Unanimous Media Perfects Step-Backs and Sneaker Fashion in ‘GOAT’

Eight years ago, four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry joined forces with executive producer and director Erick Peyton to form Unanimous Media, a production and multimedia company that develops, creates and distributes family, faith and sports-based content across films, books, podcasts and other mediums. Unanimous is behind projects like the animated reimagining of the 70s comedy series Good Times and, most recently, the animated feature from Sony Pictures Animation, GOAT, now in theaters.

“I’m a bit of a dreamer, and Stephen is too,” says Peyton. “We had many goals we discussed when we started the company, and this was one of them: working on an animated film. It’s been about seven years in the making and, being some of the first producers on the project, it’s one that we will never forget.”

GOAT, an original action-comedy set in an all-animal world, stars Caleb McLaughlin as Will Harris, a determined young goat who earns a shot at professional “Roarball,” a high-intensity, coed sport dominated by the fastest and fiercest animals in the league. Blending basketball culture, music, fashion and immersive animation, GOAT is the latest film from the studio behind Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and the artists who made KPop Demon Hunters.

Check out the trailer:

Directed by Tyree Dillihay and co-directed by Adam Rosette, GOAT stars McLaughlin along with Gabrielle Union as Jett Fillmore, Nicola Coughlan as Olivia Burke, Nick Kroll as Modo Olachenko, David Harbour as Archie Everhardt, and Curry as Lenny Williamson. The voice cast also includes Aaron Pierre, Patton Oswalt, Jenifer Lewis, Jennifer Hudson, Jelly Roll, Ayesha Curry, Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee, Sherry Cola, and Eduardo Franco.

The film is produced by Michelle Raimo Kouyate, Rodney Rothman and Adam Rosenberg of Modern Magic, alongside Curry and Peyton. The Unanimous duo was not only brought on for their gift in storytelling, but also for their expertise on all things basketball. 

“Sony is one of the best studios in the world when it comes to animation, so our contribution was really centered around making sure the story was authentic to Stephen as an athlete and the game of basketball,” says Peyton. “We worked with the team on the film’s themes, character development, design, culture and all those things. But one of the first things we focused on was the basketball play and the movement within the characters. Our characters can go from two legs to four. And we spent a lot of time figuring out how the ball moves with a character like that. We wanted it to look as flashy as real-day professional basketball.”

Every single move from GOAT’s characters – out-of-bounds passes, crossovers, warm-ups – is built from what a real basketball player would do. One of the moves Peyton and Curry are most proud of seeing animated is the “step back,” a maneuver used by players to create space from a defender, allowing for a clearer shot opportunity.

“The step back is probably the most important because you really shouldn’t get it wrong if you’re trying to show real basketball,” explains Peyton. “But so many old sports movies have actors doing this move and you can tell they never played basketball. One of my favorite moments from production was watching Stephen look at some early storyboards that featured a step back three, a type of jump shot, and he was just so impressed by how real it looked and how close it looked to him.”

And it wasn’t just the individual character moves that were true to real-life basketball. The team’s plays in the film are based on what you’d find in an actual basketball coach’s game book.  NBA stars like Curry and Andre Iguodala used 3D-printed character models to map out the team plays so animators and production design teams could get a sense of how the cinematography needed to frame game action and what moves needed to be highlighted. And, of course, plenty of video references were used. 

“We used videos of lots of different players for reference and, luckily there’s no shortage of them,” says Peyton. “But Will’s moves specifically are meant to mimic Stephen’s, so having him on the production to look things over was hugely important.”

And it made the process not just rely on basketball research but actually get to know a person’s mannerisms. But there’s only so much that research can inform about how a basketball game would be played on a volcanic court or on one covered in ice or jungle brush. Navigating the different biomes of roarball in a believable way that would convince basketball fans of the film’s authenticity was also made much more doable by having professional players on production. 

“The first step was figuring out, ‘Does this play even make sense?’ and then it was, ‘Does it still make sense when there’s a volcano erupting?” notes Peyton. “And then after that it’s like ‘How would a cat throw a behind-the-back pass?’”

He adds, “We had to go through all these steps, even when it came to the way the ball was built. If you look at Will’s personal ball, it’s like a type of leather ball. Well, not leather, obviously. That would be an issue in the animal world. But it’s that kind of material. The roarball is this rubber ball, full of holes, built for all animals to be able to grip on to.”

Unlike the basketball players’ moves and team plays, the roarball’s ball design style is very different from what a basketball would look like. But its unusual look is still an effort to make the game, and this animal-inhabited sports world, feel real. “I think the funniest thing to me, that most people will probably miss, is when Will is in that big fancy hotel and hops on the bed, there’s another little, tiny bed,” says Peyton. “It’s the exact same bed but for tiny animals. Little details like that are just so cool. The whole city is designed to go from big to small. People may not notice it consciously, but it does help make this world feel authentic.”

As do the clothes and the cars. 

“Early in the process, Tyree made this montage or vision board of all these pictures of players like Allen Iverson and stickers and shoes,” shares Peyton. “Tyree was like, ‘This is the movie. Everything needs to fit within this frame.’ So, of course, our players had to look swaggy, and fly in the most amazing jets and they all had to drive black Benzes because that’s what all the car services drive you know. And they all had to have fresh sneakers. If you look closely, when the camera pans around the shoe store, you can see the generations of different shoes fit for big animals and small animals. Clothing culture and car culture is really built into this film, and it was fun bringing that to life in an animal world.” 

But if Peyton was forced to choose a favorite detail in the film, it would have to be the chance he got to include his own kids in the project. “It’s so self-serving, but my favorite scene is this moment when Will’s walking out from delivering groceries and there’s two kids, an elephant and a skunk, playing soccer,” he says. “And those two kids are voiced by my two sons. My kids are hams, so they really enjoyed it and told every single person that they got their little Screen Actors Guild check.”

While Peyton’s sons were actually cast as characters, they weren’t the only children who “saw themselves” in the film… metaphorically, that is. 

“I went to the theater and watched this movie by myself, and I sat beside this little five-year-old girl, and she was enthralled by Jett and all the characters that related to her story,” shares Peyton. “Then there are my boys who love Will. We tried to create something that wasn’t just for basketball fans, but something that would draw in young kids. I love getting calls from my nieces and nephews telling me a scene was ‘so funny’ or ‘so dope.’ We’ve done a lot of projects over here at Unanimous and we are really proud of a lot of them. But GOAT is the best example of what we want to do: create aspirational, inspirational features, built around family that bring audiences together.”