Space Jam

This article is about the motion picture. For other uses, see Space Jam (disambiguation).

Space Jam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joe Pytka
Written by	Leo Benvenuti Steve Rudnick Timothy Harris Herschel Weingrod
Produced by	Ivan Reitman Joe Medjuck Daniel Goldberg
Starring	Michael Jordan Wayne Knight Theresa Randle Danny DeVito (voice)
Cinematography	Michael Chapman
Edited by	Sheldon Kahn
Music by	James Newton Howard
Production companies	Northern Lights Entertainment Courtside Seats Productions Warner Bros. Animation
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Family Entertainment
Release date	November 15, 1996 (1996-11-15)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$80 million
Box office	$230,418,342

Space Jam is a 1996 American family live-action/animated sports comedy film starring Michael Jordan and featuring the Looney Tunes characters. The film was produced by Ivan Reitman, and directed by Joe Pytka, with Tony Cervone and Bruce W. Smith directing the animation.

A fictional account of Jordan's first retirement from the NBA, the film was released theatrically by Warner Bros. under the Family Entertainment brand label on November 15, 1996. It plays out as an alternate story of Jordan's initial return to basketball, this time with him being inspired by Bugs Bunny and friends. Despite mixed reviews from critics, Space Jam was a box office success, opening at #1 in the US and grossing over $230 million worldwide.

Plot

In 1993, professional basketball player Michael Jordan announces his retirement from the NBA to follow in his father's footsteps and turns to a career in baseball. Despite his popularity, Michael's talent for baseball is nowhere near his talent for basketball. Meanwhile the Nerdlucks, a group of criminal aliens led by their boss Mister Swackhammer (voiced by Danny DeVito), plot to capture the Looney Tunes, who really exist in a secret animated world called Looney Tune Land (hidden at the center of the Earth), and make them their newest attractions at Moron Mountain, a failing amusement park. Swackhammer believes enslaving the Tunes in this way will bring in more customers and save Moron Mountain from foreclosure.

They arrive in Tune Land, and since the aliens aren't very intelligent or tall, the Tunes bargain for their freedom by challenging the Nerdlucks to a basketball game. To ensure their victory, the Nerdlucks return to Earth and steal the talent of Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Charles Barkley, Muggsy Bogues, and Shawn Bradley, who are rendered incapable of playing basketball as a result. The Nerdlucks use the stolen talent to transform into gigantic creatures—now called the Monstars—that the Looney Tunes are unable to defeat.

To help them win, the Tunes choose, abduct and recruit Michael to help them play, and Michael reluctantly agrees to help after the Monstars squash him into the shape of a basketball and bounce him around like one. A new arrival named Lola Bunny is added to the team thanks to her talent. Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny go to Michael's house to collect what he needs to play, barely dodging his family dog Charles. Michael's publicist Stan (Wayne Knight) sees Bugs and Daffy return to Tune Land and follows them, and stays to support Michael, whose team will be called the Tune Squad.

Back on Earth, the sudden inability to play basketball inflicting on five top NBA players, captures the attention of the media, and the rest of the NBA, as more and more NBA teams refuse to take the court, fearing the same phenomena will attack them. The five NBA players themselves, go through a series of physical, medical, psychological and spiritual tests to figure out why they have no talent anymore, to no avail. Eventually all NBA stadiums are quarantined and the season is declared officially over until further notice.

Back in Looney Tune land, the two teams take the court. Despite Michael's leadership, the Monstars dominate the first half of the game. Stan sneaks into the Monstars' locker room and overhears them talking about how they stole the talent from the NBA players, but he is detected despite hiding in a locker and scorched as a result. Stan then informs Michael and the Tune Squad that the Monstars stole the talent from the NBA players. Bugs then motivates the team with a "special drink", and the Monstars' commanding lead is reduced to a significantly smaller margin. Seeing Swackhammer angry that the Monstars did not steal Michael's talent, Michael takes the chance to raise the stakes. If the Tune Squad wins, the Monstars must give the NBA players their talent back, but if they lose, then Swackhammer is to spare the Looney Tunes in exchange for Michael. He readily accepts it and Bugs tries to talk him out of it, all the while being aware of what it means if Michael is subjected to humiliation on Moron Mountain for all time.

As the game resumes, the Monstars, under orders from Swackhammer, begin playing even dirtier than before. As a result, the Looney Tunes are injured, one by one, until only Michael, Bugs, Lola and Daffy are left, leaving them short one player. Reluctantly, Michael puts Stan in the game, and though he is quickly taken out of action, the Monstars' lead is now down to one. Marvin The Martian, who is the referee, tells them that if there is no fifth player, the team will forfeit the game. At the last second, Bill Murray, who had played golf with Michael earlier in the film, appears in the stadium and joins the team, breaking the fourth wall along the way.

With only seconds left, Bill pulls some clever manueuvering and gets the ball to Michael. Extending his arm to superhuman lengths (since the laws of physics work differently in Tune Land), Michael makes the basket and wins the game. Although Bill has always dreamed of being an NBA player, and Michael is impressed with his skills, Bill decides to retire from basketball forever. Michael then helps the Monstars realize that they're bigger than Mister Swackhammer, who confronts them for losing. Fed up with their abusive boss, the Monstars tie him up to a rocket and send him to the moon. At Michael's request, they reluctantly return the stolen talent to the other players by transferring them to a basketball, which is how they stored the stolen talent earlier in the film. This reverts the Monstars back to the tiny Nerdlucks. Refusing to return to Moron Mountain, the Nerdlucks decide to stay with the Looney Tunes, who only agree if the Nerdlucks can prove themselves to be 'Looney', which they arguably complete on the spot.

Afterwards, Michael and Stan returns to Earth in the Nerdlucks' spaceship, where Michael makes a dramatic appearance by Stan at a baseball game to the cheers of the audience, despite being late. The next day, Michael and Stan gives the stolen talent back to the NBA players, who immediately regain their lost skills. Michael is later prompted by his rivals to return to the NBA, mirroring his real-life comeback with the Chicago Bulls.

Cast

Live Action-Cast

• Michael Jordan as as himself, a professional basketball player who retires from the NBA to pursue a career in baseball, which is what his father wanted him to do. He is pulled into the world of the Looney Tunes and is persuaded into playing basketball with them, despite his insistence that he only plays baseball now. He is the live-action protagonist of the film.
  • Brandon Hammond portrays Michael Jordan as a ten-year-old.
• Wayne Knight as Stan Podolak, the publicist of Michael Jordan and his family. Stan is a good-hearted guy and he is ecstatic to be working for Michael Jordan. At first, Michael Jordan finds him annoying but they become friends eventually. He joins Michael Jordan and his team to play against the Monstars.
• Theresa Randle as Juanita Jordan, Michael Jordan's supportive wife. The character is based on Jordan's real life wife at the time.
• Manner Washington as Jeffrey Jordan, Michael Jordan's oldest son.
• Eric Gordon as Marcus Jordan, Michael Jordan's youngest son.
• Penny Bae Bridges as Jasmine Jordan, Michael Jordan's daughter.
• Larry Bird as himself, one of Michael Jordan's friends and golfing partners. He crushes Bill Murray's dream of playing in the NBA.
• Bill Murray as himself, one of Michael Jordan's friends and an aspiring basketball player, though Jordan doubts his abilities. He is a self-proclaimed friend of the producer of the film, which allows him to join the Looney Tunes' team when they are short one player. Following his play with the Tune Squad, Murray impresses Jordan but decides to retire.
• Thom Barry as James Jordan, Michael Jordan's father.
• Del Harris, NBA coach, as himself
• Charles Barkley as himself, of the Phoenix Suns, who gets his talent stolen by Pound.
• Patrick Ewing as himself, of the New York Knicks, who gets his talent stolen by Bang.
• Shawn Bradley as himself, of the Philadelphia 76ers, who gets his talent stolen by Blanko.
• Larry Johnson as himself, of the Charlotte Hornets, who gets his talent stolen by Bupkus.
• Muggsy Bogues as himself, of the Charlotte Hornets, who gets his talent stolen by Nawt.

Of the five players whose talents were stolen, three of them were playing for different teams in real life by the time the film was released: Barkley was playing for the Houston Rockets, Bradley for the New Jersey Nets, and Johnson now a teammate of Ewing's on the Knicks.

Ahmad Rashad, Del Harris, Vlade Divac, Cedric Ceballos, Jim Rome, Paul Westphal and Danny Ainge appear as themselves in the film. Bebe Drake appears as a housekeeper for Michael Jordan. Dan Castellaneta and Patricia Heaton make cameo appearances as a couple that the Nerdlucks (in disguise) sit next to at a basketball game.

Voice cast

Because the movie was made after the death of Mel Blanc, the character voices he originated were performed by other actors:

• Billy West provides the voices of:
  • Bugs Bunny, a Flatbush-accented rabbit who acts as the de facto leader of the Looney Tunes and plays on their basketball team. He is the animated protagonist of the film.
  • Elmer Fudd, a big-game hunter who seeks Bugs Bunny's demise. He plays for the Looney Tunes' team
• Dee Bradley Baker provides the voices of:
  • Daffy Duck, a greedy glory-hound duck and rival of Bugs Bunny who plays for the Looney Tunes' team.
  • The Tasmanian Devil, a ravenous and crazed marsupial who plays on the Looney Tunes' team.
  • Toro, a bull that attacks the Monstar Pound during the game after Daffy paints his shorts red.
• Danny DeVito provides the voice of Mister Swackhammer, the main antagonist of the film. He is the proprietor of the theme park "Moron Mountain", for which he seeks new attractions to save his failing buisness. He acts as the coach of the Monstars, who double as his minions.
• Bob Bergen provides the voices of:
  • Hubie and Bertie, a pair of mice who act as the commentators of the game. Credited as "Herbie" and "Bert" respectively
  • Marvin the Martian, an extraterrestrial who acts as the game's referee.
  • Porky Pig, a stuttering pig who plays for the Looney Tunes' team.
  • Tweety, a small Yellow Canary who plays for the Looney Tunes' team.
• Bill Farmer provides the voices of:
  • Sylvester, a tuxedo cat who seeks to devour Tweety. He plays for the Looney Tunes' team.
  • Yosemite Sam, a short-tempered and extremely grouchy Western outlaw who plays for the Looney Tunes' team.
  • Foghorn Leghorn, a large Kentucky-accented rooster who plays for the Looney Tunes' team.
  • The Road Runner
• June Foray provides the voice of:
  • Granny, an elderly woman who acts as a cheerleader for the Looney Tunes' team.
  • Witch Hazel, a witch who acts as a cheerleader for the Looney Tunes' team.
• Maurice LaMarche provides the voice of Pepé Le Pew, a French-accented skunk who plays for the Looney Tunes' team.
• Kath Soucie provides the voice of Lola Bunny, a voluptuous female rabbit who plays for the Looney Tunes' team. She is Bug's love interest and becomes his girlfriend at the end of the film.
• Colleen Wainwright provides the voice of Sniffles. Wainright also voiced Nerdluck Nawt.
• Frank Welker provides the voice for Charles, Michael's pet bulldog who menaces both Bugs and Daffy when they are in Michael's house.

The voices of the Nerdlucks are provided by Jocelyn Blue (Pound), Charity James (Blanko), June Melby (Bang), Catherine Reitman (Bupkus) and Colleen Wainwright (Nawt); the voices of the Monstars are provided by Darnell Suttles (Pound), Steve Kehela (Blanko), Joey Camen (Bang), Dorian Harewood (Bupkus) and T.K. Carter (Nawt).

Trivia

• During their first meeting Pound (in monster form) tells Michael 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.
• 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.
• 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 are also a real team), as well as Wayne Gretzky's comments concerning the New Jersey Devils in the 1980s. This also reminds viewers of Oregon's Oregon Ducks who's mascot (The Oregon Duck) is contracted out by Disney
• Dan Castellaneta, better known as the voice of Homer Simpson, stars as the male fan who sits next to the aliens at the Basketball game. It is ironic that Castellaneta, who has won several Emmy awards for his voice work, stars in a live action role in an animated movie. His wife is played by Patricia Heaton.
• One scene references Pulp Fiction, with Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam dressed as killers and "Misirlou" in the background. This is also presumably a reference to Men In Black.
• The movie was inspired by Nike commercials featuring Michael and Bugs against Marvin and an alien. Another Nike commercial is referenced when Larry Johnson says that his grandmother can play better than him (he played his grandmother in an ad).
• When sending Bugs and Daffy to pick up his basketball gear, Michael Jordan tells them that he wore his UNC basketball shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform in every game he played. Jordan really did do this, as a good luck charm.
• The song that Foghorn Leghorn was singing on the basketball court (oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton...) was "Dixie" .
• Mr. Swackhammer, the antagonist of the movie, mistakes Bill Murray for Dan Aykroyd during the basketball game.
• This was the first live-action/animated film ever to be based on various classic Warner Bros. animated cartoons.
• Bugs Bunny talks to the camera only in the first half of the film, the rest with Michael Jordan.
• When one looks at the Monstars, one can assume that Nawt (the red one) took Muggsy Bogues's talent, Bang (the green one) took Patrick Ewing's talent, Pound (the orange one) took Charles Barkley's talent, Blanko (the blue one) took Shawn Bradley's talent and Bupkus took Larry Johnson's talent.
• Bill Murray keeps changing his mind about wanting to play in the NBA.
• A few pieces of animation made for this movie were reused in commercial bumpers on Kids' WB! in the late '90s.
• 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. Slip on your Hanes, lace up your Nikes, take your Wheaties and your Gatorade, and we'll grab a Big Mac on the way to the ballpark", humorizing Jordan's sports product brand endorsement [1]
• Excluding the events involving the Looney Tunes, the story loosely mirrors Jordan's real life. After the murder of his father, Vernon Jordan, Michael Jordan announced his retirement from basketball and later signed with the Birmingham Barons minor league baseball team. Soon after, after posting lackluster numbers with the Barons, he returned to the Chicago Bulls for one more season before retiring from active play for good. Vernon Jordan's death is not referenced in the film.
• Ironically, Eric Gordon played Marcus Jordan in a high school game between Gordon's North Central High School and Jordan's Loyola Academy. Gordon acted as Marcus Jordan in the movie.
• All the Nerdlucks have names that mean, in one way or another, zero or nothing.
• 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 one of the characters. Shortly after, Daffy asks Murray about how he arrive, to which Murray replies how he's a friend of the producer and was dropped off. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Space Jam's producer Ivan Reitman all starred together in the popular Ghostbusters franchise in the 80s.
• 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).
• This was the first time that Bugs received serious injury on multiple occasions.

Influence

After the release of Space Jam, the film became one of the most popular films for kids growing up at the time. The movie also led to a series of NBA commercials with their "I love this game!" campaign, which showed snippets of the movie and a slam dunk contest with "I Believe I Can Fly" in the background. Michael Jordan went on to continue his commercials, with a few appearances by Bugs Bunny. Lola Bunny became the mascot for the WNBA, which at the time was just emerging. Not a lot of production companies were interested in doing live action/animation movies, probably because of its big budget.

Music

Main article: Space Jam (soundtrack)

The soundtrack sold enough albums to be certified as 6x Platinum. It also served as a high point for musical artist R. Kelly, whose song "I Believe I Can Fly" not only was a hit, but earned him two Grammy Awards. Other tracks included a cover of Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle" (by Seal), "Hit 'Em High (The Monstars' Anthem)" (by B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J, and Method Man), "Basketball Jones" (by Chris Rock & Barry White), and "For You I Will" (by Monica), and "My Girl" by the Temptations. The movie's title song was performed by the Quad City DJ's.

Merchandise

Video games

There was a licensed pinball game by Sega based on the film and a video game for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Windows PC by Acclaim.

Home media

The film was released on VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc on March 11, 1997 (the VHS version was sold with a collector's coin included). On October 28, 2003 the film was released as a 2-disc special edition DVD including newly made extras such as a commentary track and a featurette. On November 6, 2007 the movie was featured as one of the films in Warner Brothers's 4-Film Favorites: Family Comedies collection DVD (The other 3 films being Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Osmosis Jones and Funky Monkey). On February 8, 2011 the first disc of the previous 2-disc edition was released by itself in a movie only edition DVD, and later that same year on October 4, 2011 the film was released for the first time in widescreen HD on Blu-ray which, save for an hour of classic Looney Tunes shorts, ported over all the extras from the 2003 2-disc edition DVD.

Toys

Toys were released coinciding with the film. such as Happy Meal Promotion, Action Figures, Stuffed Toys, etc.

Reception

Critical response

Space Jam received mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 35% based on 49 reviews.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave Space Jam a "thumbs up," which Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also gave the film, although his zeal was more subdued. Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the film for its humor. He also praised the Looney Tunes' antics and Jordan's acting. Although Janet Maslin of The New York Times criticized the film's animation, she later went on to say that the film is a "fond tribute to [the Looney Tunes characters'] past."

Veteran Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones was highly critical of the film. In a 1998 interview he said he thought the film was "terrible" and said as man who worked with the characters for almost thirty years the story was deeply flawed. "I can tell you, with the utmost confidence," he said, "Porky Pig would never say 'I think I wet myself'". He also added that "Bugs wouldn't have needed anyone's help, and moreover, it wouldn't have taken him an hour and a half. Those aliens, whether they were tiny or colossal, would've been dealt with in short order come the seven minute mark."

Box office

Space Jam was a box office success. At the end of its run, it grossed $90,418,342 in the United States and over $230,000,000 internationally. It is the highest grossing basketball movie of all time.

Accolades

• 1997 and 1998 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards
  • Won: Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures (Diane Warren for the song "For You I Will")
  • Won: Top Box Office Films (James Newton Howard)

• 1997 Annie Awards
  • Won: 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)

• 1998 Grammy Awards
  • Won: Best Song Written Specifically for Motion Picture or for Television (R. Kelly for the song "I Believe I Can Fly")

• 1997 MTV Movie Awards
  • Nomination: Best Movie Song (R. Kelly for the song "I Believe I Can Fly")

• 1997 Satellite Awards
  • Nomination: Best Motion Picture- Animated or Mixed Media (Daniel Goldberg, Joe Medjuck, Ivan Reitman)

• 1998 World Animation Celebration
  • Won: Best Use of Animation in a Motion Picture Trailer

• 1997 Young Artist Awards
  • Nomination: Best Family Feature- Animation or Special Effects

In other media

The Monstars make a cameo in the Pinky and the Brain / Animaniacs episode "Star Warners" (a parody of Star Wars). Jordan himself, who was a spokesman for MCI Communications before the film was made, would appear with the Looney Tunes characters (as "his Space Jam buddies") in several MCI commercials for several years after the film was released before merging with WorldCom and subsequently Verizon Communications.

Possible sequel

In February 2014, Warner Bros. announced a sequel, set to star professional basketball player LeBron James. Charlie Ebersol will produce through his production company, The Company, with a script by his brother, Willie Ebersol. Jon Berg will executive produce. However, representatives of James denied the claim that he would be involved.

External links

• Official website
• Space Jam at IMDb
• Space Jam at the TCM Movie Database
• Template:Bcdb title
• Space Jam at Rotten Tomatoes
• Space Jam at AllMovie
• Space Jam at Box Office Mojo