Win or Lose is an upcoming American computer-animated television series produced by Pixar Animation Studios for the streaming service Disney+. The studio's first original long-form animated series, it was created, written, and directed by Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, who also served as executive producers with Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lindsey Collins, and produced by David Lally. 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 stars Will Forte, Milan Ray, and Rosa Salazar. 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 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+ in December 2023, and will consist of eight episodes.
Synopsis
Win or Lose follows a co-ed middle school softball 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.
Voice cast and characters
Main
Will Forte as Coach Dan, the coach of the softball team known as the Pickles. Milan Ray as Rochelle, the catcher who is having a bad day when everything goes wrong. Despite this, she is the excellent student who takes the initiative in everything in her life. The character is described as a "teenage CEO". Rosa Salazar as Vanessa, Rochelle's single mother. Other characters set to appear included Frank, the umpire who struggles due to his parents yelling at him for foul calls; and a selfish pitcher who cares about himself until his episode reveals that he is in love with a girl.
Episodes
Production
Development
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. 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. 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". Hobson and Yates also executive-produced the series alongside Andrew Stanton and Lindsey Collins.
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. Pixar began considering developing a TV series following the creation of Disney+. 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. Another reason was how television would allow Pixar to do things a feature film format would not allow to. Hobson and Yates noted they both had to learn how to work on an episodic format. On July 17, 2023, Lally confirmed on Twitter that post-production for the series was completed.