Space Jam

Last night, I checked out the “Space Jam” sequel on HBO Max. However, before I talk about the sequel, I want to let everyone know what I thought of the first “Space Jam,” released in 1996.

The movie is a combination of good ideas – three films in one, giving us a comedic look of the career of NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, mixed with a Looney Tunes cartoon and some basketball game. It entertains kids at one level while giving their parents a lot to be entertained at also. Roger Ebert said in his review, “It's an inspired way to use, and kid, Jordan's image while at the same time updating Bugs Bunny & Company to doing battle in the multizillion-dollar animation sweepstakes.”

The movie starts with Michael Jordan as a kid (Brandon Hammond) shooting baskets with his father (Thom Barry) in the backyard of their home and dreaming of his career dreams: North Carolina…the NBA…and finally the main area, professional baseball. Then we jump ahead to very funny scenes showing Jordan in the middle of his baseball career.

He wasn’t a very good baseball player (a TV newscast is clear about that), but everyone around him is starstruck by his sports stardom, anyway. (“He looks good in a uniform,” one player says. “You can’t teach that.”) A contrasting catcher is a huge fan that he tells Michael what pitches to expect, and Jordan is having a great time realizing his childhood dream when suddenly he is pulled down a hole on the golf course, and into Looney Tunes-land.

A similar story has told us the situation on a different planet, where an amusement park in outer space is desperate for new attractions. To increase ticket sales, the alien Nerdlucks (Joceyln Blue, Charity James, June Melby, Catherine Reitman, Colleen Wainwright), who run the park (Danny DeVito), kidnap the Looney Tunes stars (the memorable characters include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat, the Tazmanian Devil, Speedy Gonzales, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn and the attractive newcomer Lola Bunny). The desperate Looney Tunes have made a deal: They’ll get their freedom if they can defeat the Nerdluck “Monstars” (Dorian Harewood, Joey Cames, T.K. Carter, Darnell Suttles, Steve Kehela) in a basketball game. However, the Monstars stole the basketball talent of famous players like Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, and Muggsy Bogues (leaving them unable to even catch a ball, and telling everything to therapists). In desperation, the Looney Tunes kidnap Michael as their secret weapon.

“I’m a baseball player now,” Jordan protests.

“Right!” says Bugs Bunny. “And I’m a Shakespearan actor!” Ebert credited, “Rising to the occasion, Jordan coaches the Looney Tunes squad in a series of high-energy games and action sequences that combine his live scenes with state-of-the-art animation. The cartoon sequences employ traditional animation techniques and newer approaches, such as the three-dimensional computer animation used in “Toy Story.” You can watch the movie on the sports and cartoon levels, and also appreciate the corporate strategy that's involved. A successful feature-length animated family film can roll up astronomical grosses (more than $1 billion from all sources for “The Lion King”). But the problem for the rest of Hollywood is, only Disney seems to have the key and the cachet to make those films. Animated movies from other sources tend to do disappointingly at the box office.”

Ebert noted, “Warner Bros. has historically been a studio with a rich legacy in animation; such great cartoon directors as Chuck Jones helped fashion their stable of stars. But six-minute cartoons are a neglected art form, and “Space Jam” looks like a Warners vehicle to catapult their Looney Tunes characters into the feature-length arena to do battle with Disney.”

There are hints of the competition throughout the film. The outer space amusement park is named “Moron Mountain,” maybe a tribute to Space Mountain at Walt Disney World. Also, when a professional hockey team is mentioned, Daffy reacts, “The Ducks? What kind of a Mickey Mouse organization would name their team the Ducks?” Will the Warners plan work? If they can keep co-stars like Michael Jordan up front, it will. Ebert said, “It is difficult for an actor to work in movies that combine live action with animation, because much of the time he cannot see the other characters in a scene with him. But Jordan has a natural ease and humor, an unforced charisma, that makes a good fit with the cartoon universe. By not forcing himself, by never seeming to try too hard to be funny or urgent, Jordan keeps a certain dignity; he never acts as if he thinks he's a cartoon, too, and that's why he has good chemistry with the Tunes.” He’s a visitor to Looney Tunes-land, not a local.

There are other funny live action scenes involving Michael Jordan and Hollywood’s favorite unbilled guest star, Bill Murray, and scenes, too, with Wayne Knight as a baseball publicist who comes along as an adviser and friend. The film was produced by Ivan Reitman and directed by Joe Pytka, who has directed Jordan in a lot of his best TV commercials. Their work has combined the animation of a team coached by Ron Tippe, and the result is enjoyable, a family movie in the best way (which means the adults will also enjoy it).

I didn’t know that this movie was based on commercials that MJ did with the Looney Tunes and that people call this movie one giant commercial. I guess I can see that, but this movie is the “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” movie for kids who grew up in the 90s, like myself. This was every kid’s dream come true, combining the two things that kids growing up in the 90s were huge fans of: Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes. My brother says that the movie is incredibly overrated in people’s minds, but I still keep it close to me as my childhood. We didn’t see it in the theaters, but we rented it from Blockbuster, and when the opening credits song played, we were dancing in the living room. We ended up recording a copy for ourselves and I saw this movie a lot growing up. Check it out and enjoy a 90s film that defines the childhood of that decade.

Now the sequel, “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” was released yesterday in theaters and HBO Max. Even though the subtitle of this film is “A New Legacy,” which looks a little too confident for the team that gave us this “Space Jam” sequel, you can say that this is not going too far from the truth when looking at the selected talent. Despite the first film having a mixed reception when it came out in 1996, it made a lot at the box office and, in the 25 years since, got more positive feedback. Similarly, if anyone was going to be considered a “legacy” in the same way as Michael Jordan, it’s LeBron James.

Peter Gray admitted in his review, “As a 12-year-old when the original film opened – and growing up in a basketball-enthused household to boot – I was undoubtedly Space Jam‘s target audience.  For Space Jam: A New Legacy? Not so much.  In fact, I’ll admit to seeing this film without much enthusiasm at all, so you can imagine my surprise when, whilst not being entirely won over, I was entertained by what was unfolding in the 115 minutes before me. Whether it was a genuine entertainment or more aghast at some of the adult properties this film references – there’s one particular sequence featuring a slew of popular (and quite mature-aimed) Warner Bros. titles that is genuinely wild in what it portrays – A New Legacy was an experience that made a few neat shots throughout its attempt to continually slam-dunk.”

Making a different story from the first film, “A New Legacy” does the LeBron vs. Looney Tunes arc by introducing an evil, self-aware A.I. system – the Warner Bros. “server-verse” overlooked by the evil Al-G Rhythm, played by Don Cheadle (clearly enjoying himself as he hams it up) – who really gets livid at LeBron (Gray saying, “unfortunately not flexing the charm he naturally possesses or displayed in his heightened Trainwreck performance”) denying the studio’s idea of marketing his likeness into a large part of their properties.

This is enough to make an A.I. simply insane, and because LeBron’s son, played by Cedric Joe, is going against his famous father by having an interest in creating a video game instead of playing basketball, this evidently goes to the idea of a son vs. father game in the animated Looney Tunes world that Al has made. Yes, this doesn’t make a lot of sense – and LeBron never looks like he’s a little worried or confused by the fact that he’s been sucked into a computerized animated world – but “A New Legacy” never goes for evident intelligence. The sight gags for each of the Looney Tunes characters – Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, and Marvin the Martian, just a few of the familiar faces on deck – go for the lowest comedic level, and the young audiences watching are likely to be easily spoiled.

Gray said, “Where the film can’t quite find its balance is in its depictions of humour aimed for the adults likely to be in tow with their young tykes. Whilst it would be asking too much for A New Legacy to provide genuine comedic wit, the fact that the six-person strong script manages to deliver some truly wild visual treats solely for older audiences – as well as one particular gag that manages to be brilliantly executed in spite of how pronounced it ultimately is – proves their capabilities in catering so, leaving the fact that the film often aims for such simplistic child humour all the more disappointing.”

A film that gives us visual references to characters from “Game of Thrones,” “A Clockwork Orange,” and “The Matrix” along with the more family-friendly characters like Speedy Gonzalez (one of my favorite comedians, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias) and Lola Bunny (Zendaya) is one that should feel braver than what this “Space Jam” succeeds at. Gray ended his review by mentioning, “There’s wonder and disbelief to be held (try explaining A Clockwork Orange to your kids) but A New Legacy is mostly child-friendly fare that proves a colourful, inexplicable distraction that’s unlikely to retain, ironically, any type of legacy for itself.”

In all honesty, I just found this ok. I don’t think this was bad, as I did laugh at a lot of the segments, but I don’t think I will be watching this again. Not to say I was disappointed in the movie, far from it. I enjoyed a lot of it, and if someone were to ask if I wanted to see this again, I would probably say yes. This film was in talks for years and now they finally came out with a sequel, which I thought wasn't needed, since the first film was just fine on its own. LeBron is probably the most popular basketball player for kids today, like MJ was for kids that I grew up with. Every kid wanted to be MJ when playing basketball on the recess court. See this movie if you want on HBO Max, and for those who liked the first one can give this film a chance.

Thank you for joining in on tonight’s review. Check in next Friday for the continuation of “Western Month.”