Space Jam: A Retrospective Review

Space Jam (1996) Review

 

This summer I watched the Netflix documentary series The Last Dance, which is about the Chicago Bulls winning the NBA championship in the 1996/1997 season. It’s a fantastic documentary that I highly recommend, and at one point they briefly talk about Michael Jordan taking time off to work on “his film” which was the Warner Brothers’ production known as Space Jam. When I was a kid, I loved Space Jam, for a very simple reason: I liked basketball, and I liked the Looney Tunes, and Space Jam was about both. When I got older I remembered it just as a silly kids movie, but even revisiting it as an adult, I found it surprisingly entertaining. After being inspired to revisit Space Jam again once finished The Last Dance, I found I had a lot of thoughts on it, because even though its existence was solely based on the popularity of two totally different cultural icons, Space Jam is a significant film to a whole generation.

First off, let me explain what Space Jam is all about in case you aren’t familiar with it. The greatest basketball player ever to play the game, Michael Jordan, retires from the NBA and tries playing baseball, but doesn’t find the same success on the diamond as he found on the court. He’s given a new assistant, Stan, played by Wayne Knight—seriously, it’s just not a great 90’s movie without Wayne Knight—and he just wants to get away from him. So, when Mike’s out golfing with Stan, Bill Murray (as himself), and former NBA star and coach Larry Bird (also as himself) and gets sucked down a golf hole into the world of the Looney Tunes, who apparently live at the center of the earth (?), he’s okay with it, because it means he gets to play basketball again. See, Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Tunes have a little problem: aliens from Moron Mountain have been sent by their evil boss to bring the Looney Tunes to their theme park and turn them into slaves, but after the Tunes challenge them to a basketball game, thinking it’ll be easy to

defeat them, the aliens steal the talent (?) from five NBA players and become the “Monstars” who are now giant and powerful. So, they need to pull ol’ Air Jordan out of retirement to help them win the big game, because if they don’t, it’ll be goodbye Looney Tunes, and goodbye Michael Jordan!

You may have noticed a couple of question marks in that description. That’s because the premise is pretty out there when you stop to think about it. I mean, how did this idea even come to fruition? It actually originated as a Nike ad campaign featuring Jordan and Bugs, which grew into the bizarre premise that eventually made it to the big screen. One of the funniest scenes is when the players who lost their talent seek the help of an oracle, and when she looks into the crystal ball, she tells them the exact premise of the film, sounding just as surprised as you’d expect. It really does sound like a dream, but hey, it’s original, and somehow, it worked.

Visually, I can’t believe how well Space Jam holds up. For the time, it was pretty cutting edge to be shooting completely on green screen sets for so much of production, but the blending of the actors and the animated setting works pretty well. Sure, there are some parts that are obviously lacking detail, like the uninterrupted shot through Moron Mountain near the beginning of the film, but for 1996, it’s pretty impressive.

One of the biggest highlights that’s remained legendary to this day is the soundtrack. The opening theme song just gets you so pumped up, and with so many other hype tracks like “Get Ready for This” and “Pump up the Jam” it’s no wonder the Space Jam soundtrack was one of the most popular film soundtracks of the 1990’s. I also want to give credit to the original score by James Newton Howard, who gives the Monstars some menacing themes, elevates some peak moments in the story, and captures the same sounds that always accompanied the joyful antics of the Looney Tunes in the original animated cartoons, only these tracks are fresh for the film, with the exception of the original Merrie Melodies theme that plays once briefly when the aliens first arrive in the world of the Tunes.

I have to touch on the man, the myth, the legend, the guy who gets top billing, even over Bugs Bunny himself. Michael Jordan needs no introduction, but the opening scene with him playing basketball out in the back yard in the middle of the night is a surprisingly inspiring way to start things off, and then we’re treated to a montage of highlights from MJ’s career as the opening credits play. There’s very little setup for Michael as the main character, but there really didn’t need to be much. I have to give him credit for not playing up his part all goofy or exaggerated. He’s the straight man to Bugs Bunny’s more extreme persona, and it’s easy to forget he had to film many of the scenes he shares with the Looney Tunes and Monstars on a green screen set, which meant there were no real actors in the scenes with him, and he had to react and say his lines to imaginary characters. Michael is an athlete, not an actor, so I’m not going to fault him for some clunky line delivery or lack of realistic reactions to encountering a world full of living, breathing cartoon characters.

Space Jam is pretty easy to criticize, and I’m definitely not trying to say it’s some misunderstood masterpiece. It’s played for laughs mainly, and there’s a definite lack of realism—beyond the fact that Michael interacts with cartoon characters. He just goes along with it all, as does his assistant Stan, simply because if they didn’t, the flow of the story would be interrupted. Most of the movie doesn’t make much sense. The plight of the Looney Tunes is also questionable, because if you know anything about the history of the characters, it’s pretty easy to question why they would have such a hard time defeating five muscled-out Martians—or, really, have a hard time at all.

The villains are extremely dopey and kind of annoying in their pre-Monstars forms. I can’t even tell you what any of their names are, but their boss, the evil Mr. Swackhammer (voiced by Danny DeVito) is a slimy, detestable villain in all the right ways. His design sort of reminds me of The Grinch from the animated TV special, which is fitting, given The Grinch was directed by veteran Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones. The Moron Mountain quintet become much more interesting after they absorb the talent of the NBA players. I like how each one has a unique design, and retains traits from the players they stole the talent from. For instance, the red one is short and talks quick, kind of like Muggsy Bogues, one of the five players to lose their skills. The blue one is the only one who

remains dimwitted, but still manages to be funny, and is the tallest one of the five. My favourite is the green one, with an almost dragon-like appearance, sporting back spikes and even breathing fire at one point. 

Quite famously, original Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones came out and actively criticized Space Jam for its mishandling of the classic characters. He’s right about a few things, like how lame it is that Porky Pig wets himself out of fear of the Monstars, and the Tunes would have had no problem taking care of them without the help of Michael. More moments than that stand out to me in negative ways. When the aliens show up and say the Tunes are now their prisoners, they all laugh, but when one of them shoots Yosemite Sam with a laser gun and disintegrates everything on his body except his underwear, everyone’s hands shoot up and they instantly surrender. Prior to this, they’ve already seen Bugs Bunny completely chained up, and while he does easily shed the chains moments later, I think if aliens trotted out Bugs in shackles that would have been more than enough to make everyone bow down to them.

When Bugs and Daffy are in Michael’s house looking for his gear they have an exchange of dialogue about not seeing any royalties from all the merchandise with their faces on it, to which Daffy says “We’ve got to get a new agent. We’re getting screwed!” It’s kind of a funny line, but that doesn’t sound like something a Tune would say. There’s also a weird moment when Daffy has the Warner Brothers logo taped to his butt and he literally kisses his own ass. I don’t know if that’s irony or what you’d call it, but it’s a little moment that bugs me. When I think of parts like this, I understand where Chuck Jones was coming from, but I still slightly disagree on his take. There are so many moments for so many of the characters that feel perfectly adequate to the versions I remember as a kid, whether it’s a bigger part like Sylvester or a cameo appearance by Toro the Bull. They somehow even make a Pulp Fiction reference with Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd that is hilarious and works. While the jokes and gags are mainly throwbacks to ones we’ve seen before, it’s still not quite the same as it was in the original shorts, and of course it never could be. I still enjoy this take on the characters, even if it can’t hold a candle to the versions that took root in pop culture long ago.

One of the weirdest things is to look in the background of the stadium at certain points during the big game. The audience is filled with Looney Tunes characters, many of them recognizable but only ever having appeared in a handful of cartoons or possibly even just one or two…the thing is, the animation on them is like two or three frames that just repeat over and over, and they are often copied multiple times. So, for instance, there are at least three female cats that have been painted with the white skunk stripe—you know, the one Pepe Lepew is always after?—and these little details are more noticeable now that the film can be viewed in HD, but as a kid, I didn’t notice, and even as an adult the DVD quality wasn’t always high enough to make it very detectable.

Something that frustrates me a lot now that didn’t used to is how the clincher at the end is Michael realizing he can basically do anything with his body because “this is Looney Tune land!” and uses that to his advantage in the last ten seconds of the game. But, remember when he first encounters the Monstars and they scrunch him up into a ball and bounce him around a whole bunch, but he’s fine after? Shouldn’t he have already realized it then and not needed reminding in the last ten seconds of the game? But, hey, it’s a movie for kids, right? 

I loved Space Jam as a kid, and watched it over and over, thanks to my dad, who taped it off TV for me on VHS. I watched that tape so many times I still can’t watch the movie now without my brain triggering images of the commercial breaks popping up between key scenes and my hand instinctively reaching for the remote control to fast forward. I had a thought while I was watching this last time, and I don’t know if it really makes sense or not, but I was trying to figure out who this film was for. You see, there are kid’s films, and there are family films. What’s the difference? To me, a family film is something you’d sit down and watch as a whole family, because the premise is kid-friendly enough that children will be able to get it and find plenty to enjoy (though isn’t necessary kid specific) but there will be content for the adults to enjoy as well that will go over the heads of the kids. So for instance, something like the original Pinocchio is a kid’s movie, designed specifically to appeal to kids, with adult viewers not in mind. The Sandlot, which is about kids playing baseball in the 60’s, is what I’d call a family film, because the premise and characters will appeal to kids, but a significant quantity of the jokes, references, and situations will resonate more with adults. An even better example could be Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which did the same thing Space Jam did by blending animated characters in a real world setting with real actors, and to my knowledge, Roger Rabbit was the first feature film to do this so extensively. It’s a fun family film, with cartoon characters that, at the time it came out, both appealed to kids who saw them on TV and to adults who saw them in theaters when they were originally screened all the way back in the 1930’s and 40’s, but there’s also some pretty dark stuff that is likely to freak kids out but entertain adults.

What I’m trying to say is: I think Space Jam has a kid’s movie premise, but a family film approach to the material. No time is wasted in getting the premise hammered out for viewers: bad aliens want the Looney Tunes, Tunes need to bring Michael Jordan out of retirement so they can beat them. It sounds like a story for children. It pretty much is. But, Looney Tunes were originally designed to appeal to all audiences, that’s why they showed them before feature films back in the day, and there were always parts included that were more for the parents watching than the kids. This is true in Space Jam. As a kid, I disliked the montage of the NBA players trying to figure out what happened to their talent, but as an adult, it’s one of the funniest parts. The dialogue is funny, the situations are amusing, and the concept is just high enough that most little kids won’t really understand why it’s even in the movie at all. Other meta jokes too like how Bill Murray is able to show up at the end and be the fifth player they need to win the game went right over my head as a kid, but make me chuckle now. It has the right mix of humour to appeal to all ages, even if the premise might come off as something specifically targeting kids.

Space Jam might seem like a defunct piece of entertainment built around a fandom that has since moved on or grown up and doesn’t really appeal anymore, but it is as alive today as it was when it came out over two decades ago. When I googled it, the original website came up, and it’s still active. Space Jam: A New Legacy, the long, long-awaited sequel starring LeBron James is schedule to finally come out in 2021 (please let there be a Michael Jordan cameo!), and as I said in the intro, a whole generation has fond memories of Space Jam. There are even memes of it still going around. The best part of Space Jam, to me, is despite the silly story, it’s an inspiring movie for young viewers. The first time I saw it I remember not really grasping much of the finer aspects to who Michael Jordan was, he was just this almost mythic figure, the greatest basketball player there ever was, simple as that. I mean, he got to play a basketball game with the Looney Tunes against aliens. That’s, like, the coolest sports game ever. It’s not so much in the film’s fantasy moments that we get to see the real skill of the real Michael Jordan, but in the opening and closing moments, we do get a glimpse at the real Michael in action, and it’s a greater sight than any special effects Hollywood can muster.

I guess a good question would be: do I actually recommend it to those who haven’t seen it? Well, I’m not so sure I can. If you’re mostly interested in Michael Jordan himself, then I wouldn’t, because it doesn’t even really showcase him at his best. If anything, I’d recommend The Last Dance on Netflix instead. If you’re a big Looney Tunes fan, chances are you’ve probably already checked it out, or have avoided it if you’re a purist and only like the original shorts. I’d give it a soft recommendation to a Looney Tunes fan, because it captures enough of the spirit of the Tunes that it’ll entertain in much the same way as the cartoons, and it’s cool seeing the animated characters interact with real-life people and settings, too. On that point, I think it’s a better live-action/animation hybrid for the Looney Tunes characters than 2003’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but it’s still not nearly as great as the original animated shorts, of course. If you’re just looking for a family-friendly mash-up of a sports icon and cartoon character icons with lots of jokes and a bit of heart to take your mind off things for 88 minutes, I think Space Jam is worth putting on. “Come on and slam, and welcome to the Jam!”