Space Jam

Space Jam is a 1996 sports comedy film starring Michael Jordan and 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. The film was released theatrically 15 November 1996 by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment.
It is a fictional account of Michael's initial retirement from and return to the NBA, this time with him being inspired by Bugs Bunny and friends. The film also marked the debut appearance of Lola Bunny. Space Jam was a box office success, opening at #1 in the U.S., and grossing over $230 million worldwide against an $80 million budget.
== 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. Meanwhile, The Nerdlucks, a group of criminal aliens led by their boss, Mr. Swackhammer, plot to capture the Looney Tunes, who really exist in a secret animated world called Looney Tune Land, 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 but due to their small stature, the Tunes do not take their threats seriously, and refuse to leave. Instead, they bargain for their freedom by challenging the Nerdlucks to a basketball game. To ensure their victory, the Nerdlucks return to Earth and steal the talents 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, and he reluctantly agrees after the Monstars squash him into the shape of a basketball and bounce him around like one. A new, female rabbit named Lola Bunny is added to the team thanks to her amazing talent. Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny go to Michael's house to collect what he needs to play, barely dodging his dog, Charles. Michael's publicist Stan Podolak sees Bugs and Daffy return to Tune Land and follows them, and stays to support Michael, whose team will be called the Tune Squad. Meanwhile, in the real world, the players try to remedy their situation, but to no avail. As a result, the NBA commissioner decides to suspend the season until further notice.
Despite Michael's leadership, the Monstars dominate the first half of the game. After sneaking into the Monstars' locker room and being detected despite hiding in a locker and scorched as a result, Stan informs 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 is grumpy 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 Swackhammer incorrectly identifies as Dan Aykroyd, his Ghostbusters co-star) appears in the stadium and joins the team.
With only seconds left, Bill pulls some clever maneuvering 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. He helps the Monstars realize that they're bigger than Mr. 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 returns to Earth in the Nerdlucks' spaceship, where he makes a dramatic appearance at a baseball game to the cheers of the audience, despite being late. The next morning, Michael 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.
== Availability ==
Lt sj vhs.jpg|(1997) VHS Space Jam
Lt sj ld.jpg|(1997) LaserDisc Space Jam
Space Jam Double Feature.jpg|(1997) VHS Space Jam Double Feature
Lt sj dvd.jpg|(2000) DVD Space Jam
Lt sj2d.jpg|(2003) DVD Space Jam two-disc special edition
Lt 4ff.jpg|(2007) DVD 4 Family Favorites
Lt 4ff blu.jpg|(2013) Blu-ray 4 Film Favorites
Lt sj blu.jpg|(2016) Blu-ray Space Jam
Lt df sj bia.jpg|(2016) DVD Looney Tunes Double Feature Space Jam Back in Action
Lt 4ff ww.jpg|(2017) DVD 4 Film Favorites
Lt sj2fc blu.jpg|(2021) Blu-ray/DVD 2-Film Collection with Space Jam A New Legacy
File:Space Jam 4K.jpeg|(2021) 4KSpace Jam
BestofWB100thLooneyTunes10FilmCollection.jpg|(2023) DVD Best of WB 100th: Looney Tunes 10-Film Collection
=== Streaming ===
lt amazon.jpg|Amazon Prime Video (2006 -)
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2020 ; 2021 -)
File:Lt hulu.png|Hulu (2021 - 28 February 2022)comicbook.com
lt max.jpg|Max (2023 -)
== Cast ==
=== Live-Action Cast ===
* Michael Jordan as himself
** Brandon Hammond as ten-year-old Michael Jordan
* Wayne Knight as Stan Podolak
* Bill Murray as himself
* Larry Bird as himself
* Del Harris as himself
* Charles Barkley as himself
* Patrick Ewing as himself
* Shawn Bradley as himself
* Larry Johnson as himself
* Muggsy Bogues as himself
* Dan Castellaneta as male New York Knicks fan
* Patricia Heaton as female New York Knicks fan
* Theresa Randle as Juanita Jordan
* Manner Washington as Jeffrey Jordan
* Eric Gordon as Marcus Jordan
* Penny Bae Bridges as Jasmine Jordan
* Thom Barry as James Jordan
=== Voice Cast ===
* Billy West as Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd
* Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Toro the Bull
* Bob Bergen as Porky Pig, Tweety, Hubie and Bertie, Barnyard Dawg,Twitter Marvin the Martian
* Bill Farmer as Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester
* Greg Burson as Foghorn Leghorn (some scenes, uncredited),https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/_img/movies/credits_space-jam-0.61_4.jpg Elmer Fudd (one scene, uncredited)https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/SpaceJam
* June Foray as Granny, Witch Hazel
* Maurice LaMarche as Pepé Le Pew
* Kath Soucie as Lola Bunny
* Jocelyn Blue as Nerdluck Pound
* Charity James as Nerdluck Blanko
* June Melby as Nerdluck Bang
* Catherine Reitman as Nerdluck Bupkus
* Colleen Wainwright as Sniffles, Nerdluck Nawt
* Darnell Suttles as Monstar Pound
* Steve Kehela as Announcer, Monstar Blanko
* Joey Camen as Monstar Bang
* Dorian Harewood as Monstar Bupkus
* T.K. Carter as Monstar Nawt
* Danny DeVito as Mr. Swackhammer
* Frank W. Welker as Charles the Bulldog
* Paul Julian as Road Runner (archive sound) (uncredited)
*Stan Freberg as Chester (uncredited)
==Music==
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" became a hit after it was featured on the film's soundtrack. Other tracks included a cover of "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 and Barry White), and "For You I Will" (by Monica). The movie's theme song was performed by the Quad City DJ's.
==Reception==
Space Jam received mixed-to-negative reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 35% based on 49 reviews. Roger Ebert gave Space Jam a "thumbs up," which his partner, Gene Siskel, 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 Michael'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 expressed his views that the film was "terrible" and said, as a 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, were the film more true to the source material, Bugs Bunny wouldn't need anyone's help (let alone Michael Jordan's) in dealing with the Monstars, and that he would be able to do so in a 7-minute short rather than a 90-minute movie.http://boootooons.blogspot.com/2008/01/my-conversation-with-chuck-jones.html
==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.
==Awards== 
*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 episode "Star Warners".
*The Nerdlucks appear in Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam. The film is a Mystery Science Theater 3000-style commentary on the original film.
==Foreign Release== 
*Norway: 21 February 1997
*United Kingdom: 21 March 1997
*Japan: 26 April 1997
*Poland: 30 September 1997
==Notes ==
*This movie marks the debut of Lola Bunny.
* This film, to date, has the largest number of Looney Tunes cast of characters including its "star" characters starring altogether in the same film. The film involves all the major Looney Tunes and nearly all the supporting, recurring, minor, and background Looney Tunes, with many of them shown as background cameos, usually as background spectators during the basketball game.
**In fact, during the basketball game, multiple duplicates of several other supporting, recurring, minor, and background Looney Tunes characters – many of whom are not even recolored like Claude Cat or the Goofy Gophers – are also shown cheering among the spectators. It is most likely that the production staff reused these character designs to fill the crowd of Looney Tunes characters in these spectator scenes to cut production costs and recolored some of them to hide this fact.
*The film's concept originated from a series of highly popular live-action/animated sci-fi sports comedy Nike commercial ads for Air Jordan shoes produced in the early-1990s titled: "Hare Jordan" and "Aerospace Jordan" where Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan faced off against Marvin the Martian and his alien henchmen in basketball to stop him from stealing Nike shoes.
* Animator Dave Spafford did not enjoy working on the film due to Joe Pytka's behavior and a producer yelling at him when Spafford declared the green-screening in the basketball game climax would not work out. Spafford immediately quit, and after a few months, Warner Bros. called him saying Pytka had quit and asked him to fix the sequence. Once it was fixed, Spafford agreed to do more segments, but only from his studio and if nobody came over telling him and the other animators what to do, to which Warner Bros. agreed.
* To keep Michael Jordan happy while filming, Warner Bros. built him an actual basketball court on the set, so he could use it whenever he could on filming breaks.
*After Daffy suggests naming the team "The Ducks", Bugs asks "Oh please, what kind of Mickey Mouse organization would name their team The Ducks?" This was a dig at the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League, which were established by The Walt Disney Company, as well as both Bugs and Daffy's respective cameo scenes alongside their respective Disney rivals Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in Disney/Touchstone/Amblin's Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) eight years prior.
*Noel Blanc (the son of the late Mel Blanc) was originally booked to provide all of the regular Warner Bros. male cartoon characters' voices. Because he and Warner Bros. could not agree on a contract, the studio replaced Blanc with four other people to do the 12 male voices, instead of Blanc doing them all.
*The voice casting was very involved, as Ivan Reitman was serious about the voice actors for the established Looney Tunes characters being far better than Mel Blanc and not just replications. Joe Alaskey, one of Blanc's successors at Warner Bros. Animation, was put by Reitman through a set of auditions which lasted months until Alaskey got tired of waiting to be cast and backed out from the project, despite that his agent was called up by Reitman to bring him back.
*During the big game, when the Toons are rallying, the purple Monstar is about to attack Bugs and Wile E. when he is interrupted by Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd (dressed in tuxedos) shooting his teeth out with "Misirlou" playing in the background. This is a reference to Pulp Fiction (1994).
*Aside from using the old school Looney Tunes sound effects, the movie also uses Hanna-Barbera sound effects all remade for the movie.
* Yosemite Sam, Barnyard Dawg, Speedy Gonzales, and Witch Hazel were used to have silent roles, after just saying only one quote each.
*Clips of a selection of classic Looney Tunes shorts briefly appear on the many television screens in Mr. Swackhammer's headquarters at the beginning of the film. These clips are from: "Muzzle Tough" (1954), "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" (1953), "Duck Amuck" (1953), "Don't Axe Me" (1958), "Ready.. Set.. Zoom!" (1955), "Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z" (1956), "Speedy Gonzales" (1955), "Rabbit of Seville" (1950), "High Diving Hare" (1949), "Hen House Henery" (1949), "Broom-Stick Bunny" (1956), "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" (1953), "Golden Yeggs" (1950), "Hip-Hip Hurry!" (1958), and "Going! Going! Gosh!" (1952).
*MPAA Number: 34914
*This was the first Looney Tunes feature film to be produced in 1:85:1 widescreen format, as the previous Looney Tunes compilation films in the late-1970s and 1980s were all produced in the standard Academy ratio and format like the classic shorts themselves.
*The official website is still up today; it had not been updated until the announcement of Space Jam A New Legacy.
* The production on the film was so profound that Warner Bros. reassigned animators from Quest for Camelot to get it done.
* The Tune Squad's jersey numbers are as follows: 1/2, Tweety Bird; 1, Bugs Bunny; 2, Daffy Duck; 3, Sniffles the Mouse; 6, Yosemite Sam; 7, Road Runner; 8, Porky Pig; 9, Sylvester; 10, Lola Bunny; 13, Wile E. Coyote; 22, Bill Murray; 23, Michael Jordan; 25, Barnyard Dawg; 33, Foghorn Leghorn; 53, Elmer Fudd; heart symbol, Pepe Le Pew; exclamation point, Tasmanian Devil; question mark, Beaky Buzzard.
* In The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "Froggone It", there is a scene where Granny and Tweety are exiting the trailer. In that she tells Sylvester, "Now, don't get lost around here, or they'll put you in another basketball movie." This is an indirect reference to the film. This episode had been aired along with the episode "They Call Me Mr. Lincoln" on The WB as part of Kids' WB! on February 15, 1997, which had been three months, sixty-two days, and a year after the film had been released theatrically.
*It is one of the first movies to have the 1996-2017 Warner Home Video logo, along with the family comedy Bogus, and most notably, the courtroom drama A Time to Kill, which came out the same year as this movie.
==Sequel==
A sequel, titled Space Jam A New Legacy, was released 16 July 2021.
==Gallery==
===Production Art===
SpaceJamTitle.jpg|Space Jam title sequence
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==References==
es:Space Jam
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Category:Live-action/animated films
Category:Space Jam
Category:Looney Tunes Films
Category:1996