Space Jam is a 1996 American live-action animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel Weingrod. The first film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation, it stars basketball player Michael Jordan as himself; the live-action cast also includes Wayne Knight and Theresa Randle while Billy West and Danny DeVito headline the voice cast. The film follows Jordan as he is brought out of retirement by the Looney Tunes characters to help them win a basketball match against invading aliens intent on enslaving them as amusement park attractions.

Space Jam premiered in Los Angeles on November 10, 1996, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 15, by Warner Bros. under its Family Entertainment label. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided over its premise of combining Jordan and his profession with the Looney Tunes characters, while the technical achievements of its intertwining of live-action and animation were praised. It was a commercial success, grossing $250.2 million worldwide against an $80 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing basketball film of all time until 2022, and the tenth highest-grossing film of 1996.

A standalone sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy, was released in 2021, with LeBron James in the lead role. The sequel received generally negative reviews and failed to match the commercial success of the first film.

Plot

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In 1973, a young Michael Jordan tells his father, James, about his dreams of playing in the NBA. Twenty years later, following James' death, Jordan retires from basketball to pursue a career in baseball.

In outer space, amusement park Moron Mountain is in decline. Its proprietor, Mr. Swackhammer, learns of the Looney Tunes from the Nerdlucks, his quintet of alien minions, and orders them to abduct the Tunes to serve as attractions. The Nerdlucks enter the Tunes' universe via a portal hidden in the center of the Earth and hold them hostage before Bugs Bunny convinces them to allow the Tunes to defend themselves. The Tunes take advantage of the Nerdlucks' small stature and challenge them to a basketball game. After seeing a documentary about basketball, the Nerdlucks infiltrate various NBA games, stealing the talents of Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, and Muggsy Bogues. They use these talents to transform into hulking and adept versions of themselves known as the "Monstars".

Deciding they need help, the Looney Tunes pull Jordan into their universe as he golfs with Bill Murray, Larry Bird, and Jordan's assistant, Stan Podolak, where Bugs explains their situation to Jordan. However, Jordan is initially reluctant to help, but later agrees after a confrontation with the Monstars, and forms the "Tune Squad" with the Tunes; they are joined by Lola Bunny, with whom Bugs is enamored. To prepare himself, Jordan sends Bugs and Daffy Duck to his house to obtain his basketball gear. Jordan's children aid them and agree to keep the game a secret, while Stan, searching for Jordan, notices Bugs and Daffy, follows them to their world, and joins the team. Meanwhile, the incapacity of the five players results in a nationwide panic that culminates in the season's suspension. The players unsuccessfully try to restore their skills through various methods.

The game between the Tune Squad and the Monstars commences, with Swackhammer arriving to observe. The Monstars dominate the first half, lowering the Tune Squad's morale. During halftime, Stan surreptitiously learns how the Monstars obtained their talent and informs the Tune Squad. Disguising a bottle of water as "secret stuff", Bugs and Jordan motivate the Tune Squad, who improve in the second half using their cartoon antics. During a time-out, Jordan raises the stakes with Swackhammer: if the Tune Squad wins, the Monstars must relinquish their stolen talent, and if the Monstars win, Jordan will spend the rest of his life being Moron Mountain's newest attraction. On Swackhammer's command, the Monstars play more aggressively, injuring most of the Tune Squad.

With only ten seconds left in the game, the Tune Squad is down by one point and one player, with only Jordan, Bugs, Lola, and Daffy still able to play. Murray unexpectedly arrives and joins the team. In the final seconds, Jordan gains the ball with Murray's assistance but is pulled back by the Monstars. On Bugs' advice, Jordan uses cartoon physics to extend his arm and achieve a slam dunk, winning the game with a buzzer beater. After Swackhammer scolds the Monstars for their failure, Jordan helps them realize that they only served him because they were once smaller. Having had enough of their boss's behavior towards them, the Monstars insert Swackhammer inside a missile that sends him to the moon. After relinquishing their stolen talent, the Nerdlucks decide to join the Tunes, while Jordan and Stan return to Earth and return the talent to the five players, whose remarks convince Jordan to return to the NBA.

Cast

Live-action

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  • Michael Jordan as himself
  • Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, the Tasmanian Devil, and Bull
  • Bill Farmer as Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn (some scenes)
  • Greg Burson as Elmer Fudd (some scenes, uncredited) and Foghorn Leghorn (most scenes, uncredited) This led to the company green-lighting a film featuring Jordan and Bugs, which came out of a plane meeting between a Nike executive and producer Ivan Reitman. Spike Lee was also interested in helping Pytka with the screenplay, but Warner Bros. blocked him from the project out of dissatisfaction from how he funded Malcolm X (1992). Nathan Lane said Pytka rejected him for the part because he appeared "too gay."

The easiest actors to obtain were the NBA players, except for Gheorghe Mureșan.

Reitman, serious about the voice actors for the established Looney Tunes characters being far better than their original voice actor, Mel Blanc, and not just replications, was very involved in the voice casting. Joe Alaskey, one of Blanc's successors since the latter's death, was put by Reitman through a set of auditions, which lasted for months until Alaskey grew tired of auditioning and backed out from the project. Bob West auditioned for the film, sending a tape of himself doing the Looney Tunes characters' voices. Billy West learned of Space Jam through Reitman on The Howard Stern Show, who was producing Stern's film Private Parts (1997). Reitman was impressed by West's voice talent and asked him if he could audition for Space Jam. West accepted, and after doing an audition, he landed the roles of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. Dee Bradley Baker was cast as Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil due to his "convincing" improvisation skills. He also recorded beeps for the Road Runner, but was replaced with archive recordings of Paul Julian for the final version. Jack Lemmon was considered for the role of Porky Pig, but Bob Bergen auditioned for the role and got the part instead. The voice actors were not given a screenplay to work with, so they had to ad-lib the characters' lines. The casting directors originally planned several voice cameos; however, that did not work out, and Danny DeVito ended up being the only celebrity voice actor in the film, which was for Mr. Swackhammer, who was originally planned to be played by Jack Palance. Swackhammer was also planned to be a live-action character until the very final days of development, with Dennis Hopper possibly playing the role due to his friendship with Pytka. Other animators and artists working on the film included Chuck Gammage, Darren Vanderburg, Dave Spafford, Hiram Maxem, Mark Swan, Gary Dunn, Denis Couchon, Neil Boyle, Kirk Tingblad, Pepe Valencia, Tom McGrath, Fraser MacLean, Ashanti Miller,

After Cervone was hired as animation director, Jerry Rees contacted Bruce W. Smith about being another animation director on the film; Rees was fired by the time Smith joined, and Pytka hired Smith to direct the animation sequences alongside Cervone.

Production of Space Jam totaled around 19 months, with filming taking up ten of them; Although Bill Murray initially came in only to work on the golf course scene, he then wanted to be in the climactic basketball game after Pytka showed him the process of how he directed the live-action/animation scenes.

The soundtrack sold enough albums to be certified as 6-times Platinum. The song "I Believe I Can Fly" by musical artist R. Kelly earned him three Grammy Awards. Other tracks included a cover of the Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle" (by Seal), "Hit 'Em High (The Monstars' Anthem)" (by B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J, and Method Man), a cover of Cheech & Chong's "Basketball Jones" (by Barry White & Chris Rock), "I Turn to You" (by All-4-One), and "For You I Will" (by Monica). Jordan was asked to help approve the songs for the soundtrack. Unlike previous projects that used the Cineon digital film system, Cinesite used the quicker Inferno and Flame systems for Space Jam.

Cinesite had begun developing proprietary software for motion tracking when working on Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), which involved most of its shots incorporating a digital background; this made the company prepared for Space Jam, which consists of a bunch of moving camera shots with 3D backgrounds to be added. When these shots involved camera movements, a few 2D extras were animated to reflect the angle of the camera, but much lighting was added to distract from the crowd, thus minimizing this work.

Space Jam made its premium television premiere on HBO on September 13, 1997, its cable television premiere on TNT on March 14, 1999, and its network television premiere on ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney on November 14, 1999.

Space Jam was re-released by Fathom Entertainment for a limited two-day run in honor of its 20th anniversary in November 2016. The film was re-released for one night only on May 20, 2026, exclusively in Dolby Cinema at AMC Theatres to coincide with the film's 30th anniversary.

Home media

Warner Home Video released Space Jam on VHS, DVD, and LaserDisc on March 11, 1997. The VHS edition was reprinted and re-released through Warner Home Video's catalog promotions—The Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary Celebration (1998), Century Collection (1999), Century 2000 (2000) and Warner Spotlight (2001). The film was re-released on DVD on July 25, 2000. On October 28, 2003, the film was once again re-released as a 2-disc special-edition DVD including newly made extras such as a commentary track, a featurette, production notes, and an hour of previously released Looney Tunes shorts and a television special.

On November 6, 2007, Space Jam was featured as one of four films in Warner Home Video's 4-Film Favorites: Family Comedies collection DVD (the other three being Looney Tunes: Back in Action (which was released seven years after Space Jam), Osmosis Jones, and Funky Monkey). On February 8, 2011, the first disc of the previous 2-disc edition was released by itself in a film-only edition DVD and on October 4, the film was released for the first time in widescreen HD on Blu-ray which, save for the Looney Tunes shorts, ported over all the extras from the 2003 2-disc edition DVD.

A double DVD release, paired with Looney Tunes: Back in Action, was released on June 7, 2016. On November 15, 2016, Warner Bros. released another Space Jam Blu-ray to commemorate the film's 20th anniversary.

On July 6, 2021, the film arrived on Ultra HD Blu-ray to celebrate the 25th anniversary and the release of Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Other media

Space Jam later expanded into a media franchise which includes comics, video games and merchandise. The Space Jam franchise is estimated to have generated in total worldwide revenue. This includes a wide variety of merchandise, such as Air Jordans, Bugs Bunny shirts, Happy Meals, Mugsy Bogues jerseys, and Tweety gowns.

The film was adapted into a graphic novel published by DC Comics through their imprint "Warner Bros. Family Entertainment Reading" that published the Looney Tunes, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, and Pinky and the Brain monthly comic books. The special issue was written by David Cody Weiss and drawn by Leonardo Batic.

A licensed pinball game by Sega, a video game for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and MS-DOS by Acclaim, and a handheld LCD game by Tiger Electronics were released based on the film.

Reception

Box office

Space Jam grossed $90.5&nbsp;million in the United States, and in other territories, for a worldwide total of $250.2&nbsp;million.

Domestically, it debuted to $27.5&nbsp;million from 2,650 theaters, topping the box office. The film then made $16.2&nbsp;million in its sophomore weekend, but it dropped to second place behind Star Trek: First Contact and $13.6&nbsp;million in its third place behind Star Trek: First Contact and 101 Dalmatians.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Space Jam holds an approval rating of 46% based on 90 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While it's no slam dunk, Space Jams silly, Looney Toons-laden slapstick and vivid animation will leave younger viewers satisfied – though accompanying adults may be more annoyed than entertained." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune both gave the film a thumbs up, Siskel focused much of his praise on Jordan's performance, saying, "He wisely accepted as a first movie a script that builds nicely on his genial personality in an assortment of TV ads. The sound bites are just a little longer." Leonard Maltin also gave the film a positive review (three stars), stating that "Jordan is very engaging, the vintage characters perform admirably ... and the computer-generated special effects are a collective knockout." Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the film for its humor as well as the Looney Tunes' antics and Jordan's acting.

Although Janet Maslin of The New York Times criticized the film's animation, she later went on to say that the film is a "fond tribute to [the Looney Tunes characters'] past." Lawrence Toppman of The Spokesman-Review described the film as "average," saying, "It's broadly funny in spots but without any edge. It'll make kids giggle, but it makes a minuscule effort to appeal to adults."

According to author Kevin Sandler, critics disliked the film's representation of the Looney Tunes characters' personalities. Sandler stated, "Space Jam appear[s] to have replaced identity and irreverence with milquetoast and merchandising. This decontextualization has turned each character into a soulless, calculated, and crass commercial entity, a set of mannerisms and catchphrases without point or purpose. The comedy no longer springs from a conflict between opposing personalities; they are now all friends living in someplace called 'Looney Tune Land.' Instead, the comedy comes from the characters going out of character or reprising old scenes out of context." C.W. Nevius of SFGate stated that audience members reacted in shock to a scene where Tweety is smacked into a wall by the Monstar Bang.

Veteran Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones had expressed hope that the film would "treat the characters carefully," but was later critical of the film and its premise, opining that Bugs Bunny would not have enlisted help from others in resolving a conflict, and that Porky Pig would never say, "I wet myself." He was also invited to a screening of the film on the Warner Bros. lot after production had wrapped, and left after watching it. During a dinner celebration with the animation staff of Space Jam and executives, Jones was asked to deliver a congratulatory speech to the animators' work, but upon instead sharing his opinions on the film, was forcefully escorted off the lot by security.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action director Joe Dante disliked the film's representation of the Looney Tunes brand and the characters' personalities, and later developed Back in Action to more closely represent said personalities. Larry Doyle, writer of said film, described Space Jam as "awful." Animation historian Charles Gardner stated, "...the efforts to idolize Michael [Jordan] simply predominate the first part of the picture, making it obvious where the producers' priorities lie, rendering Bugs [Bunny] and the Looney Tunes gang more or less nothing more than window dressing to a vanity project for the star." He also described the film as "a slog to get through."

Accolades

  • 1997 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards
  • Won: Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures (Diane Warren for the song "For You I Will")
  • Won: Top Box Office Films (James Newton Howard)
  • 1997 Annie Awards
  • Won: Best Individual Achievement: Technical Achievement
  • Nomination: Best Animated Feature
  • Nomination: Best Individual Achievement: Directing in a Feature Production (Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone)
  • Nomination: Best Individual Achievement: Producing in a Feature Production (Ron Tippe)
  • 1997 Grammy Awards
  • Won: Best Song Written Specifically for Motion Picture or for Television (R. Kelly for the song "I Believe I Can Fly")
  • 1997 MTV Movie Awards
  • Nomination: Best Movie Song (R. Kelly for the song "I Believe I Can Fly")
  • 1997 Satellite Awards
  • Nomination: Best Motion Picture- Animated or Mixed Media (Daniel Goldberg, Joe Medjuck, Ivan Reitman)
  • 1997 World Animation Celebration
  • Won: Best Use of Animation in a Motion Picture Trailer
  • 1997 Young Artist Awards
  • Nomination: Best Family Feature- Animation or Special Effects

Legacy

Cultural influence

Jordan, who was a spokesman for MCI Communications before the film was made, would appear with the Looney Tunes characters (as his "Space Jam buddies") in several MCI commercials for several years after the film was released before MCI merged with WorldCom and subsequently Verizon Communications. Bugs had previously appeared with Jordan as "Hare Jordan" in Nike ads for the Air Jordan VII and Air Jordan VIII. In the next theatrical Looney Tunes film, Back in Action, Jordan appears in archive footage from this film as one of the disguises of Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin). In 2013, Yahoo! Screen released a parody of ESPN's 30 for 30 about the game shown in the film. The short dates the game as taking place on November 17, 1995, although Jordan's real-life return to basketball when it occurred on March 18. In April 2019, the website SBNation ran a mockumentary April Fools Day episode of its popular Rewinder series on Jordan's climactic shot. A television film crossover with Teen Titans Go!—Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam—aired on Cartoon Network in June 2021. The film features the Teen Titans meeting the Nerdlucks and providing humorous commentary over the original film. The film's length is slightly abridged, omitting the opening credits and several scenes that do not feature the Looney Tunes, and the soundtrack is replaced by an original score.

The film's official website, spacejam.com, was created in 1996 alongside promotion of the film, and remained unchanged but active for 25 years prior to the release of the film's sequel, an unusual aspect to film promotion websites. The site was one of the earliest film promotion websites, and included a number of unrefined web design facets, such as heavy use of animated GIFs. While the site's content had been moved under Warner Bros.'s site around 2003, the site's design gained a resurgence of interest around 2010 as a historical artifact of the early days of the web, and the studio returned the site to the spacejam.com address in response. Following the release of Space Jam: A New Legacy first trailer in April 2021, the website was updated for promotion of the new film, though the 1996 content remained available as a separate landing page.

Sequel

A sequel to Space Jam was planned as early as 1996. As development began, Space Jam 2 was going to involve a new basketball competition with Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes against a new alien villain named Berserk-O!. Artist Bob Camp was tasked with designing Berserk-O! and his two henchmen. Joe Pytka would have returned to direct while Cervone and his creative partner Spike Brandt signed on to direct the animation sequences. However, Jordan did not agree to star in a sequel, and Warner Bros. eventually cancelled plans for Space Jam 2.

Several potential sequels, including Spy Jam with Jackie Chan—that would end up becoming the basis for Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Race Jam with Jeff Gordon, Golf Jam with Tiger Woods, and Skate Jam with Tony Hawk were all discussed, but never came to be.

In February 2014, Warner Bros. officially announced development of a sequel that would star LeBron James. In July 2015, James and his film studio, SpringHill Entertainment, signed a deal with Warner Bros. for television, film and digital content after receiving positive reviews for his role in Trainwreck. By 2016, Justin Lin signed onto the project as director, and co-screenwriter with Andrew Dodge and Alfredo Botello. By August 2018, Lin left the project, and Terence Nance was hired to direct the film. In September 2018, Ryan Coogler was announced as a producer for the film. Filming would take place in California and within a 30-mile radius of Los Angeles. Prior to production, the film received $21.8&nbsp;million in tax credits as a result of a new tax incentive program from the state.

In February 2019, after releasing the official logo with a promotional poster, Space Jam 2 was announced to be scheduled for release on July 16, 2021. Principal photography began on June 25, 2019. On July 16, 2019, it was announced Nance was leaving the project because he and "the studio/producers had different takes on the creative vision for Space Jam 2," and that Malcolm D. Lee would serve as his replacement. In May 2020, James officially revealed the title and logo of the film as Space Jam: A New Legacy. On March 4, 2021, it was confirmed that the sequel would also feature various characters in the Warner Bros. film and television archive.

Jordan was reportedly set to make a cameo in A New Legacy, as the makers teased the fans in June 2021 that "Jordan will appear in the film, but not in the way you would expect it." In fact, as shown in the film, he appeared in various pictures from his career and the Space Jam film. In a scene, Sylvester claimed to have found Jordan, but he actually found actor Michael B. Jordan, who thus made the cameo expected to be made by the former Bulls star.

After the release of A New Legacy, a third film was in talks by Lee with Dwayne Johnson involved as the lead, transitioning on the sports genre from basketball to professional wrestling.

See also

  • List of basketball films

References

Bibliography

  • Page from Warner Bros.