Space Jam: A New Legacy

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The year was 1996, I was in grade 9, and some friends and I arranged to check out the original 'Space Jam'. For whatever reason, be it the Tune Squad or my appreciation for basketball at the time, I dug it. I was a bit of an odd one out on it, but being 14 at the time, there was still that sliver of childhood hanging on and I tend to classify 'Space Jam' nowadays as a sort of time capsule for myself. While it's not nearly as good as I remember it, it's still a guilty pleasure. Naturally, I had to check out 'A New Legacy' and compare notes.

I have since faded away from basketball to the point that I can't really name anyone on any teams. I was never really a sports guy, but for a short time in my youth, basketball was an exception and 'Space Jam' managed to be that last little bit of fandom I had for the sport. Now that we have LeBron James in the Michael Jordan role, it's a bit harder for me to really care. Nothing against the man, I'm just so out of touch I know him by name only. However, since he was animated for so much of the time he spends with the Tunes, it does make for a better performance than Jordan gave. Animating him was actually a clever idea for this time around.

The film opens similarly to the original, portraying a young LeBron going after his dreams, and the credits open over a montage of his career, leading up to his life as a parent athlete. He wants his sons, Darius (Ceyair J Wright) and Dom (Cedric Joe) to follow in his footsteps, but Dom would rather do some programming, and dreams of developing video games. The family is invited to Warner Bros. studio to discuss a potential film deal, and the idea is presented by a secretly self-aware A.I. named Al G. Rhythm (Don Cheadle). The A.I. impresses Dom, and he expresses an interest in a future with Warner Bros. But LeBron puts his foot down on him keeping up with basketball, as he's got such talent.

This argument eventually leads to the basement where Al G Rhythm zaps LeBron and Dom into the Warner Bros. super computer. As Rhythm kidnaps Dom in a very 'Hook'-like way (he tries to take Dom under his wing and turn him on his father), LeBron is sent into Looney Tunes world, where only Bugs (Jeff Bergman) exists. Before he's cast to Looney Tunes world, however, LeBron is ordered by Rhythm to assemble a Warner Bros.-based basketball team. I guess Rhythm's motive is more attention, so he wants to create an event to broadcast to the world. Anyway, long story short, Bugs and LeBron assemble the Looney Tunes team, including Lola (Zendaya) by visiting different Warner Bros. properties. This is where the marketing really takes off, and things become a giant ad for HBO Max.

I will admit, however, that sometimes the properties Bugs and LeBron visit stand out. For me, particularly, I really liked the style of the DC Comic world they find Lola in, stylized like a moving comic. Finding Granny and Speedy in Matrix world, however, was a touch cringe worthy, as the bullet time gag is insanely dated at this point. There's also a few things here you just wouldn't expect to find in a movie aimed mainly at kids, like 'Game of Thrones' references and Rick and Morty showing up out of nowhere - and they have dialogue! I loved the cameo, but it didn't feel like it made a whole lot of sense. However, it's not like the first film was without such things, like a 'Pulp Fiction' reference. So for myself, that's all forgivable. We should also figure that a good chunk of this is aimed at us in our 30s who liked the original when it came out.

As the movie goes on, it goes full 'Ready Player One' by bringing in an audience of Warner Bros. characters - everyone from Batman to Pennywise. It's fun to go around the background of this basketball game and see who you can find, but many stick out more than others. The Tune humour is pretty much what we expect, and I did enjoy the stylistic choices they used during the game, making it a replica of Dom's game he's been developing. I think ultimately this felt a bit deeper (and I use that term loosely) than the original, focusing on the family aspect and giving LeBron real motivation to win. For Jordan it was really just him helping the Tunes not get enslaved while the family aspect was really pushed to the side, and there to be cutesy.

I can't really deny that I had a fun time with it, but it's having fun on a pretty mild level. Despite its style, there wasn't a whole lot that truly stood out here (other than maybe giving Lola more of a personality), and I'd probably rate the original and this at the same level, but for different reasons. I might consider 'New Legacy' just a touch better, if only because being inside a supercomputer full of Warner Bros. characters makes more sense than.... they just live somewhere under the Earth. I think as long as you realize what it is you're in for, this could be just like the first one - a guilty pleasure, complete with extremely cringe-worthy Porky Pig rap scene for no reason. So it's pretty dumb altogether, but you could still have fun with it in the right frame of mind - just like the original.

3/5

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