Now that the NBA finals are over we can finally focus on the basketball game that really matters: Bugs Bunny’s return to the court in Space Jam: A New Legacy. Look, we love the original Space Jam at ScreenLife but we have to acknowledge that some of that is due to nostalgia. The effects didn’t hold up even when it was brand new and Michael Jordan was not a good actor in hindsight but damned if it isn’t one of the most outright fun family flicks to come out of the nineties. I’m happy to report that the LeBron James-starring sequel is as solid as its predecessor; a ton of basketball and Looney Tunes fun that gets lost in Warner Bros brand promotion at times but always corrects course to deliver a good message and endless entertainment.
The set-up is largely the same as the first film. When LeBron and his son Dom (Cedric Joe) visit the Warner Bros studios to hear a pitch for their new state-of-the-art streaming service (cue the meta groans), they are sucked into the service itself, known as the Serververse, by the cleverly named Al G. Rhythm (Don Cheadle), the digital world’s AI designer. Rhythm is infuriated that LeBron has shot down his breakthrough idea and, in a completely unexpected twist, challenges King James to a game of basketball to save Dom and himself from permanent imprisonment in the Serververse. Playing off the rising tensions between father and son about Dom’s choice to forego basketball in order to pursue game design, Rhythm shoots LeBron off into the program whilst he coerces Dom into playing for his computer generated team. Lost in the void, LeBron must assemble the only team willing to assist him in winning the big game and saving his son: the Bugs Bunny (Jeff Bergman) led Tune Squad.
Look it’s not going to win any awards for writing and the opening 25 minutes do get a bit heavy with the expositional dialogue, but once LeBron links up with Bugs the film finds its groove, zooming through zany, slapstick situations as the pair travel to the worlds of assorted Warner Bros’ franchises to collect the scattered Tunes. You can be cynical and choose to view this as hollow brand promotion, and honestly it does feel like an ad for HBO Max at times – I mean who has let their kids see Mad Max: Fury Road? – but to do that would be to deny the fact that these scenes are just so much fun. Seeing Road Runner keep pace with spike covered, flame belching vehicles in a post-apocalyptic wasteland while Wile E. Coyote launches himself at him from an oil tanker is so ridiculous that it feels right at home within the world of the Looney Tunes pop-culture skewering comedy.
Visits to the worlds of Austin Powers, Game of Thrones, The Matrix and DC won’t necessarily do much for younger viewers, but do provide some entertainment for parents where most of the jokes in the film skew towards a younger audience. Throw in some appearances from Rick and Morty and a sideline crowd of just about every Warner Bros character in existence from Pennywise the Clown to the Night King and you’ve got a film that is clearly aimed at providing a fun experience for the people that grew up with the original, as well as the newer generation that know LeBron James as their basketball hero. It’s hard to be too critical of something with such a simple and positive a goal, even if it wouldn’t have been made had it not boosted every other Warner Bros property in the process.
As for James, well he’s not an actor and he knows it, acknowledging that when athletes turn to the silver screen “it never goes well”. That seems a bit harsh considering his stellar comedic turn in Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck but the challenge of dealing with so much green screen and the lack of real acting partners outside of Joe and and Cheadle shows in LeBron’s performance. His delivery is rather wooden throughout and the surprised face he employs so often isn’t as versatile as he thinks. Even if neither of them will enter the conversation for acting GOAT anytime soon, the performance is a step up from Michael Jordan’s. What saves James is how willing he is to poke fun at himself and his image, happily playing an overprotective, downright mean father at the start of the film if it means that his character can have an arc and the film can deliver its “hard work is always better than taking shortcuts” message. That is something that Michael Jordan was never willing to do, starting the original film a perfect person and ending it without any change.
The real standout is, unsurprisingly, Bug Bunny, who feels like he’s been missing from screens for far longer than he has. His madcap energy keeps the film going like LeBron driving towards the basket and he never allows for things to get boring, regardless of whether he’s pranking Daffy or delivering a heartfelt speech. The other Looney Tunes all get their moments to shine – particularly Daffy and the Zendaya-voiced Lola Bunny – and the animation is always top-notch, even if the writing isn’t as sharp as the series’ heydays. The film may lose steam when we cut back to Cheadle’s villain and his manipulation of Dom but this is necessary to build towards the final emotional beats.
Rather than raising the bar with the sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy changes the game just enough to remain fresh and original. LeBron’s trip to Toon World is less about capturing a time capsule of his fame like the original did for MJ than it is about entertaining the audience with one hell of a basketball game surrounded by properties they know and love. That might put some viewers off instantly, seen as a hollow cash-grab, but if you keep an open-mind and enjoy it for what it is: an overblown, zany Looney Tunes adventure with NBA stars and a whole mess of other famous characters; then you will likely have a (basket)ball, I know I did. Looks like Bugs Bunny is joining LeBron as a back-to-back champion.
Space Jam: A New Legacy stars LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Cedric Joe, Sue Bird, Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Nneka Ogwumike, Damian Lillard, Lil Rel Howery, Khris Davis, Sonequa Martin-Green, Ceyair J Wright, Harper Leigh Alexander, Ernie Johnson, Steven Yeun, Sarah Silverman & Zendaya – In cinemas now and streaming on HBO Max in the US.