For director Tyree Dillihay (Bob’s Burgers), GOAT began as an animal basketball concept  in 2018 at Sony Pictures Animation. It grew into his passion project about roarball, inspired by and co-produced by Golden State Warriors’ legendary point guard Steph Curry (who ironically voices the giraffe player Lenny). Dillihay was joined by producer Michelle Raimo-Kouyate (Puss in Boots) and co-director Adam Rosette (The Bad Guys story artist).

“They were getting takes from different directors and I came in and said, ‘What if you take NBA basketball and put it on steroids with animals, going from biped to quadruped?’” Dillihay said. “And you raise the roof and use terrains that are indicative of the environment. But what’s the story? Let’s make an underdog story about the little guy and the big guys.”

Out of that came the story of a goat, Will (Caleb McLaughlin), who “dreams big,” thanks to the encouragement of his late mom, and revolutionizes the sport of roarball with his small ball brilliance. He plays for the struggling Thorns in Vineland, where he teams up with his legendary idol, Jett (Gabrielle Union), a female black panther in search of the elusive championship and resisting pressure to retire. The rest of the team, meanwhile, is a collection of  “head cases and has beens”: Lenny, Olivia (Nicola Coughlan), an ostrich; Archie (David Harbour), an Indian rhino and single dad; and Modo (Nick Kroll), a Momodo Dragon.

Then there was the challenge of the world building, in which a series of biomes contains its own species and roarball arena. Vineland, for instance, was Brooklyn meets Brazil. “You’ve got a city within a jungle,” Dillihay continued. “You go to the jungle in Vineland, where you’ve got red clay and vines. You’ve got the Arctic and it’s got snow and ice. You go to a swamp, where you’ve got a subterranean cave that you’ve got to deal with. You’ve got stalactites, stalagmites, all these different obstacles. And a living volcano under black molten ash.

“These are cinematic opportunities for us. And I hope audiences really feel real world stakes by the time you reach what we like to call the final boss in the magma game,” he added. “Each of them has different influences. The Arctic arena we called icy Dubai. It’s mixing metals, ice with a little bit of the natural environment of the snow and how those play against each other. The subterranean has a little bit of New Orleans, a little bit of Atlantic City, and a little bit of Las Vegas.”

The animated aesthetic, courtesy of Sony Imageworks, was a 2D stylization informed by impressionism. Rick Daskas served as production designer, Chad Ellis was animation supervisor, and Jason Greenblum was visual effects supervisor. In addition, former Warrior great Andre Iguodala was the basketball consultant.

“Like the way when you zoom out, it seems like a world of detail, but when you get a little closer, you realize how simplified it is,” Dillihay explained. “And it becomes this play of hard and soft edges, atmospheric perspective, desaturated color versus warm color. And you find in natural environments, that’s where it really shines.So giving it a little bit of street, a little bit of grit, a little bit of urban environment, particular in Vineland, was important.”

The biggest animation challenge, meanwhile, was coming up with a more advanced rigging system for these animals. “With one model, you can go from biped to quadruped easily,” the director said.

There’s also a hand-drawn element to the expressions along with a 2D graphic sensibility to the basketball card-like action poses, such as when Olivia, the ostrich surprises everyone with a high-flying slam dunk.

“Animation is a great medium for getting way more expressive and doing way more fun things with the work,” added Dillihay. “I think bringing in those 2D elements kind of reminds you that this is actually done by humans — and by hand.”