Disney's Star Wars Super Bowl Telecast Makes More Sense to Me Than Its Mandalorian Ad

Disney has announced plans to host a real time animated telecast of the Super Bowl set in the Star Wars universe, and I think this one makes more sense than what the studio did with The Mandalorian and Grogu. It's a fun Star Wars event rather than a push for a new movie, and I think that's why it will work.

Star Wars Funday Football turns Super Bowl players into animated avatars

The event is titled Star Wars Funday Football, and it will be set in the universe of the franchise. C-3PO will reportedly play a significant role. Anthony Daniels, who originally played the character, will take part in the event, which will air across Disney's outlets.

The animated telecast will recreate every play of the Super Bowl as it happens and transform the players on the field into animated avatars. Characters from Star Wars will sub in at key moments, with surprise nods to the films. Disney is able to do this by combining player tracking data. At the same time, five other productions of the Super Bowl are slated for ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and other Disney properties, while the traditional broadcast of the big game will take place on ABC and ESPN.

Why I think this works where the Mandalorian and Grogu ad didn't

What people expect me to say here is how dumb this is. I won't, because it's different from what Disney did with The Mandalorian. If I'm remembering it right, that was the ad with the old school Super Bowl commercials, and to me it did nothing for anybody.

Roxy liked it, and PLD did too. But they didn't have to buy a ticket to that movie to enjoy it, so it meant nothing for the box office. In my view it made no money off them, and it didn't reach the people Disney was actually trying to get.

This new event knows exactly what it is. It's an animated thing that's fun. It isn't trying to promote a movie that's coming out, and it isn't telling us anything about stories. It's promoting Star Wars itself, with Anthony Daniels coming back in an animated form and having some fun with it. This is the fun type of thing Disney was going for with the earlier Super Bowl push, except this one will do what it needs to do.

A Starfighter trailer could let Disney double up

Maybe Disney will also show a full trailer for Starfighter, the movie it's promoting for the summer, which I think would be a good idea.

If you're looking at February into May, that lines up. Studios usually promote the summer movies at the Super Bowl, and those are the first big ones. So it would make sense for Disney to double up with the animated telecast and a trailer. I like this strategy.

Roxy, a casual fan, liked the last attempt

Roxy described herself as the casual Star Wars fan, and she was sorry Mike wasn't there for the story, since it left me doing the heavy lifting on it. She liked what Disney did last time, and she just likes Star Wars being referenced during the Super Bowl. She's a big football fan, so for her the two things have synergy.

She said she was glad to hear I was more excited about this than I was about what Disney did previously. I think this makes more sense than that Mandalorian and Grogu ad.