Everyone is chasing the feeling of a win but if someone wins, someone has to lose. Or just maybe winning is how you look at it. – Pixar’s Win or Lose
Meet the Pickles, a co-ed softball team that’s going to the Championship game, led by Coach Dan (Will Forte). There’s excitement in the air; they’ve waited the whole season for this moment, and victory is within their clutches. But getting to this moment was not easy. Despite their wins, the team battled many losses, both on and off the field. From anxiety to a field umpire questioning if he made the right call to a parent feeling they no longer know their child to a child compromising their morals, the Pickles team is about perseverance. But will they be able to overcome life’s obstacles to win at life and discover happiness lives within all before the big game?
Pixar Animation Studios’ original series Win or Lose follows the intertwined stories of eight different characters as they each prepare for their big championship softball game. The series reveals what it feels like to be in the shoes of each character—the insecure kids, their helicopter parents, and even a lovesick umpire—with incredibly funny, very emotional, and uniquely animated perspectives.
To reflect the personality of each character and their outlook on life, each episode utilizes different animation styles while not diminishing the overall look of the series. A 5-year-old would see life differently than a mother or a teacher obsessed with love or a stressed-out preteen. It’s refreshing to see how creative animation styles can be when it highlights what a character’s experience and thoughts are, especially when there are no words left to say.
Win or Lose marks Pixar’s first original series developed for Disney+, and it’s truly a damn shame it’s taken this long. It is a refreshing addition not just to the platform but also to people looking for a weekly escape that can be watched by all ages. In the episodes screened for the press, Win or Lose shows just how truly resilient the players and their families are when their lives are overwhelming and complicated both on and off the field.
“Every player has a role.” – Pixar’s Win or Lose
Taking place one week before the championship game, we’re introduced to 12-year-old Laurie (Rosie Foss). A player who is trying her best to hit the ball. While some people are born with talent, she’s born with tenacity. But with great tenacity comes great stress; stress from being the coach’s daughter and being one of the worst members on the team. Why is she here? Is it nepotism, or does her father actually see something she can’t see within herself? Her team is supportive but has to pick up the slack. Anxiety, an emotion so strong it weighs on her until it manifests itself into a blob (Jo Firestone) that grows by feeding into her anxiety, making her question all she knows. Sound familiar? Despite her late-night practices, she just doesn’t seem to be improving. Maybe instead of focusing on the negatives, she should focus on the positives. She’s on the team for a reason, and despite not being the best, everyone believes in her. But will Laurie see the confidence she lacks reside in her, or will her blob of anxiety get the best of her during the team’s big game?
Episode 2 introduces viewers to Ira (Dorien Watson), Taylor’s younger brother. Told in 3D and 2D animation, this episode relies heavily on the power of a kid’s imagination. Taylor is lonely, lacking friends; he seeks them out while his sister is off being the best softball player she can be. Taylor discovers what he perceives to be friendship with a group of older kids known as the ‘Bleacher Creatures,’ who may not have the best intentions for a snack stand. Ira admonishes him for hanging out with the group, but she’s too preoccupied with experiencing her first love to be there for Taylor, leaving Ira to his own devices. When Ira is pressured into doing something he believes is morally wrong, it eats at his soul. Will Ira rectify his actions before it’s too late? Or will the Bleach Creatures true intentions get the best of him?
“I think I broke my own heart.” In episode 3, our field umpire, Frank (Josh Thomson), is never wrong. When it comes to calling the Pickles softball game, avoiding possible conflicts of interest, or understanding the students’ intentions, he’s never wrong. We’re first introduced to him during a softball game where parents are ready to attack him in the parking lot after making a call, they felt was obviously wrong. Ducking and dodging his way to safety, he refuses to talk to coaches, determined to remain neutral; friendships can be complicated with the parents of a team. Despite threats from angry parents wishing he never finds human love. There is a sense of softness to him that’s easy to see. He’s a hopeless romantic, just wanting to come home to someone who loves him for him. But there’s just one problem: he is shy, painfully shy. But there is one prospect, Lena, who works at the coffee shop. Mustering up the strength of the knights he admires in the romance novels he reads, he decides to ask Lena out. It goes embarrassingly wrong as his knight armor becomes more of a protective shield. But not all is lost; there’s always online dating. Can Frank navigate his own heart and cyberspace to become a heroic boyfriend, or will his past make him question if everything he assessed in life was wrong?
In another episode, viewers are introduced to Rochelle (Milan Ray), “Roshie” to her friends, who is excited for game day. She’s one of the stars of the Pickles; she takes her team seriously. She’s passionate about softball, but more importantly, she’s serious about life. While neither Roshie nor her mother Vanessa (Rosa Salazar) come from a life of luxury, they struggle, but they get by. After working at the snack store (the same one from episode 1), she’s $60 away from her goal of paying the fees to play for the next season. But why is a child trying to pay her softball fees by herself?
While Vanessa is present in her daughter’s life, she’s constantly preoccupied with building her social media following and making sure she spends a night out on the town. This behavior weighs on Roshie as she constantly assumes the role of being her own parent. With her mother too engrossed in her phone, Roshie attends a parent/coach meeting; the animation quickly switches to her wearing a parental business suit to signal to the audience which mode she’s in. She is floored to learn the new fees for next season will now be $1,600, pushing her further away from her monetary goal. How does she tell her mother the news when they’re already struggling, and she already doesn’t seem to be interested in participating in her daughter’s life? What if she doesn’t?
What if a child continues to take on the responsibility of securing her future and figuring out how to navigate an adult’s life? With great responsibility comes poor decisions, and Roshie soon finds herself in over her head, becoming the person she never thought she would be. Can her mother put down the phone long enough to see her daughter’s pain? Or will Roshie once again left to her own devices to figure out a solution to a problem she never should have been allowed to solve?
Then there’s Vanessa, the bringer of light and joy to all she encounters at the bakery (including her coworkers) she works at. Despite her upbeat personality, Vanessa is wearing a mask. Her life is falling apart; she’s about to be fired, and she’s trying to make money to keep her family afloat through social media and various jobs. She’s a single mother raising two kids (Rochelle and Zane) on her own (whom she loves fiercely) and is just trying to get by without feeling like her world is collapsing. Despite the mounting pressures of life, she makes sure her kids have the best and feel recognized, no matter the cost.
In case you missed it, Vanessa is Roshie’s mother, the self-absorbed woman who is constantly on her phone and unable to just be a parent. Or is she? Vanessa’s storyline embodies Win or Lose’s message about perception. What one person sees as self-absorbed, constantly going out, may actually be someone who cares so deeply they are working day and night to keep a roof over everyone’s head. The phone becomes her connection to the outside world and just an extra paycheck. Vanessa is like most parents; they try to shield their kids from life’s hardships by consistently putting on a happy face. They mustn’t tell the world they’re struggling, or else it tells others they are a failure.
But this episode also highlights the dangers of keeping secrets, the cycle it creates, and how this trickle-down behavior may have more harm than good for everyone. Can Vanessa face the truth and tell her daughter what’s really going on, or will the pressure of being the perfect mother outweigh the benefits of living honestly? How will she navigate the world when she discovers Roshie might be headed down the dangerous path of deception because she feels she can’t rely on her mother to be her mother?
In 2017, Pixar released a free online storytelling course called The Art of Storytelling taught by Peter Doctor (a producer on Win or Lose), which gave fans an inside look at the process behind their successful movies and shorts. The concept is simple: Humans tell stories. Many of us live interesting lives; developing a way to deliver the narrative is to our advantage. Others lead less than adventurous existences, and so stories become transcendent vehicles for our imagination. Epic mythologies and religions are nothing but collections of stories that inspire and transform us. Our imaginations are wild, and stories need an emotional hook. The Toy Story, Inside Out, and the Cars movies, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc and so many other Pixar properties showcase this message and impact adults lives because of its vulnerability and the relatability of their characters. They make kids feel seen and allow adults to understand feelings they could never put words to.
Win or Lose marks the return to Pixar’s roots and is the shining example of everything Pixar originally stood for and why the studio was created. This series exemplifies how animation is able to tap into the hearts, souls, and minds of so many people across the world who come from different walks of life. Its writing speaks to us and lets us know our singular experience is not so small after all. Just like Inside Out 2 made adults come to term with their own feelings and put anxiety into words that has never been captured, Win or Lose is a guide to understanding life’s other complicated emotions.
It’s easy to hook viewers on this concept because despite how different everyone is, everyone experiences the same core emotional factors: wanting to find love, feeling like a failure no matter how hard you try, being overcome with guilt, having to be the only grownup in a situation, not wanting your kids to repeat your mistakes, having to fake it for the world with the fear it can all come crashing down at any moment.
I felt each scene and understood not just the characters but also what drives them. I wanted to tell Rochelle and Vanessa it’ll be okay if they have a hard conversation with each other. I longed for Frank to not just find love but also be able to learn from his previous breakup. Ira needed to know this one transgression doesn’t define him. Guilt is a heavy emotion that no one should bear, especially not a 10-year-old who is haunted by one mistake. I rooted for Taylor when she said, “I’m tired of making boys feel better about themselves.” My goodness.
Ending each Win or Lose episode on a cliffhanger made me desperate to know how it’ll all play out, not just on an individual scale, but how will the whole team come together to rely more on each other. Softball isn’t just a game for them but a reflection of how they strategize each play when they are down and out. Our personal struggles have an influence on how we see the world and each other. It determines whether we can make the right call, know the right play and just enjoy the game.
It’s easy to cheer when they win but to understand the struggles they face while getting there is why this Win or Lose has the ability to be profound. Even after an episode ends, I can’t help but keep thinking about the characters and wonder how they’ll continue to pass life’s other hurdles as they get older. I don’t just see myself reflected in these characters, but I am able to see and understand others, which is the point of art and why artists create.
Win or Lose solidifies the Pixar brand and is worthy of people’s time.
