Star Wars is coming to Super Bowl LXI as an animated altcast — gimmick or actually fun to watch?
ESPN, Lucasfilm, and the NFL announced Star Wars Funday Football for Super Bowl LXI — an animated altcast on Disney+, Disney Channel, and Disney XD, the same kind of alternate presentation they have done for other big games. I usually watch the main broadcast and only half-pay attention to the altcast experiments. But a Super Bowl is the biggest possible stage for one, and an animated Star Wars version sounds either delightful or distracting. For people who have watched a Funday Football altcast before: does the animation actually help you follow the game, or do you end up switching back to the regular broadcast by halftime?
1 answer
- Watch the altcast for one quarter
This one costs you nothing extra if you already pay for Disney+, so the usual altcast risk — paying for a gimmick — does not apply. My rule: watch the animated version for the first quarter with the family, especially if kids are in the room, and keep the main broadcast one button away. If the commentary is explaining the game well, stay. If it is just jokes over the play, switch at halftime and you have lost nothing. The checkable part is your own remote: it is a free trial of a format, not a commitment.