GOAT is a 2026 animated sports comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation. It is directed by Tyree Dillihay (Bob's Burgers), produced by Rodney Rothman (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Stephen Curry, and stars Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Nick Kroll, Nicola Coughlan, David Harbour, Curry, Jenifer Lewis, Patton Oswalt, Aaron Pierre, Jelly Roll, Sherry Cola, Bobby Lee, Andrew Santino, Jennifer Hudson, and Wayne Knight.

In a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, a young goat named Will Harris (McLaughlin) dreams of competing in a basketball-like game called Roarball, but finds himself discriminated against due to his size. Things change when Will manages to go toe-to-toe with reigning Roarball champ Mane Attraction (Pierre) and his newfound viral fame gets him recruited to struggling local team the Vineland Thorns - a misfit team led by former hopeful Jett Filmore (Union). The film released on February 13, 2026 following a first-look screening on February 7. A companion/promotional short, Roarball Roundup, was released on YouTube on February 19.

Previews: Official Teaser Trailer, Official Trailer, International Trailer

Goat includes examples of the following:

• Advertising by Association: The first poster and teaser trailer boast the film as being "from the studio that brought you Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse". The second poster and trailer add KPop Demon Hunters to the mix as well, although unlike with Spider-Verse, KPop uses a generic text logo since Netflix owns that film and its trademarks (including the actual logo).
• All-CGI Cartoon: As with most other Sony Pictures Animation movies, the trailers show how this movie is done with Painted CGI animation.
• Animal Facial Hair: Several characters have fur or whiskers shaped to resemble beards and mustaches.
• Animal Gender-Bender: Although Olivia's feathers are clearly dyed pink, they're distinctly lighter at the tips of her wings and tail, which is the coloration of male ostriches (hens are a uniform dusty brown).
• Arc Words: "Roots run deep", the cheer for the Thorns. Also, the words "Dream Big" show around often, and are translated and used in some of The Foreign Subtitles of the movie.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • Jett and Modo are shown to have prehensile tails, which they use during the Roarball games or for mundane tasks. Real life panthers and Komodo dragons have no such tails. 
    • On that note, Dennis uses his tail to break Olivia’s multiple phones. As an old-world monkey, Proboscis Monkeys don’t have any such tail either.
  • Modo is shown to be capable of Wall Crawl, which real life Komodo dragons can't do primarily due to their massive weight and lack of specialized toe pads.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • After Mane trounces Will in their one-on-one, he kneels down to Will's level and holds out his hoof, seemingly offering to help him up. Will takes it, only for a confused Mane to point out that he was demanding the money Will had bet prior to playing.
  • The "Goat Tears" music video starts with Mane seemingly urinating on graffiti mocking Will and the Thorns. Then the camera pans up to reveal he's actually pouring water (or a sports drink) on the graffiti from a large beverage cooler.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: The Final game between the Vines and the Magma takes place in a volcanic stadium.
• Bittersweet Ending: More sweet than bitter. The Thorns bring home the Claw and Modo buys the team, meaning they won't be sold and replaced, but it isn't said if Jett's injury means she'll be finally forced to retire. Though even if that's the case, she probably won't care too much anymore since she and the Thorns finally won the championship.
• Bookends: Early on when Will is on the court, he's called a small, and says he’s “not a small, [he’s] a medium”. When he's called a small in the final game at the climax by Mane Attraction, the same line is said by Archie right before he charges at him.
• Break the Cutie: Poor Will ends up breaking hard during the Semi-Finals when he finds out the Thorns have been sold to Sunken City and then when Jett's selfish actions got him to nearly drown and hurt the rest of their teammates. Soon enough, Will is ultimately heartbroken and ends up quitting with Archie, Olivia, Lenny and Modo out of hurt over his hero's selfishness.
• Break the Haughty: This happens to Jett after she realized her selfish, harsh actions during the Semi-Finals caused her to lose Will and the rest of the Thorns' trust.
• Broken Pedestal: The events of the Semi-Finals combined with Jett's selfishness ultimately caused Will to lose his trust in his hero.
  Will: You used to be my favorite player. Until today.
• Brutish Bulls: A few such bulls are shown in the enemy teams who face off against the Thorns, such as Rosette of The Shadows and an unnamed member of The Magmas. One is also a part of Grizz's Gang of Bullies.
• Bully Turned Buddy: Will is picked on by a Gang of Bullies, led by a grizzly bear named Grizz, who believe small animals like Will can't play Roarball. However, after Will is signed onto the Thorns and proves his skill on the court, they become some of his most staunch supporters, even willing to help out with their training and are shown playing Roarball with other small animals.
• Career-Ending Injury: Discussed. Jett injures her leg midway through the final game while protecting Will from Mane, with Dennis warning her that the damage may become permanent if she continues, prompting her to sit out on the bleachers. Jett ultimately leads in the final quarter, partly because the Thorns will be forced to forfeit if they can’t field five players, as part of a ruse that allows the other players to do the heavy lifting around her, but her leg breaks in the last few seconds just before Will scores the winning point. In the epilogue Jett is still shown limping with crutches, making it unclear whether she will continue playing for the team or not (granted that the epilogue only takes place about a day or two after the Thorns win, before her leg would have had time to really heal either way).
• Carnivore Confusion: Two of Will's teammates, Jett and Modo, try to eat him when they first meet him. When Will tries to ask the team about the Eagle 24 play, Modo also casually claims that he has eaten twenty-four eagles.
• Chekhov's Gag: Midway through the movie, Modo uses an UNO reverse card in a poker game with the other Thorns. It’s revealed at the end of the film that he used the same trick in a higher stakes game to win ownership of the team and keep them together and in Vineland.
• Convection, Schmonvection: The final game takes place inside an active lava flow, yet nobody is any worse for wear for it.
• Cosmetic Horror: When Will is "Baahing" is his condo. Jett bursts through his door wearing a bath robe and green face cream, which, coupled with the angry expression on her face, makes for quite a frightening/funny visage.
• Cool Bike: Modo has one, which he uses to arrive to the stadium.
• Cool Car: Jett's red car.
• Cultural Translation: The Brazilian Portuguese title of the movie is "Um Cabra Bom de Bola" (A Goat Good with the Ball) to replace the pun of the title with the double meaning of the word "cabra", which is both the literal translation of goat and a common slang expression in the Brazilian Northeast to refer to tough people. The teaser trailer dubbing thus gives Will (or rather, Zeca Brito) a Northeastern accent.
• Curb-Stomp Cushion: While Will does end up losing his Roarball challenge against Mane Attraction, he does make use of his speed and small size to get two baskets on a professional Roarball player who's seen as one of the best. This performance (immortalized in a viral video his friend Hannah put together) is what helps to get him on the team.
• Dancing Bear: Fact that he is not a literal bear notwithstanding, Will's getting signed is this in universe. Despite the attention he got for becoming viral, nobody had any expectations that he would actually be anything as a Roarball player, but the idea of him actually playing a match, nevermind playing well, is enough to sell out stadiums.
• Darkest Hour: After word got out that Flo has sold the Thorns to Sunken City, Jett ends up letting the hurtful words the former put in her head get the best of her during the Semi-Finals and soon enough, she endes up hurting Archie, Olivia, Lenny and Modo and nearly drowns Will. Afterwards, Will becomes heartbroken and ends up quitting along with the rest of the Thorns over Jett's selfishness as she finally realizes what she has done. Later, the Thorns and the citizens of Vineland ended up falling into despair over this tragedy.
• A Dog Named "Dog":
  • The bear leader of the Gang of Bullies that keeps Will from practicing Roarball in the Cage is named Grizz.
  • The Komodo dragon that is one of the Thorns players is named Modo.
• Double Meaning Gag: The film's Tagline is "This kid's got game", referencing how "kid" can mean "a young person" or "a young goat". Fittingly, the protagonist of the movie is an anthropomorphic goat.
• Down to the Last Play: The film's climax is set within the last seconds of the ROAR championship game, with Will putting the finishing touch on the Thorns' game-winning 3-pointer.
• Drench Celebration: Moments after advancing to the playoffs, the Thorns dump their sports drink cooler on Coach Dennis, just as he was being interviewed.
• Dub Name Change: The Brazilian Portuguese dubbing changed Will's name to the Punny Name "Zeca Brito" — which both works as an actual name and doubles as "zé cabrito", "cabrito" meaning "goatling". In fact, most of the film's cast is renamed in the Brazilian dub:
  • Jett Fillmore becomes "Jaque Fonseca";
  • Mane Attraction becomes "Manga Larga", "manga larga" being a Brazilian horse breed;
  • Olivia Burke becomes "Olívia Bastos";
  • Archie Everhardt becomes "Alex";
  • Modo Olachenko becomes "Tonto Olachenko";
  • Lenny Williamson becomes "Rafa";
  • Florence Everson becomes "Florentina Flo";
  • Hannah becomes "Ana";
  • Daryl becomes "Dário";
  • Chuck becomes "Joca";
  • And Rusty becomes "Tico".
• Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of the movie Will becomes a Roarball champion, Jett and the rest of the Thorns win the championship and bring the trophy home and Vineland has their faith restored in their home team, which also no longer runs the risk of being sold away thanks to Modo's intervention.
• Easter Egg: It's easy to miss but during the Thorns' 10-Minute Retirement, Dennis' box has Katie Mitchell's wooden moose.
• Elite Athlete's Aging Angst: Ten years ago, Jett Filmore was a rising star in Roarball who felt fated to bring the Claw home to Vineland. Ten years later, she still hasn’t won a championship and the sports world is considering her over the hill. The younger up and comer Will is not helping her confidence to say the least.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Once the Thorns manage to get a few wins under their belt, both male and female fans start crying out from the stands for Modo to marry them.
• Explosive Breeder: It's implied with Frank, Will's landlord, who has enough kids to fill his very large house. After confronting Will about his overdue rent, Frank’s wife casually announces she’s pregnant again. After the Thorns win the final game, Frank excitedly tells his wife he wants another dozen kids.
• Evil Overlooker: One peculiar example is Mane, who is already large, and in the poster, instead of being in the background, he's sitting right next to the protagonist, Will, glaring at him angrily.
• Extreme Sports Plot: Normally, a variant of basketball wouldn't count as an extreme sport, but Roarball is also a full-contact sport with very dangerous natural hazards like cliffs, snowstorms, sandstorms, thorny vines, and lava that has a stereotype built in that only big, strong and/or very fast animals are capable of playing it.
• Eye Scream: At one point in the second trailer, a rabbit holding a massive stack of food gets guacamole in their eye and screams in pain as a result.
• Fantastic Racism: Throughout the film, Will is judged for being a small goat trying to become a Roarball player. His teammates come to respect him as he gets to show off his genuine skill at the game, although the likes of Mane Attraction remain as mocking towards him for his size as ever.
• Feather Fingers: The vulture shoe seller that appears at the end of the teaser trailer uses his feathers like fingers. Olivia, the ostrich player of the Thorns, gives a "thumbs up" while her head is underground.
• Fictional Sport: Roarball is basically basketball played by anthropomorphic animals on a variety of shifting courts with various deadly hazards such as vines, ice, lava, etc.
• Frigid Water Is Harmless: Jett, feeling the need to prove herself at the Semi-Finals after learning of Flo selling her and the Thorns to Sunken City, swipes the ball from Will while dunking him into deep water under ice. Underwater, Will doesn't seem to be feeling any cold temperatures and when he's seen out of the water, he's completely okay with no signs of hypothermia.
• Fun with Acronyms: The ROAR League is short for "Regionally Organized Animal Roarball".
• Furry Reminder: Quite a few:
  • Will at one point runs on all fours up an incline like a real goat and repeatedly causes his eyes to become rectangular like a real-life goat in order to find certain routes that would be outside of a normal animal's field of vision.
  • Jett stalks on all fours only to be stopped when sprayed by Florence, and later screeches like a housecat and roars. She also sleeps on a branch of a tree over her bed, as leopards often sleep in trees. She's even seen drinking water from a bowl like a regular cat.
  • Mane Attraction, being a horse, has fragile ankles, which is exploited by Will during their game in the start of the film. Florence even jokes about Mane having to be put down as as a result of the injury, a common occurrence when a horse does this in Real Life.
  • In one scene, a gorilla sitting in the stands picks his nose, which is a common behavior among the primates that use it to clean themselves.
  • In one scene taking place on a court that is under a cage, few of the primate spectators present at the event watch the match while clinging to the cage, similar to how monkeys cling to their zoo cages.
  • Olivia often buries her head in the ground, like ostriches are stereotyped as doing.
  • At one point, Will is startled and falls over with his limbs completely stiff in response, like a fainting goat.
• Gang of Bullies: Will deals with one on the local Vineland basketball court early in the story, which consists of a bull, zebra, bear and a rhino, who mock him for his small size. After he gets signed and starts proving himself as a professional Roarball player, they become allies who help him and his teammates train.
• Gender Is No Object: Unlike in real life sports, Roarball teams can consist of both male and female players with no one considering it unusual.
• Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Jett tells a macaw referee to shove his whistle up his cloaca, which is a synonym for exactly what you're thinking. Could count as Getting Crap Past the Radar, too.^note The cloaca is the universal exit chamber under the tail since birds lack bladders. In other words, "shove it up your ass!"
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Throughout the first half, Jett Fillmore is shown to be extremely irritable and easily offended — implied to be the result of years of failure and trolling by the media — causing her teammates and coach to walk on eggshells to avoid getting on her bad side. Thanks to Will's influence she gradually grows out of it.
• Heartfelt Apology: Jett gives one to Will after her actions in the Semi-Finals costs her his and the rest of the team's respect.
  Jett: I want to win. I want to hold up that Claw and feel what it's like to be one of the greats. When Flo said all that stuff about me being washed up, it just... it just got in my head. And I couldn't let it go because deep down, deep, deep down... I'm scared she's right. And I just panicked. And I — and I did you all so dirty, and I'm so... sorry. You know, I really thought that if I was holding a Claw at the end of the day, it wouldn't matter how I got it, but when you think about it, that's kinda all that matters.
• Height Angst: Will is half the size of the other Roarball players and is underestimated because of it. He wants to show that he can be a great player despite his small stature, and quickly proves once given the chance that he really can, having practiced at the sport enough to know how to work around or make use of his size since becoming a player became his dream.
• Hunk: Modo is a very muscular Komodo dragon who many Thorns fans, female and male, start thirsting after once the team starts hitting their stride for the season.
• I Have a Family: In the Polish dub, at the beginning of the teaser trailer, Frank (Will's landlord) tells him that he has a family and he can no longer rent him a house. Which turns out to be true since after that his many children appear to say hi to Will.
• I'm Standing Right Here: As Jett angrily questions Florence’s decision to add a goat to the team, Flo calmly points out that Will is sitting right beside them. Will then gives a nervous hello.
• Informed Species: Jett is stated to be a leopard but her muscular build makes her look like a jaguar.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Mane Attraction looks like a horse version of his voice actor Aaron Pierre.
• Interspecies Friendship: Will's two best friends outside of the team are a male capybara and female aardwolf.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • After Will scores the Thorns their first winning match of the season, Archie, Modo, Olivia and Lenny realize how badly they've misjudged their new teammate and immediately start praising him for giving them their victory while finally welcoming him in open arms.
  • After losing Will and the rest of the Thorns' respect during the semi-finals, Jett ultimately realizes how selfish she was after being hurt by Flo's insults about her being a wash-up and letting it get to her.
• Killer Gorilla: Mane Attraction's team Magma, a rival team against the Thorns, has a gorilla team member. Sunken City also has a gorilla teammate. They are both massively oversized, the same height as bears, bulls and rhinos.
• Logo Joke: The Sony logo changes into lights on a Jumbotron, the Columbia Pictures Torch Lady dresses in a basketball tank top and spinning a roarball in place of her torch after a light flash, and the Sony Pictures Animation logo has a orange color floating on a stadium.
• Lost Him in a Card Game: At the end of the film Modo wins the ownership of the Vineland Thorns in an Uno game.
• Malicious Monitor Lizard: Subverted with Modo, a quirky and friendly Komodo dragon who can nonetheless be unsettling through how casually weird he is. Played straight with a Komodo dragon that is a team member of Magma, a rival team against the Thorns.
• A Minor Kidroduction: The opening scene has a younger Will going to see his first Roarball game with his mother, which intensifies his interest in the sport and his desire to become a player himself. The film then skips ahead ten years later to the present day.
• Missing Mom:
  • Will's mom is strongly implied to have died in between the ten years after the opening scene, with Will mentioning to Jett that she had gotten sick one day.
  • It's never said what happened to the mother of Archie's daughters.
• Mixed Animal Species Team: The Thorns are a Roarball team which consists of a black panther leopardess, a Komodo dragon, an ostrich, a rhino and a giraffe, with a goat joining their team. Other Roarball teams also have different species in its membership.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The trailers present in this way Florence opening her suitcase to give Will a contract that will make him a member of the Thorns.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Jett after losing Will and the other playmates' respect during the semi-finals out of her own selfishness.
• My Greatest Failure: "The Furball Game" is this for Jett. She choked on the last shot and lost. Because of this, Jett feels no one in Vineland believes in her.
• Noodle Incident: If Modo's "Oh! Not again!" after Jett takes away his parking spot when she parks her car is anything to go, it's not the first time when she (uintentionally) took away Modo's parking spot.
• Non-Mammalian Hair:
  • As seen in the trailers, Olivia (the ostrich player of the Thorns) has hair.
  • Modo Olachenko, the Komodo dragon player of the Thorns has a row of spikes on his head which are meant to evoke a mohawk.
  • A vulture shoe seller has a small tuft of "hair" that sticks out of his baseball cap; he's a white-headed vulture, who do posses a tuft of feathers on their heads in real life.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: There is no romance subplot in the movie. The closest the movie gets are the two fans that ask Modo to marry them, and Frank telling his (always offscreen) wife to "make more babies" after the Thorns win the Claw.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Near the end of the teaser trailer, Modo gets too close to Will, and even licks him with his forked tongue!
• Not in Front of the Kid!: When Dennis goes into coach mode, he states that he would train the scat out of Jett and Will. Archie berates Dennis for what he said as his daughters start repeating the word "scat".
  Archie: Dennis! There are kids here!
• Obvious Villain, Secret Villain: On the obvious side, Mane Attraction is introduced upfront as an arrogant Jerk Jock and a fearsome Roarball player, and frequently trolls and antagonizes the Thorns — particularly Jett and Will — leading up to their climactic final game. Meanwhile, Flo is gradually revealed to be a greedy, conniving Corrupt Corporate Executive who sells the Thorns to cover her losses, casually fires all the players and nearly costs the Vineland community its beloved local team.
• Oddly Small Organization:
  • The Vineland Thorns, which at the start of the film only has their starting 5 and hires Will as their one backup. Getting any more reserves are never brought up or (fortunately) needed, although it comes back to bite them at the climax when Jett has to be benched due to an injury and Archie is later issued a foul, forcing Jett back onto the court, lest the team be disqualified for having only 4 members on the court.
  • The eight-team ROAR league itself, which raises questions about the size and total population of the world of the film's setting and the possible existence of areas where roarball isn't popular. ("Regional" is in the league's name, but that might be just for the sake of the acronym.)
• Only in It for the Money: The Thorns' owner, Flo, makes it abundantly clear from the start that she has little interest in Roarball as sport, or the team's importance to the Vineland community, and only bought it because it seemed a solid investment that has since soured with their current losing streak. Though recruiting Will finally turns things in the team's favor, Flo takes this opportunity to sell the Thorns at their highest value, in a deal that involves relocating the team out of Vineland to Sunken City and dismissing all its current players, Will included.
• Only Six Faces: The movie frequently reuses the same character models for the minor characters. For example, you are likely to see the same black-furred Bull or brown-furred bear as generic background characters wearing different colored clothing.
• Ostrich Head Hiding: A Running Gag with Olivia, the ostrich player of the Thorns, who has a bucket of sand she hides her head in when stressed courtside. During the third act, she literally buries her head underground to forget her woes after the team gets sold off and broken up.
• Painted CGI: As seen in the trailers, the movie utilizes TMNT: Mutant Mayhem-like artstyle, which gives it a comic book-like feeling.
• Passing the Torch: Attempted and defied. During a promo shoot for the team, Jett has to hand off a prop torch to Will, but refuses to do so, with her pride preventing her from admitting that she might be over the hill.
• Perennial Losers: The Thorns have never won "The Claw", the Roarball Championship Trophy, despite their home city of Vineland being the place where Roarball started. While it's acknowledged that Jett Fillmore is a skilled player, she's also getting along in years and may not have it in her to win the championship.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: Olivia is an adult version of this as in the trailer, she's mentioned to be needed a limit on her screen time as she's shown to spend too much time on her phone. However, this trope is downplayed in the actual film itself, with many of the scenes involving her dealing with her phoneaholic tendencies being cut from the final film.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Shorter-lasting than most examples in animated movies. Having been hurt by Flo insulting her, Jett tries desperately to win the semifinals without working together with the other Thorns, and even though the team does win, all of the members are upset by Jett's selfishness and leave her. However, Jett later approaches Will and apologizes for her actions, and the team is reunited shortly after in time for the finals.
• Precision F-Strike: The film's soundtrack contains the song "Grandmaster" by Argentinean rapper Trueno, which contains an uncensored Spanish swear word.
  Quieren joder y no tienen con qué. (They want to fuck with us but they don't have the means.)
• Product Placement:
  • Modo interrupts the Poker game the Thorns play on their plane with an Uno reverse card. He later turns out to have won ownership of the team in a high-stakes game of Uno.
  • Will's aardwolf friend Hannah wears a shirt with PlayStation icons on it, and Daryl plays ROAR 2K on PlayStation 5.
  • When Will returns to the Whiskers Diner with Jett in Act 2, there's a cheetah carrying a Doordash bag in the background. Said character was used in an ad spot for both the film and Doordash, where he had to deliver shoes to Jett after Modo ate hers as a "pre-game snack". The diner also has a Sony TV mounted on the wall. Additionally, one of the games has DoorDash logos displayed on the banner video boards.
  • Jett drives a Mercedes-Benz with the company's logo clearly on display. A later scene shows multiple Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
  • The Thorns' Roarball uniforms and shoes are manufactured by Under Armour.
  • PLEZI, a sports drink endorsed by Stephen Curry, appears as the official sports drink of Roarball.
• Pyrrhic Victory: During the Semi-Finals, Florence Everson pushes Jett's insecurities really hard after telling her that she sold the entire team to Sunken City. This drives Jett to double down on proving herself, playing the whole game by herself at the cost of pushing and hurting her own teammates. She may have won the game but also lost the respect of her own teammates due to her actions.
• Pun-Based Title: The movie's title refers both to Will's species and to the slang expression G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time), which is often used among sports fans to refer to spectacularly successful players.
• Punny Name: Will's capybara and aardwolf friends are respectively named Darryl and Hannah.
• Repurposed Pop Song: The trailers are set to Skee-Lo's "I Wish".
• Rousing Speech: Once Dennis actually starts coaching, he gives a pep talk to the Thorns to get them motivated; he tells Archie to see himself as a protector that helps his team score, reassures Lenny that this team is one he should stick his neck out for, and gets Olivia off her phone by reminding her she's still the number one pick.
• Running on All Fours: As a Furry Reminder, Roarball players are often seen running on four legs to get a boost in speed.
• Sad-Times Montage: After the events of the Semi-Finals that led to the Thorns' fallout with Jett over her own selfishness, Vineland and the players ultimately fall into despair after finding out the team has been sold to Sunken City. The music in the background playing is "Don't Dream It's Over" by Bryant Barnes.
• Selective Enforcement: Iggy the zebra referee during the final game is clearly biased in Magma's favor, doing nothing when Mane Attraction fouls Jett and hurts her leg, but when the Thorns start to push back, the ref calls a foul on Archie and takes him out of the game, simply saying "Cry about it" to Dennis when he protests that Mane was the one that started the fight.
• Shout-Out:
  • During Will's introductory press conference, Jett lies to the media that Will called Mane Attraction "My Little Pony".
  • During his Villain Song "Goat Tears":
    Mane Attraction: I'm the godfather; call me Pony Soprano!
  • Of the two video edits made of Will's first game, one features a Wii Sports 'STRIKE!' clip and one features Bag Raiders' "Shooting Stars".
  • Jett and Will shooting Roarballs and calling their shots in an empty Greenhouse is a reference to a McDonald's commercial that starred Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. The phrase "Nothing but net" is even spoken.
• Silly Animal Sound:
  • Jett screeches like a housecat when Florance sprays her with water.
  • At one point during training, Will is startled, causing him to let out the memetic goat scream.
• Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: Most people in the setting sit somewhere between Funny Animal and Civilized Animal, generally going about things as if they were humans but with plenty of Furry Reminders thrown in. Several characters move on all fours at times and their anatomy shifts slightly into a more animalistic form to accommodate for this. Insects (or at least, roaches) seem to be a grey area; a reporter's comment implies they're fully sentient, but they seemingly behave like normal bugs and are viewed as such by some people, such as when Will reacts in revulsion to a roach crawling on him in Daryl's apartment even after the roach gets his attention by speaking to him.
• Snowy Sabertooths: The Shivers are a roarball team based in the Arctic whose home arena is ice-themed. All of the animals on the team are stereotypically cold weather mammals, including a sabre-tooth cat (notably, the only extinct animal seen in the movie).
• Stunned Silence: Will, Archie, Olivia, Lenny, Modo and the audience watching has this painfully during the Semi-Finals.
• Theme Naming: The various Roarball teams are named after and themed around natural phenomena, such as the Vineland Thorns, the Lava Coast Magmas, and the Sunken City Shadows (since real sports teams are often named after animals, and that would seem awkward in a world where everyone is an animal).
• Title Drop: It had been said and reference throughout the film.
• Too Many Babies: As seen in the trailer, Frank is a father to many baby gerbils, which he and Will lampshade.
  Will: That's a lot of kids.
  Frank: Indeed, it is.
• Training from Hell: Dennis puts Jett and Will through the wringer to improve on the faults:
  • To make Jett more willing to pass the ball to her teammates, she's constantly sprayed with water every time she tries to score herself. And is told to do it again five hundred thousand more times.
  • To help Will against bigger opponents, Grizz goes blocking Will every chance he gets. Even when he's taking a break.
• Turn the Other Cheek: Despite what happened at the Semi-Finals because of her selfishness and rough play, Will and the rest of the Thorns immediately forgave Jett when they reunited, especially after Will accepted Jett's Heartfelt Apology.
• Unnecessary Roughness:
  • Jett gets Technical Fouled during the game in Sunken City for telling the Ref to 'stick that whistle up his cloaca', necessitating Will coming onto the court and winning the Thorns their first game all season.
  • In the Final vs the Magmas, Mane ends up severely injuring Jett right before Halftime, but doesn't get fouled on it. When Archie retaliates in the Fourth Quarter, he gets Technical Fouled and ejected, necessitating Jett coming back onto the court or the Thorns forfeiting.
• Urine Trouble: Played with in the "Goat Tears" music video (see "Bait-and-Switch" above).
• Villainous Breakdown: Mane Attraction had two of these. One was when he tried to stop Will from scoring. The other is when he was practically in tears after learning his hair was burned off.
• Villainous Gold Tooth: Mane Attraction has a gold tooth, and the trailers depicts him as an arrogant Jerk Jock who believes that Will can't be a Roarball player due to his small size.
• Villain Song: "Goat Tears", which is Mane Attraction's diss track towards Will:
  I know you think you're all ba-a-ad
  But I'mma have you crying like "ba-a-ah"!
  You just go here; I'm the Mane Attraction, though
  I'm the godfather; call me Pony Soprano!
  I'mma keep it short, just like you
  Next time we on the court, the smoke's on you!
  Act tough, but you're scared
  I'm in your nightmares
  Tonight, when you sleep, you'll be crying goat tears!
• Villainy-Free Villain: Mane Attraction is a huge egotistical Jerk Jock who constantly badmouths his opponents and plays very rough on the court, but he doesn't do anything criminal. Likewise Flo is greedy and uncaring but selling the team is perfectly legal and a reasonable business choice, she is just unnecessarily obnoxious about it, not only not softening the blow when she tells Jett the new owners just want the brand not the current team, she actively seems to take pleasure in rubbing salt into the wound.
• Visual Pun: Will's hometown Vineland is a literal urban jungle.
• The Voice: Frank's wife never appears on-screen, we only hear her yelling to his husband that she's pregnant again.
• Wham Line: Flo delivers some harsh news to Jett during the Semi-Finals what’s next for the Thorns.
• World of Funny Animals: All characters seen in the trailers are anthropomorphic animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and even insects.
• The Worst Seat in the House:
  • Subverted in the opening scene where Will and his mom are seated higher up in the Greenhouse, though they don't seem to mind as the two are seated further in the front and still have a good view of the game.
  • Played Straight later in the film with Hannah and Daryl sitting behind a column at Will's first game as an official player on the Thorns, though they end up not missing much since he never got to play.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Coach Dennis gives one to Olivia, noting that she's a former first overall pick and still has the talent that got her there, she just needs to tune out social media.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Jett is not too happy when her manager signed a literal goat to the team, even threatening to eat Will when she realizes he's in the room. Will, for his part, takes it well.

"Dream big..."