I've been wondering why I've seen so many people love and hate Space Jam. I watched this movie (again) just to see what is going on with the whole controversy here.
So before I break this movie down, I want to talk about some previous media between Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes gang. Looney Tunes have been known for their hilarious golden age cartoons since 1930 with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Wil E Coyote, Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, Tweety, Granny, Marvin, Pepé Lepew, Speedy Gonzales, Taz, and several more here and there. They are basically the start of classic cartoon gags and humor along with Walt Disney's original cartoons. Looney Tunes never had an actual "movie" until this came out. After all the golden age Looney Tunes cartoons ending around the 60s, they made several anthology television shows putting all the classic cartoons together for television reruns like The Bugs Bunny Show, The Sylvester and Tweety Show, The Bugs and Daffy Show, and like so much more as the years continued replaying these cartoons every day on the television networks. And personally that worked well. But then by the late 70s they started making Looney Tunes movies but unfortunately they were not movies. They were just anthology films that were theatrically released where the people at Warner Bros recycle certain Looney Tunes cartoons into a full feature length film with very little newly animated footage. And I personally didn't see the point of those even for its time knowing all those cartoons were already reruns on television for the past 20+ years. But anyway, by the early 90s there were a few expensively animated commercials of Looney Tunes with Michael Jordan advertising the new Jordan shoes everyone loved back then, and even to this day if I'm not wrong. So because the commercials were so popular, Warner Bros for some reason decided to make it a whole movie and with the Looney Tunes all together in full movie footage.
This is basically the Looney Tunes movie, but not exactly "Looney Tunes" in every second of the production. It's also about Michael Jordan and his basketball career. This movie's plot is simply Michael Jordan decides to retire from basketball and to continue his sports career playing baseball like his dad wanted. Meanwhile in outer space there's a planet where the monstars live who are losing business at their fair and find out about the Looney Tunes who can take over. They steal Michael's friend's powers and hold the Looney Tunes hostage to make them their slaves for entertainment and decide to compete in a basketball game to make them go or not. Because they can't play basketball very well, they find Michael Jordan and bring him to their universe from the center of earth. They all come together and practice while Bill Murray and Stan search for him back in "3D land". Eventually they go to the basketball tournament to make their final play-off between the Monstars and the Toon Squad. And then at the end with enough heart for the game, the Toon Squad wins and defeats the monstars and give back Jordan's friend's sports strength. Jordan then returns back to his world at the baseball game with the heart he needed from basketball.
So my thoughts on the plot personally can understand why this is loved and hated. Personally to me, it's okay. Not very good but not very bad either. The story is definitely weird. But what keeps the story from being hated by everybody is the fact that this movie does provide some of the Looney Tunes humor and that it also has a simply good message even if you're not a fan of basketball. And for any people who like both, sports and Looney Tunes, will basically find this to be their dream movie seeing it as a crossover.
So the positives of the writing in this movie isn't much honestly but it's nothing to really get angry about. Because another thing, a Looney Tunes movie is kind of impossible to pull off (which probably explains the 5-6 anthology movies they made beforehand). There really wasn't much at all to work with in the making of this film in the whole process of writing. Looney Tunes were mainly known for their classic cartoonish humor for the simplest jokes that can be produced over and over. And every cartoon focused on usually one to five characters at the most. So when making a theatrical movie that's actually a "movie", all the writers were forced to include every single Looney Tunes character (including the side characters you wouldn't see very often) into an hour and a half running time in some kind of movie story. But of course, they also decided to include the plot with Michael Jordan which I admit is a lot less necessary when it could've just been a movie about an adventure with only the Looney Tunes in their own universe. So yeah, the idea of this movie is definitely unnecessary. This is basically what started all the live-action animation hybrid films that don't do well with the live-action, but it has some executions. As I said, most of the Looney Tunes characters are still in character and have their cartoonish moments, the monstars actually aren't so bad for this movie, the final scene goes on for a while but it gives some pleasure to how Looney the Looney Tunes really are to win in a basketball tournament, and there is a message basically saying that you are capable of doing anything if you try and to not give up. I think the message works well enough especially for kids who watch this movie. The one thing I really didn't understand however was the fact the Looney Tunes universe was literally at the center of the earth, like didn't Who Framed Roger Rabbit explain a place called ToonTown? And of course Lola Bunny basically being the new Looney Tunes character that originally wasn't supposed to appear in any future media after this movie if I'm correct. Lola Bunny is alright here, I'm not a weirdo like many viewers that think she's so "hot" or whatever, her and Bugs are cute together, and that's all that matters.
Now let's talk about the animation. If you don't know this of course the second live-action animation hybrid feature film off of Warner Bros characters, the first was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But here, I actually was surprised at how well animated everything is. The animation is super-theatrically done here and actually improves the animation from Roger Rabbit with more 3D shading and effects like never before! The backgrounds in the Looney Tunes world look so 3D with all the characters. The monstars planet was made in CGI with all the monstars characters in hand-drawn form and it actually feels like the highest animation budget from the 90s all together! The animators definitely deserve credit, the Looney Tunes are captured very bouncy and cartoony everywhere they are in the most mind-blowing animation I've ever seen honestly. For the 90s this animation is actually quite remarkable.
Now for all the acting in this movie. So first of all, the entire voice cast of the Looney Tunes and the monstars are all on-point. I was surprised Jeff Bergman wasn't here to do Bugs however, instead we had Billy West. But he actually sounds pretty good for the role! Dee Bradley Baker also voiced Daffy surprisingly and Kath Soucie was the voice of Lola Bunny. So anyway, now for the live-action actors, this like many others, I wasn't a fan of at all. Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, and Wayne Knight are okay at acting, I actually like how Michael Jordan is normally chill even when he meets cartoons for the first time because I mean, he's Michael Jordan guys. They didn't need much more out of him. The rest of the cast other than the boy who played 10-year old Michael from 23 years earlier don't do very good here. I felt like mostly Michael's friends and even his kids in this movie didn't really know what they were doing. Why aren't his kids excited when they meet Bugs and Daffy in the middle of the night? And also why is Bill and Stan not freaked out by the fact Michael was sucked into the golf hole? And why is everyone else in this movie feel so boring? I mean I basically ignored a bit of the live-action scenes with Michael's friends doing stuff but the acting definitely could've been worked on with them. There's even a dog in this movie that's lowkey green-screened for some reason. I don't know why. But I guess everyone in this movie is just too aware that the cartoon characters have been living underground and are very used to them like it wasn't the first time they've met them before.
The soundtrack is actually fun, we get a whole soundtrack that executes the movie's score with exciting songs like "I Believe I Can Fly" "Fly Like An Eagle" and even the Space Jam theme provided in the beginning made this feel a lot more fun and well executed in a strange way. And I really love Seal's cover of Fly Like An Eagle it sounds like a 90's update of the original by Steve Miller Band.
So I figured out the whole controversy, some fans say that it's basically not very Looney being just a complete overhyped cashgrab, and some say that it's a childhood gem. In my opinion, Space Jam is a strange and very imperfect movie with Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes, but it's not as bad as many critics have said it is. Just note that it's atleast a Looney Tunes movie that has not-so-good acting, a strange sports crossover, and not your average Looney Tunes feature length adventure, but it also isn't just stitching recycled Looney Tunes together that we've seen so many times, it's even providing some interesting humor, and some groundbreakingly fluid animation you'll probably never see again. And if you like basketball, then this movie is even better for you.
So before I break this movie down, I want to talk about some previous media between Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes gang. Looney Tunes have been known for their hilarious golden age cartoons since 1930 with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Wil E Coyote, Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, Tweety, Granny, Marvin, Pepé Lepew, Speedy Gonzales, Taz, and several more here and there. They are basically the start of classic cartoon gags and humor along with Walt Disney's original cartoons. Looney Tunes never had an actual "movie" until this came out. After all the golden age Looney Tunes cartoons ending around the 60s, they made several anthology television shows putting all the classic cartoons together for television reruns like The Bugs Bunny Show, The Sylvester and Tweety Show, The Bugs and Daffy Show, and like so much more as the years continued replaying these cartoons every day on the television networks. And personally that worked well. But then by the late 70s they started making Looney Tunes movies but unfortunately they were not movies. They were just anthology films that were theatrically released where the people at Warner Bros recycle certain Looney Tunes cartoons into a full feature length film with very little newly animated footage. And I personally didn't see the point of those even for its time knowing all those cartoons were already reruns on television for the past 20+ years. But anyway, by the early 90s there were a few expensively animated commercials of Looney Tunes with Michael Jordan advertising the new Jordan shoes everyone loved back then, and even to this day if I'm not wrong. So because the commercials were so popular, Warner Bros for some reason decided to make it a whole movie and with the Looney Tunes all together in full movie footage.
This is basically the Looney Tunes movie, but not exactly "Looney Tunes" in every second of the production. It's also about Michael Jordan and his basketball career. This movie's plot is simply Michael Jordan decides to retire from basketball and to continue his sports career playing baseball like his dad wanted. Meanwhile in outer space there's a planet where the monstars live who are losing business at their fair and find out about the Looney Tunes who can take over. They steal Michael's friend's powers and hold the Looney Tunes hostage to make them their slaves for entertainment and decide to compete in a basketball game to make them go or not. Because they can't play basketball very well, they find Michael Jordan and bring him to their universe from the center of earth. They all come together and practice while Bill Murray and Stan search for him back in "3D land". Eventually they go to the basketball tournament to make their final play-off between the Monstars and the Toon Squad. And then at the end with enough heart for the game, the Toon Squad wins and defeats the monstars and give back Jordan's friend's sports strength. Jordan then returns back to his world at the baseball game with the heart he needed from basketball.
So my thoughts on the plot personally can understand why this is loved and hated. Personally to me, it's okay. Not very good but not very bad either. The story is definitely weird. But what keeps the story from being hated by everybody is the fact that this movie does provide some of the Looney Tunes humor and that it also has a simply good message even if you're not a fan of basketball. And for any people who like both, sports and Looney Tunes, will basically find this to be their dream movie seeing it as a crossover.
So the positives of the writing in this movie isn't much honestly but it's nothing to really get angry about. Because another thing, a Looney Tunes movie is kind of impossible to pull off (which probably explains the 5-6 anthology movies they made beforehand). There really wasn't much at all to work with in the making of this film in the whole process of writing. Looney Tunes were mainly known for their classic cartoonish humor for the simplest jokes that can be produced over and over. And every cartoon focused on usually one to five characters at the most. So when making a theatrical movie that's actually a "movie", all the writers were forced to include every single Looney Tunes character (including the side characters you wouldn't see very often) into an hour and a half running time in some kind of movie story. But of course, they also decided to include the plot with Michael Jordan which I admit is a lot less necessary when it could've just been a movie about an adventure with only the Looney Tunes in their own universe. So yeah, the idea of this movie is definitely unnecessary. This is basically what started all the live-action animation hybrid films that don't do well with the live-action, but it has some executions. As I said, most of the Looney Tunes characters are still in character and have their cartoonish moments, the monstars actually aren't so bad for this movie, the final scene goes on for a while but it gives some pleasure to how Looney the Looney Tunes really are to win in a basketball tournament, and there is a message basically saying that you are capable of doing anything if you try and to not give up. I think the message works well enough especially for kids who watch this movie. The one thing I really didn't understand however was the fact the Looney Tunes universe was literally at the center of the earth, like didn't Who Framed Roger Rabbit explain a place called ToonTown? And of course Lola Bunny basically being the new Looney Tunes character that originally wasn't supposed to appear in any future media after this movie if I'm correct. Lola Bunny is alright here, I'm not a weirdo like many viewers that think she's so "hot" or whatever, her and Bugs are cute together, and that's all that matters.
Now let's talk about the animation. If you don't know this of course the second live-action animation hybrid feature film off of Warner Bros characters, the first was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But here, I actually was surprised at how well animated everything is. The animation is super-theatrically done here and actually improves the animation from Roger Rabbit with more 3D shading and effects like never before! The backgrounds in the Looney Tunes world look so 3D with all the characters. The monstars planet was made in CGI with all the monstars characters in hand-drawn form and it actually feels like the highest animation budget from the 90s all together! The animators definitely deserve credit, the Looney Tunes are captured very bouncy and cartoony everywhere they are in the most mind-blowing animation I've ever seen honestly. For the 90s this animation is actually quite remarkable.
Now for all the acting in this movie. So first of all, the entire voice cast of the Looney Tunes and the monstars are all on-point. I was surprised Jeff Bergman wasn't here to do Bugs however, instead we had Billy West. But he actually sounds pretty good for the role! Dee Bradley Baker also voiced Daffy surprisingly and Kath Soucie was the voice of Lola Bunny. So anyway, now for the live-action actors, this like many others, I wasn't a fan of at all. Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, and Wayne Knight are okay at acting, I actually like how Michael Jordan is normally chill even when he meets cartoons for the first time because I mean, he's Michael Jordan guys. They didn't need much more out of him. The rest of the cast other than the boy who played 10-year old Michael from 23 years earlier don't do very good here. I felt like mostly Michael's friends and even his kids in this movie didn't really know what they were doing. Why aren't his kids excited when they meet Bugs and Daffy in the middle of the night? And also why is Bill and Stan not freaked out by the fact Michael was sucked into the golf hole? And why is everyone else in this movie feel so boring? I mean I basically ignored a bit of the live-action scenes with Michael's friends doing stuff but the acting definitely could've been worked on with them. There's even a dog in this movie that's lowkey green-screened for some reason. I don't know why. But I guess everyone in this movie is just too aware that the cartoon characters have been living underground and are very used to them like it wasn't the first time they've met them before.
The soundtrack is actually fun, we get a whole soundtrack that executes the movie's score with exciting songs like "I Believe I Can Fly" "Fly Like An Eagle" and even the Space Jam theme provided in the beginning made this feel a lot more fun and well executed in a strange way. And I really love Seal's cover of Fly Like An Eagle it sounds like a 90's update of the original by Steve Miller Band.
So I figured out the whole controversy, some fans say that it's basically not very Looney being just a complete overhyped cashgrab, and some say that it's a childhood gem. In my opinion, Space Jam is a strange and very imperfect movie with Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes, but it's not as bad as many critics have said it is. Just note that it's atleast a Looney Tunes movie that has not-so-good acting, a strange sports crossover, and not your average Looney Tunes feature length adventure, but it also isn't just stitching recycled Looney Tunes together that we've seen so many times, it's even providing some interesting humor, and some groundbreakingly fluid animation you'll probably never see again. And if you like basketball, then this movie is even better for you.