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Space Jam

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For other uses, see the motion picture and Space Jam (disambiguation).
Space Jam
Directed byJoe Pytka
Written byLeo Benvenuti
Steve Rudnick
Timothy Harris (screenwriter)
Produced byIvan Reitman
StarringMichael Jordan
Bugs Bunny
Wayne Knight
Bill Murray
Daffy Duck
Charles Barkley
Patrick Ewing
Shawn Bradley
Larry Johnson
Muggsy Bogues
Larry Bird
Billy West (voice)
Bob Bergen (voice)
Bill Farmer (voice)
Dee Bradley Baker (voice)
Danny DeVito (voice)
Music byJames Newton Howard
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
November 15, 1996 (USA)
Running time
87 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Budget$80,000,000 US (est.)

Space Jam is a 1996 American live-action/animated film starring Michael Jordan opposite Bugs Bunny (voiced by Billy West) and the rest of the Looney Tunes characters. It was produced by Ivan Reitman, and directed by Joe Pytka (live-action), Tony Cervone, and Bruce W. Smith (animation). This film was released to movie theatres by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment on November 15, 1996.

Other voices included Bob Bergen as Porky Pig, Tweety, Hubie and Bertie and Marvin the Martian, Bill Farmer as Sylvester and Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy and Taz. The Looney Tunes crew did not return to movie status afterwards until 2003 in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (the year that Michael Jordan retired for good). Space Jam was also converted in a pinball and a video game by Acclaim Entertainment for PC-DOS, Sega Saturn and PlayStation. The film includes Looney Tunes such as: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, Taz, Wile E. Coyote, Roadrunner, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Pepe LePew, Speedy Gonzales, Granny and Lola Bunny.

Plot

Aliens called Nerdlucks arrive on Earth to capture the Looney Tunes characters and take them back to Moron Mountain, an outer space theme park belonging to their boss, Mr. Swackhammer, voiced by Danny DeVito as the theme park is in need of a new attraction. Bugs Bunny convinces the aliens that the Looney Tunes must be allowed to defend themselves. Since the aliens are very short the Looney Tunes challenge them to a basketball game.

After viewing a reel on Basketball and finding out about the NBA, The aliens steal the talent of 5 NBA stars (Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnson and Shawn Bradley) and use it to transform themselves into the tall and muscular Monstars. Fortunately, the Monstars haven't stolen the talent of Michael Jordan because he has retired from basketball to pursue a career in baseball (and play golf) (which was a real-life event). Bugs Bunny gets Jordan to help them in their basketball game. After a hardened battle and despite taking several casualties (Bugs Bunny himself gets injured in the process) and with the timely arrival of Bill Murray, The Looney Tunes manage to win the game and their freedom. Swackhammer berates the Monstars for losing, but then they realize that since they're no longer smaller than him, they don't have to put up with his bullying anymore. They launch Swackhammer into space, and give back the stolen skills through the basketball they got it from, becoming Nerdlucks again. The Nerdlucks ask Bugs Bunny a request to stay in Looney Tune land, to which Daffy and Bugs reluctantly agree. Michael Jordan then gives back the talent where the ("bad players") touch the ball and becomes normal again. Michael Jordan then decides to return to basketball, mirroring his real-life return.

Many major and minor characters from Looney Tunes shorts make appearances in the movie, and are even joined by Lola Bunny, a female hare that acts as Bugs' love interest.

Notable cameos include Wayne Knight (as Michael's new manager, Stan), Bill Murray (as himself, but mistaken by Swackhammer in the movie for Dan Aykroyd), Jim Rome, Larry Bird and Scottie Pippen.

The movie ends after the credits with Bugs, Porky, Daffy, the Nerdlucks and Michael saying the famous quote "That's All Folks".

Reception

Space Jam had mixed critical response. Notable critic Roger Ebert gave Space Jam an enthusiastic "thumbs up," which Gene Siskel also gave the film although his zealousness was more subdued. Leonard Maltin also gave the film a positive review. Some critics compared it unfavorably to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a popular film in which cartoon characters (including The Looney Tunes) and live-action humans coexisted in the same film as well.[1] Those who liked the film praised the visual effects, which were groundbreaking at the time.

The film's soundtrack was popular and highly praised, and it served as a high point for musical artist R. Kelly, whose song "I Believe I Can Fly" became a hit after it was featured on the film's soundtrack. Other notable musical numbers appearing in the film include a cover of "Fly Like an Eagle" (by Seal), "Hit 'em High (The Monstars' Anthem)" (by B-Real, Coolio, Method Man, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes), and "For You I Will" (by Monica). The movie's theme song was performed by the Quad City DJ's.

Further information: Space Jam (soundtrack)

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Box Office

Despite mixed reviews, Space Jam was a box office success. In its opening weekend, it grossed US$27,528,529 in the United States. At the end of its running, it grossed $90,418,342 in the United States and $230,418,342 worldwide.

Cast of NBA players

Aside from Michael Jordan, who plays the lead role, Space Jam contains a liberal amount of NBA players and coaches appearances. Retired NBA great Larry Bird plays golf with Jordan, and when the Monstars steal the NBA players' skills, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks Patrick Ewing and the Suns Charles Barkley to make hilarious in-game mistakes. In these scenes, also the Knicks Charles Oakley and Derek Harper and the Suns A.C. Green, Danny Ainge and Paul Westphal (coach) are seen.

Later in the film, Ewing and Barkley are joined by the now also Larry Johnson, Muggsy Bogues (the smallest player in NBA history) and Shawn Bradley (at 7-6, one of the tallest). Also, when the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to avoid playing basketball in fear of getting infected, Lakers Vlade Divac, Cedric Ceballos, Anthony Miller, and coach Del Harris make a short cameo. Similar short appearances are also made by NBA players Jeff Malone, Alonzo Mourning and Sharone Wright and TV commentators Jim Rome and Ahmad Rashad.

In addition, the NBA players make several insider jokes. When Barkley prays to God to give him back his skill, he swears to stop his trash talk and no longer have affairs with Madonna, sending up his image as a tough trash talker and in reference to his own real life affair with the singer. Also, Bradley contemplates becoming a missionary once again, again in reference to his own experiences as a Mormon missionary.

Actor cast

Voice actors

Awards and nominations

  • 1997 Annie Awards
    • Winner: 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)

Notes

  • The orange Monstar tells Jordan, "You heard of the Dream Team? Well we're the mean team!" Jordan and two players robbed of their talents in the film, Barkley and Ewing, were all members of the Olympic gold medal-winning 1992 United States team (Better Known as the Dream Team).
  • Daffy tells Bugs that they should name their basketball team with Jordan "the Ducks". Bugs replies with this potshot at WB rival Disney: "What kind of Mickey Mouse organization would call a team 'The Ducks'?" - a reference to Disney's The Mighty Ducks (who were also a real team known as "The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim"), as well as Wayne Gretzky's comments concerning the New Jersey Devils in the 1980s.
  • Dan Castellaneta and Patricia Heaton make a cameo as Wife and Husband Fans at the New York game.
  • This film is Lola Bunny's debut.
  • One scene references Pulp Fiction, with Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam dressed as killers and "Misirlou" in the background.
  • The movie was inspired by Nike commercial which premiered during Super Bowl XXVI featuring Michael and Bugs against Marvin and another alien, and won the 1992 USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter survey. Another shoe commercial is referenced when Larry Johnson says that his grandmother can play better than him (he played his grandmother in an ad for Converse).
  • When sending Bugs and Daffy to pick up his basketball gear, Michael Jordan tells them that he wore his North Carolina basketball shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform in every game he played. Jordan really did do this, as a good luck charm.
  • Bugs and the other Looney Tunes are shown to reside in Looney Tune Land, a realm located beneath Earth's surface. Only two known portals to Looney Tune Land exist, one lying beneath a Piggly Wiggly parking lot in suburban Birmingham, Alabama (also the home of Michael Jordan's minor-league baseball team the Birmingham Barons), the other accessible from a tunnel beneath an unspecified hole on a golf course in the Birmingham metropolitan area. Each portal consists of a membranous elastomer imprinted with the Warner Bros. studio shield (anywhere from 20-50 feet in diameter). The portal can be stretched and punctured by a projectile, admitting persons or vehicles into the skies of Looney Tune Land.
  • The song that Foghorn Leghorn was singing on the basketball court (oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton...) was "Dixie".
  • This was the first live-action/animated film ever to be based on various classic Warner Bros. animated cartoons.
  • A portrait of Bosko can be seen on the wall when Yosemite Sam remarks, "We ain't-a goin' nowheres!"
  • At one point, the Looney Tunes can be seen exercising while watching a Richard Simmons tape.
  • The character Stan makes this quote: "C'mon, Michael, it's game time. Get your Hanes on, lace up your Nikes, grab your Wheaties and your Gatorade, and we'll pick up a Big Mac on the way to the ballpark", humorizing Jordan's sports product brand endorsement.[2]
  • Excluding the events involving the Looney Tunes, the story loosely mirrors Jordan's real life. After the murder of his father James, Michael Jordan announced his retirement from basketball and later signed with the Birmingham Barons minor league baseball team. Soon after posting lackluster numbers with the Barons, he returned to the Chicago Bulls for 3+ more seasons before retiring from active play a second time (in 2001, he would return to the Washington Wizards for two seasons before ending his playing career for good in 2003). James Jordan's death is not referenced in the film directly, but only implied in the retirement press conference.
  • The Monstars/Nerdlucks' names are Pound (colored orange, acquired Charles Barkley's talent), Bang (colored green, acquired Patrick Ewing's talent), Nawt (colored red, acquired Tyrone 'Muggsy' Bogues' talent), Bupkus (colored purple, acquired Shawn Bradley's talent) and Blanko (colored blue, acquired Larry Johnson's talent). Along with the word "Nerdluck", none of their names are given, although they are named on merchandise and the Space Jam video game. A possible explanation might be that the Looney Tunes were originally opposing Marvin the Martian (as the commercials which inspired the film were about, in the film itself he appears as the referee), but some last minute changes were made due to the fact it was coming to the multiplex at the same time as Mars Attacks!
  • While Michael Jordan is playing golf Bugs Bunny used a magnet to lure the golf ball into the hole, this is a reference in "Bugsy and Mugsy".
  • When Bill Murray arrives at the game near the end of the movie to help Jordan and the Looney Tunes, he is mistaken for Dan Aykroyd by Mr Swackhammer. Shortly after, Daffy asks Murray about how he arrived, to which Murray replies how he's a friend of the producer and was dropped off. Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd both starred in the popular Ghostbusters franchise of the 80s that Ivan Reitman produced.
  • The spaceship that Michael Jordan exits at the end of the film closely resembles a green version of the spaceship from the film "Earth Girls Are Easy" complete with car headlights and grill in the front and porthole windows along the side.
  • When the official novelization of the movie was released, it contained some differences from the film, omitting Bill Murray's role. Instead, the Road Runner became the fifth player after Stan was flattened and scored the penultimate goal of the game.
  • This is the third time Road Runner is actually injured, albeit by the Monstars rather than Wile E. Coyote (the first was in a Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs, as a stand-in for Road Runner, mentions he 'sprained the old giblet' and the second in the Tiny Toon Adventures movie).
  • The plot of the movie is used as backstory to the freeware PC game Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. The basketball in which Barkley and the other players were trapped is used as a plot device, Michael Jordan's past in Space Jam is mentioned several times, as are the Looney Tunes. The Monstars appear in the closing sequence, apparently evil once again.
  • Some animation of the Looney Tunes characters from the film would be used in Kids' WB! commercial bumpers and promos from 1997 to 2000.

References

Notes

  1. ^ "Movie Reviews: Space Jam". Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
  2. ^ Memorable quotes from Space Jam at the Internet Movie Databse
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