Everybody get up. It’s time to slam now.
Inspired by Nike’s early-90s Super Bowl commercials starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny, the 1996 live-action/animation hybrid Space Jam is perhaps the strangest crossover of the decade. Jordan retires from the NBA and pursues a disappointing baseball career. Meanwhile, across the Solar System, the evil Mr. Swackhammer (voiced by Danny DeVito) plots to steal the Looney Tunes characters for his Moron Mountain amusement park. He sends his shrimpy alien henchmen the Nerdlucks after the toons. Bugs Bunny (voiced by Billy West) convinces their diminutive attempted-kidnappers to let them fight for their freedom. The toons challenge the aliens to a basketball game, thinking it’ll be easy to beat such tiny opponents. But the aliens infiltrate the NBA and trap the talent of the league’s best players inside a basketball, leaving them useless on the court while turning the Nerdlucks into the hulking Monstars. With their lives at stake, the toons pull Michael Jordan into their universe and persuade him to help them beat the Monstars in the galaxy’s craziest basketball game.
Though the plot is convoluted and definitely ridiculous, it’s impressive how well Space Jam weaves Jordan’s real-life NBA/baseball timeline into its narrative. The writers clearly tried to craft a good story. Unfortunately, despite the story’s potential, the execution is as bad as Jordan’s management of the Charlotte Hornets.
Perhaps the biggest of Space Jam’s many problems is the film’s handling of Michael Jordan. Yes, Jordan is probably the greatest basketball player of the modern era and an inspiration to millions. But he’s still a fallible person. The film doesn’t treat him that way. He is an underdeveloped character whose only flaw seems to be that he’s mediocre at baseball. In everything else, he is boringly perfect. As a result, the movie functions better as a Michael Jordan advertisement than a narrative.
Its technical issues make matters worse. The 2D animation has ugly shading and an overall cheap appearance. Throughout, the editing is awkward, obnoxious, and occasionally incompetent. There are pointless establishing shots mid-scene, near-incoherent sequences, and senseless transitions. Even the opening montage is a nightmare of choppy cuts and seizure-inducing graphics. The cinematography and framing further restrain the film. It’s uniformly claustrophobic, overstuffed with unnecessary close-up shots of the characters, especially the toons.
Space Jam is also an annoying, unfunny movie. The toons don’t provide much more than catchphrases and wisecracks. Every gag falls flat, especially the truly hideous CGI gags. One baffling moment includes a Pulp Fiction reference. Characters deliver not-so-subtle jabs at Disney and corporate greed — ironic considering the film itself is practically an advertisement. And there are lots of lame butt jokes, many of which come in the third act, as if the writers ran out of ideas.
Given Space Jam’s longevity in popular culture, it shouldn’t be this terrible. Just watch a Looney Tunes short or Michael Jordan highlight reel instead. This film tries to combine both, but the result is as unappealing as the Air Jordan 15.
