SPACE JAM (1996)
By Ralph Santini – ***
By Ralph Santini – ***
Delightfully entertaining since seeing this film
myself at age 9 going on 10, the NBA (Michael Jordan, specifically) meets the
Looney Tunes extravaganza “Space Jam” is still a fun family film with plenty of
excitement. Joe Pytka, the film’s director has basically been directing mostly
music videos and I think it’s stand to reason why this film still holds up as a
feature length music video about basketball and Warner Bros. cartoon
characters. This movie, clearly set in 1993, mixes the true story of Michael Jordan
switching from Basketball to professional Baseball, a sport his father excelled
at, with a fantasy story sharing an alternate reality on the lives of NBA
players and the Looney Tunes cartoon characters where they find out that space
aliens are about to kidnap them to a moon called “Moron Mountain” (isn’t that a
funny name?). The aliens consist of a scheming villain Mr. Swackhammer (voiced
by Danny DeVito) engineering his henchmen known as The Nerdlucks to get the
Looney Tunes after his business is faltering with complaints of costumers on
how the theme park is declining one by one.
When The Nerdlucks confirm the beloved cartoon
characters that they will be their slaves for the amusement business Bugs
implores them that he and his pals must need a chance to defend themselves and
what do they do? The Tunes themselves challenge the clumsy creatures to a
Basketball game. Things don’t go right however when the little darlings steal
the talent from 5 famous NBA players; Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Shawn
Bradley, Larry Johnson and Muggsy Bogues. Worse yet, the players’ talents
transforms the cute little Nerdlucks into scary gigantic “Monstars”. And that’s
where The Looney Tunes’ plan to bring Michael Jordan into their animated
reality begins. All they have to do is have Yosamite Sam drag Mr. Jordan from
his golf game and let Bugs in charge for asking Michael for his help for his coaching into playing
Basketball. Jordan and his animated pals would be eventually joined by his
rather imprudent but loveable fictional publicist Stan Podolak (Wayne Knight) and an attractive
new-to-Looney -Tunes-fans character named Lola Bunny whom Bugs falls in love
with.
This film is not exactly one of the great movies but
it’s nevertheless a fun joyride that I still find entertaining after all these
years. I mean come on, Basketball and Looney Tunes? I think that’s really a
terrific premise. It’s true Michael Jordan is no actor, but I understand he’s
got a very nice reputation for being a philanthropic gentleman and I can really
dig that. I also love Bill Murray’s amazing cameo as himself where he
eventually gives our heroes luck into becoming their fifth player after several
misfires in the game. It’s also really nice to see most our favorite characters
from The Looney Tunes universe ranging from Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig,
Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Yoseamite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Wile E.
Coyote, Road Runner, etc. make their official feature film debut, after their
previous ones consisted of mostly compilations of cut cartoons for them.
It’s also fun to see the cameos made by Larry Bird
and many other Basketball personalities including the victims of having their
talent stolen from the Nerdlucks. Mind you, I must admit previously not liking
several scenes when they are trying to cope with themselves with no talent from
when Charles Barkley is rejected by a group of girls playing basketball pegging
him as a wannabe and then they are trying to recover themselves in a hospital,
Barkley going church, and the players trying to see a psychiatrist. However now
that I’m grown up I think I will take that all back, because well, growing up,
I became more and more familiar with Sports figures even though I am not quite
the sports fan many people are. The point is that Space Jam is, regardless, a
fun movie to watch since I basically love seeing Michael Jordan team up with
The Looney Tunes both of them being gigantic cultural phenomenons.
