How Sony Pictures Animation’s ‘Goat’ Courted the NBA for a Brand Partnership Slam Dunk

More than two years ago, a group from Sony met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and several senior members of the league in New York City.

Sony pitched them an upcoming project from Sony Pictures Animation called “Goat.” The movie, which opened Friday, follows Will (voiced by “Stranger Things” breakout Caleb McLaughlin), a young goat who dreams of becoming a star in the all-animal version of the NBA. The representatives from Sony underlined the movie’s underdog story – the idea that if you want something, you can achieve it and stressed the movie’s diversity, since Will eventually plays in an all-gender league.

The meeting went well; the NBA responded positively to NBA star Stephen Curry’s involvement and how the series generally mirrored his ascension. Like Will, Curry was seen as an underdog who eventually became regarded as one of the greatest shooters in the history of the game.

“Goat” could use an assist from the “Baby-Faced Assassin.” The film debuts at a time when original animation has struggled to hook discerning families more prone to make the pricey investment for a night out with kids with known quantities like “Zootopia 2.” By aligning closely with Curry and NBA and its associated group in a unique partnership, Sony is hoping to create a wellspring of support for the film.

That elevated excitement is critical for the project, which follows in the footsteps of Sony Pictures Animation’s last film, the massive animated streaming hit “KPop Demon Hunters.”

“Goat” beginnings

Years earlier, Sony Pictures Animation head Kristine Belson said that she wanted to make a movie where animals play sports. It’s a classic idea for an animated project, one that has been explored in things like 1980’s “Animalympics,” which aired on NBC and was directed by a pre-“Tron” Steve Lisberger; and Goofy, whatever animal he may be, has had a long history interacting with various sports (beginning with “The Art of Skiing” short back in 1941).

Director Tyree Dillihay, who had helmed episodes of “Bob’s Burgers” and “Good Time” and served on the art departments at “The Venture Bros.” and “Axe Cop,” pitched his take. “I came up with an idea about, Okay, let’s treat it like NBA basketball, but let’s add the animalistic aspect to it,” Dillihay remembered. That began a seven-and-a-half-year development journey that eventually led to “Goat.”

“The dynamism of the sport, the animals doing that, that was all the stuff that we had from the beginning,” said producer Michelle Raimo Kouyate, who worked alongside Curry, who was also a producer through his Unanimous Media. “But I think we all know that the best sports movies transcend the sport and go to the characters and who they are and what their obstacles are.”

Dillihay described Curry as “the living GOAT,” sports lingo for Greatest Of All Time, not the hoofed mammal known for eating tin cans.

“Erick Payton, the CEO over at Unanimous Media, has been an incredible partner. They’ve given us insider information on how players kind of function within the world. Stephen’s story in particular, was very inspirational to this story. Him being an underdog, being underestimated, unheralded. When he came out of high school, going to college, probably you didn’t expect him to be the superstar that he is today, just having that piece to feed off of, to get into the Will character,” Dillihay explained. “But in terms of the NBA relationship, I mean, we got a couple of Easter eggs in the film, defining moments that characters have done on the basketball court, that we’ve snuck in there.”

The NBA provided the team with footage and invited them backstage – literally.

“We were lucky enough as well to get a private tour of the Chase Center [the arena in San Francisco where Curry’s Golden State Warriors play]. We brought our phones, our cameras. We documented everything, because we were like, We don’t want to just know what it’s like to grab court…” said co-director Adam Rosette.

Raimo Kouyate jumped in and said, “Our big word is verisimilitude.”

Rosette continued: “What does the tunnel look like? What does the underbelly of the stadium like? What does it look like when you’re going behind? We tried to bring pieces of that too, which wouldn’t have happened without Stephen and his team. They really gave us all access as filmmakers, to go and document how these things really come together. We gobbled that stuff up.”

Andre Iguodala, a four-time NBA champ who had played with Curry on the Warriors, advised the filmmakers and would actually run plays with little printed-out figures of the characters from the movie. “I think the nerdy way to describe it is like we were playing Dungeons and Dragons,” quipped Rosette.

These plays were actually hugely informative to the movie, particularly in the climactic basketball game.

“(Igoudala’s) brilliant. He’s such an amazing basketball mind. I think we were so lucky. We would say, ‘Emotionally, this is what we’re trying to do. We have a play like this, and we’re thinking about that,’” Rosette would say. And Iguodala would conjure up plays from his vast history with the NBA, while also adjusting it for the animal characters, since they can do things like climb up walls and skitter around on all fours.

But the NBA’s help in the making of the movie was just the beginning.

Taking it to the court

After an early cut of the movie was finished, the team from Sony, including those who specialize in brand partnerships, screened it for senior NBA officials. They responded positively and wanted to back “Goat” even more.

The NBA officially got behind “Goat,” connecting the teams from Sony with the NBA teams and related groups, like youth associations and charities. Sony arranged for screenings for players and players’ charity groups, which added to the grassroots campaign for the movie.

There’s also the fact that “Goat” is opening the same weekend as the NBA All-Star Game, which is being held this year in Los Angeles, not too far from the Sony Pictures Animation studio where “Goat” was conceived. While not explicitly tied into the promotion of “Goat,” with the studio insisting that it’s a great weekend, with the President’s Day holiday on Monday, it was acknowledged that it elevated the entire NBA/”Goat” symbiosis. 

The enthusiasm from the NBA led to many teams and players getting excited about “Goat” and helping spread the word, with the endorsement traveling around the world, like to China, which is very invested in the NBA. They also embedded an interview with Curry about the movie, into the video game “NBA 2K26.” (If you want to grab the interview, which is live on Friday, head to the PlayStation carousel and it will pop up. (“NBA 2K26,” by the way, is the #1 basketball video game in the world.)

More partnerships

The NBA partnership also led to additional partnerships for “Goat,” which reverberated within the movie and in the real world – with brands like Mercedes, Door Dash, Under Armor and Curry’s Gatorade-style hydration drink PLEZi (Curry is an investor) becoming integral parts of the “Goat” experience.

Mercedes, for instance, has worked extensively with the NBA.

“Mercedes was a luxury partner. It fits organically with the athlete celebrity lifestyle that they would drive affluent vehicles, so it’s natural for Jet [a leopard that’s the superstar player on the Thorns] to be chauffeured. That’s just a natural integration,” said Dillihay.

“I think with our brand partnerships, we are a sports movie and when you go to a sports game, you will see some ads there. And so for us, it was like, well, there’s a natural place that doesn’t feel forced,” added Rosette.

In other animal-based movies, there wouldn’t be real products, there would be an animal-based pun that would stand-in instead. (Furcedes anyone?) But it was important for the world of “Goat” to have these actual brands. Again, it’s all about verisimilitude.

And the partnership led to a nifty commercial that combines live-action with animation. Watch it below.

There was also a partnership with DoorDash, with a commercial fully animated by Sony Pictures Animation, that was meant to highlight the fact that you can DoorDash anything, not just food. (In the movie, before his big break, Will works for DoorDash.) It features several characters from the movie and a cool cheetah delivery guy.

PLEZi had the connection to Curry but also fit a story-telling need. “That was a natural plug-in since we needed an energy drink,” said Dillihay. “In our world, there will be special bottles with characters from the movie and an influencer event happening this weekend at Santa Monica Pier. Kids often go with their parents to the grocery store, so it seemed like a natural fit to put the characters on the bottles themselves.

All of the partnerships found themselves in the movie “in the most organic, natural way,” said Dillihay.

If you go to an NBA game, after all, you are bombarded by a vast array of brands and sponsorship. Why shouldn’t it be different in the animal-filled world of “Goat?”

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