcasters. However, Inside Out 2 felt like a giant step backward. Even if it wasn't, everything from the characters we already know and love was pre-recorded. Commentators would ask an emotion a question, and their footage would play. Strikingly, the characters (likely to keep a seamless appearance with the real-time renderings) were noticeably different models than their feature film counterparts, with Joy's looking more like the wide-eyed Audio-Animatronic version of Flik that some may remember from the Disney Parks attraction, "It's Tough to be a Bug!", than Joy. Sad, considering we saw it a number of times since Joy was the top scoring emotion in the game.

The wide shots peppered with character phrases that would repeat throughout the game, and a call for Pouchy - who dropped the puck throughout the match - felt more like a livestream of a video game as opposed to real-time animated sports broadcast.

Where the event did succeed for me was that it was tied into the Inside Out franchise so well. The penalty box was replaced by the Penalty Jar - calling back to moments in Inside Out 2. To watch a replay during the game, mind workers would call back a memory orb to watch the play again. Little touches like that made the whole thing much more fun with fans of the franchise, as long as they knew the source material.

I use the word "event" a lot here, but overall that could be the biggest thing wrong with this particular altcast. It didn't feel like an event. Other altcasts across other sports, like the NFL, NBA, and even the prior NHL games have felt like something special. There was a build-up, there was hype. Inside Out Classic kind of felt like "hey, we've done this before and we're doing it again, but this time, It's Inside Out. Tune in or don't. We're already working on another one." I bleed for all things Pixar, and Inside Out is definitely in my top 5, but it just wasn't there for me. Sure, Inside Out is a much bigger draw, but there was something inherently more fun about the previous Big City Greens iterations of the hockey altcasts. Not to mention, the game itself wasn't that exciting, with the New York Rangers dominating through most of it. And maybe, just maybe, that was the real problem all along. I give the Inside Out Classic one point for each of Joy's goals - so 3 out of 5.

If you'd like to catch a replay, Inside Out Classic will be streaming on Disney+.