Pixar Animation Studios’ first-ever original series, “Win or Lose”, premiered Wednesday on Disney+.
The eight-episode series focuses on a middle school softball team named the Pickles, with each episode shifting the perspective to a different character in the week leading up to their championship game. Players, a parent, the coach, and even an umpire are featured in the series.
“Win or Lose” was directed, written, and executive produced by Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, and produced by David Lally. Yates said the challenges of softball mirrored the emotions and trials in the game of life.
“We really wanted to explore bad calls being made on and off the field… And that felt like what life is like where you’re thrown a curve ball and you have to decide how are you going to react,” Yates said.
The series explores on- and off-field struggles through characters like Laurie, who isn’t the most skilled player on her team, and struggles with insecurity and the pressure to perform; Catcher Rochelle seems to have it all together but money is tight and she has to hustle to pay her softball dues for next year.
Hobson, who played softball for 10 years growing up, was adamant that the show depicted the fierce nature of the sport and the details like a pitching motion were accurate.
“Fastpitch softball is intense and it has so much to offer,” Hobson said. “We just wanted to get all those little details as right as possible. I was such a stickler about the pitching because softball had never really been on screen.”
Those details were not lost on AUSL Volts pitcher Mariah Mazon who noticed how true the animations felt to her position.
“She even had a little crow hop in there! Her ball was even moving a little bit – that was cool,” Mazon said.
From the cheers in the dugout to complicated hand signals from the third base coach, “Win or Lose” brings softball to the screen in a way it’s never been seen before.
Two new episodes will drop every Wednesday for the next three weeks.
Savanna Collins is the Senior Reporter at Athletes Unlimited. You can follow her on Twitter @savannaecollins.
