The 30th anniversary rerelease of Space Jam brings back one of the most peculiar pieces of 1990s pop culture imaginable. At once surreal and dated, the film is a live-action/cartoon hybrid and a nakedly commercial partnership between NBA superstar Michael Jordan and Warner Bros' Looney Tunes characters like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. Originally developed from television advertisements featuring Jordan alongside the hyperactive rabbit, this feature feels every bit its age, not least due to its prominent use of R Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly. The singer is now disgraced and serving a 20-year prison term for child sexual abuse.
Plot and Premise
The story involves an evil race of animated space aliens who capture the Looney Tunes squad and propose to enslave them, but agree to a basketball game as an alternative. The villains use their powers to steal skills from live-action NBA stars like Charles Barkley, gaining an unfair advantage. The Looney Tunes heroes then approach Jordan, who has switched from basketball to baseball and is failing at it, to ask for his help. This setup semi-accidentally follows the classic underdog sports template: a talented player fallen on hard times must coach a group of lovable losers.
Performances and Humour
The film is held together by Wayne Knight, known as Newman from Seinfeld, who plays Jordan's nerdy beta-assistant. A laid-back cameo from Bill Murray, channelling his Caddyshack energy, also adds to the charm. Murray saunters onto the screen as the team's supposed unlikely saviour, aligning his comic persona with the animated figures. For this reviewer, the film only becomes genuinely funny in the rare moments when the cartoon characters are shown as tiny compared to Jordan; generally, the perspectives are managed so they appear to be roughly his size.
Never was a film so candidly designed to sell products, yet it retains a certain archival interest. Space Jam is in UK and Irish cinemas from 15 May.
