Space Jam was the first feature film to be produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 15, 1996, by Warner Bros. The film was a box office success, grossing over $250 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing basketball film of all time as well as the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1996. It received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided on the out-of-place merits and the concept of combining Jordan and his profession with the Looney Tunes characters, though some praised the technical achievement of blending digitally live-action and animation (particularly in the basketball scenes). A fully-animated crossover sequel with the television series Teen Titans Go!, titled Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam, aired on Cartoon Network on June 20, 2021, while a standalone sequel, titled Space Jam: A New Legacy and starring LeBron James, was released in July 2021. Plot In 1973, a young Michael Jordan tells his father James R. Jordan Sr. that he wants to go to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to play in the championship team, then go to the National Basketball Association (NBA). A compilation of highlights from Jordan's basketball career, which includes highlights from high school, college, the 1984 and the 1992 Olympics, and the Chicago Bulls, is followed by an excerpt from the 1993 press conference in which Jordan announced his retirement from professional basketball to pursue a career in baseball, in which Jordan is popular, but less skilled. Meanwhile, in outer space, the amusement park Moron Mountain faces decline. Its owner, Mr. Swackhammer, sends his diminutive minions, the Nerdlucks, to Earth to abduct the Looney Tunes in order to develop new attractions. Upon the Nerdlucks' arrival, Bugs Bunny and the other Looney Tunes take advantage of the Nerdlucks' small stature and challenge them to a game of basketball. Through a documentary of basketball, the Nerdlucks learn that the sport's best players are employed by the NBA, and accept the proposal. The Nerdlucks go around various basketball games in the USA, stealing the talents of NBA players Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson and Muggsy Bogues, and soon transform themselves into the large, muscular, and talented basketball-playing Monsters, (whom Sylvester dubs Monstars) easily intimidating the Tunes, and prompting Bugs to seek professional help. While golfing with Bill Murray, Larry Bird, and his personal assistant, Stan Podolak, Jordan is suddenly lassoed down a hole and into the Looney Tunes' world. Bugs explains the situation to Jordan, whom hope is placed on as one of the best basketball players in the world. Jordan reluctantly agrees to play after a confrontation with the Monstars insults his pride, and organizes the Tunes into a team, the "Tune Squad". A female bunny named Lola, whom Bugs falls in love with, is added to the team thanks to her talents. Jordan sends Bugs and Daffy Duck back to his house to obtain his basketball gear. When they arrive, Bugs and Daffy meet Jordan's dog and kids, and are later seen by Stan, who follows them back to the cartoon world and joins the team as well. Meanwhile, the sudden incapacity of the five NBA players leads to worldwide panic that results in the season ending early. The players unsuccessfully try to restore their skills through practice, hospitalization, therapy, and prayer. The game between the Tune Squad and the Monstars eventually begins, but the Monstars dominate the first half, sinking the Tune Squad's morale. Stan overhears how the Monstars obtained their talent and informs Jordan. Bugs and Jordan rally the Tune Squad and dominate the third quarter using old-school gags and Acme weaponry. During a timeout, Jordan raises the stakes with Swackhammer: a win by the Tune Squad would require the Monstars returning their stolen talents, while a win by the Monstars would allow Swackhammer to make Jordan a new attraction for Moron Mountain for the rest of his life. Swackhammer then tells the Monstars to "crush the Looney Tunes", which results in the Monstars constantly fouling the players and injuring them seriously. With ten seconds left in the game, the Tune Squad are down by one point and one player, due to most of them being injured from the Monstars' rough playing, leaving only Jordan, Bugs, Lola, and Daffy left. Murray unexpectedly arrives and is recruited to fill the spot. In the final seconds, Jordan gains the ball with Murray's help but is pulled back by the Monstars. Remembering advice from Bugs, he uses cartoon physics to extend his arm and dunk the ball, winning the match with a buzzer beater. After watching Swackhammer admonish the Monstars, Jordan asks the Monstars a question, which causes them to realize that they only listened to him because they were smaller. The Monstars immediately turn on Swackhammer, encasing him in a missile and sending him back to his amusement park. Giving up their stolen talent, the Nerdlucks are recruited into the Looney Tunes ensemble and drop off Jordan at his next baseball game. Later, Jordan visits the incapacitated basketball players and returns their talent, to which the players convince a reluctant Jordan into participating in a three-on-three match. Two years later in 1995, Jordan returns to the Chicago Bulls to resume his basketball career. Cast Live-action Some of the film's live-action cast play fictional versions of themselves: Michael Jordan as himself Brandon Hammond as 10-year-old young Michael Jordan Wayne Knight as Stan Podolak, a publicist and assistant who helps Jordan. Theresa Randle as Juanita Jordan, Michael's supportive wife. Bill Murray as himself, a golfing buddy of Jordan. Larry Bird as himself Manner Washington as Jeffrey Jordan, Jordan's son. Eric Gordon as Marcus Jordan, Jordan's son. Penny Bae Bridges as Jasmine Jordan, Jordan's daughter. Charles Barkley as himself Shawn Bradley as himself Patrick Ewing as himself Larry Johnson as himself Muggsy Bogues as himself Thom Barry as James R. Jordan Sr., Michael's father and Jeffrey, Marcus and Jasmine's grandfather. Anne Lockhart as Baron's manager's wife NBA players Danny Ainge, Steve Kerr, Alonzo Mourning, Horace Grant, A. C. Green, Charles Oakley, Luc Longley, Cedric Ceballos, Derek Harper, Vlade Divac, Brian Shaw, Jeff Malone, Bill Wennington, Anthony Miller and Sharone Wright make cameo appearances in the film, as do coaches Del Harris and Paul Westphal. Broadcasters Ahmad Rashad and Jim Rome also appear, while Dan Castellaneta and Patricia Heaton cameo as basketball fans. Voice cast Billy West as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, and Bull Danny DeVito as Swackhammer, the proprietor of the intergalactic theme park Moron Mountain who seeks new attractions to save his failing business. Bob Bergen as Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Marvin the Martian, Herbie and Bert Bill Farmer as Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn June Foray as Granny Maurice LaMarche as Pepé Le Pew Kath Soucie as Lola Bunny, a female bunny who plays for the Tune Squad whom Bugs falls in love with. Lola is a new Looney Tunes character who is first introduced through this film. Jocelyn Blue as Nerdluck Pound, the aggressive orange leader. Charity James as Nerdluck Blanko, the dim-witted blue member. June Melby as Nerdluck Bang, the neurotic green member. Catherine Reitman as Nerdluck Bupkus, the eccentric purple member. Colleen Wainwright as: Nerdluck Nawt, the smallest yet scheming red member. Sniffles Dorian Harewood as Monstar Bupkus, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Larry Johnson. Joey Camen as Monstar Bang, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Patrick Ewing. T. K. Carter as Monstar Nawt, he becomes human-size after stealing the talent from Muggsy Bogues. Darnell Suttles as Monstar Pound, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Charles Barkley. Steve Kehela as: Monstar Blanko, he becomes big and tall after stealing the talent from Shawn Bradley. Announcer Frank Welker as Charles the Dog, Michael's pet bulldog who menaces Bugs and Daffy when they arrive at Michael's house. Production Development upSpace Jam producer Ivan Reitman in 2011. A conversation between him and a Nike executive sparked the idea of a film starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. In 1992 and 1993, two Nike ads, "Hare Jordan" and "Aerospace Jordan" respectively, aired on television and featured Michael Jordan with the character Bugs Bunny. Directed by Joe Pytka, the production of the 1992 ad was hindered by reluctance from Warner Bros. to allow Nike to modernize Bugs' character, but the commercial success of both ads "was a nice bit of research for Warner Bros. to understand that the Bugs character still had relevance and to tie it in with Michael," explained Pytka. This led to the company green-lighting a film featuring Jordan and Bugs, which came out of a plane meeting between a Nike executive and producer Ivan Reitman. At the same time, Warner Bros. tried to create more "adult, sophisticated material" in the animated film market that deviated from the formula set by Disney. The project was closed when Jordan retired from basketball in 1993, only to be reopened in 1995 when Jordan returned as a basketball player. Pytka was informed about the project only months before the start of principal photography; in addition to being hired as director, he also revised the script, including writing a scene where Jordan hits a home run after he returns to Earth that was filmed, but ultimately never used. Spike Lee was also interested in helping Pytka with the screenplay, but Warner Bros. blocked him from the project out of dissatisfaction from how he funded Malcolm X (1992). According to Pytka, it was difficult to get most actors involved with Space Jam due to its odd premise: "I mean, they're going to work with an animated character and an athlete — are you serious? They just didn't want to do it." Before Wayne Knight was cast as Stan, his initial choices were Michael J. Fox and Chevy Chase, whom he had worked with on Doritos commercials; Warner Bros. rejected both actors. There were also attempts to replace Jordan's character with a more experienced actor, but "we couldn't find anyone better." The easiest actors to obtain were the NBA players, except for Gheorghe Mureșan. The voice casting was very involved, as 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. The casting directors originally planned several voice cameos; however, that did not work out, and Danny DeVito ended up being the only celebrity voice actor in the film, which was for Mr. Swackhammer, who was originally planned to be played by Jack Palance. Swackhammer was also planned to be a live-action character until the very final days of development, with Dennis Hopper possibly playing the role due to his friendship with Pytka. Scale The Classic Animation faction of Warner Bros., which animated the commercials and was located in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, was originally planned to be the only company responsible for Space Jam. However, after only a week, the animation work was so complicated that Warner Bros. contacted more studios, including reassigning the Feature Animation division in Glendale from working on Quest for Camelot (1998) to Space Jam; ten of Classic Animation's members, including the production's animation director Tony Cervone, were taken out of the faction to become involved all throughout production, and development artists were reassigned to animating jobs, including supervising animator Bruce Woodside, who had little faith in the project: "Like so many other animators, I adore the classic Warner Bros. characters, but I really had little hope that tying them to the massive anchor of an apparently doomed marketing scheme could actually give them a successful second life in features." After Cervone was hired as animation director, Jerry Rees contacted Bruce W. Smith about being an animation supervisor on the film; Rees was fired by the time Smith joined, and Pykta hired Smith to be another animation director. Before January 1996, when animation production was put into overdrive, none of the animators' drafts or concepts for how the film should look met with Reitman's approval; Bill Perkins joined that month as animation art director, and when first arriving at the Sherman Oaks division, "we only had around eight months to do about 52 minutes of animation" and "it was just kind of a little skeleton crew." Cervone highlighted Reitman's role as supervisor: "It started off as a string of gags with no structure, and he helped a lot with that." The drafting process involved the animators and artists using the original cartoons as references. Ultimately, they went with Bob Clampett's 1940s style of animation and design due to being wilder than Chuck Jones'. Production of Space Jam totaled around 19 months, with filming taking up ten of them; this was half the time of any other film of its kind according to Smith. The animation was done at a very quick pace by more than 700 workers from 18 studios in London, Canada, California and Ohio, starting January 1996 by the recently joined producers Ron Tippe and Allison Abbate. In trying to track the huge amount work done at the 18 studios, Tippe hung stills of all the shots throughout the Feature Animation faction's hallways, with completed ones marked in red. Features about the film's production, including one from the official website, emphasized its state-of-the art computer technology when it came to its live-action/animation hybrid; "this film could have not been made two years ago," claimed Cervone in 1996. Due to its mixture of various art mediums as well as the "broad sense of humor and entertainment" unique to the Looney Tunes, Smith considered Space Jam an important part of diversifying the animation industry. Space Jam broke the record for amount of composited shots in a featured film, "roughly 1,043" according to Tippe, as well as a record number of FX shots, with around 1,100 in a single 90-minute film; Independence Day (1996), released the same year, had 700 FX shots within two hours of screen time. Tippe claimed the film would have, at most, "multiple characters, multiple levels of effects and, in some cases, up to 70 elements" in one shot. Filming Space Jam was one of the first-ever productions to be shot on a virtual studio. Jordan filmed in a 360-degree green screen room with motion trackers, playing and acting alongside green-suited NBA players and improv actors taken from the Groundlings Theatre and School around him serving as placement identifiers for the animated characters, with a CGI background replica of a real-life setting chroma keyed in. Although Bill Murray initially came in to only work on the golf course scene, he then wanted to be in the climactic basketball game after Pytka showed him the process of how he directed the live-action/animation scenes. This film's opening daytime baseball scene was filmed at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. Concept drawings and discussions between the animators and Pytka about how the animation would be incorporated into the live-action shots took place on set during shooting, and re-writes to the script would be done daily. As an experienced commercial and music video director working on a sports film, Pytka took on fast, unlimited camera movements and Dutch angles; this challenged the animators that had to integrate their characters in the shots. To connect the real and animated worlds together, blue-screen shots of miniatures by Vision Crew Unlimited were used; these include a Christo-inspired interpretation of The Forum arena for exterior shots, city rooftops for a transition scene with a wide skyline view of Chicago serving as the chroma-keyed background, and space ship parts initially produced by Boss Film Studios for a Philip Morris advertisement. Animation Tech Space Jam was one of the earliest animated productions to use digital technology. 2D animation and background layers were first done on paper before being scanned into Silicon Graphics Image files through Cambridge Animation Systems' software Animo; they were then sent to Cinesite via a File Transfer Protocol, for its animators to color and touch upon in Photoshop and composite into the shots. Unlike previous projects that used the Cineon digital film system, Cinesite were working with the quicker Inferno and Flame systems for Space Jam. The Holly render farm utilized for the film consisted of 16 central processing units, four gigabytes of shared memory, and took up one million dollars of the film's budget, "on top of which the deskside boxes had 256 megabytes of ram to splurge on whatever scene you needed to create and render," explained Privett. Cinesite had begun developing proprietary software for motion tracking when working on Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), which involved most of its shots incorporating a digital background; this made the company prepared for Space Jam, which consists of a bunch of moving camera shots with 3D backgrounds to be added. The CGI backgrounds moved around with the motion trackers via Cinesite's proprietary software Ball Buster, which identified the markers through algorithm. To avoid mistakes in the visuals as much as possible, Cinesite artists worked on the film by frame instead of viewing each shot as a whole; those, such as Jonathan Privett were dissatisfied with the method, primarily because it put them under much pressure: "We much preferred the good old fashioned run-at-24-fps, just-as-the-viewer-sees-it approach." Backgrounds The design of the stadium was heavily dictated by that of the film's many characters, and it was such a long process that it went through 94 revisions, explained Cinesite digital effects supervisor Carlos Arguello: "Tasmanian Devil was brown so we couldn’t have a wooden brown upper level, and there were so many colorful characters, and Michael Jordan and everybody had to look good in all the scenes." For scenes that take place in the stadium, shortcuts were made. For crane shots of the crowd of 15,000 people in the final basketball sequence, it was created with live-action extras, cloned animated crowd members, and a few computer-generated characters walking around the aisles in the stadium. When these shots involved camera movements, a few 2D extras were animated to reflect the angle of the camera, but much lighting was added to distract from the crowd, thus minimizing this work. The reflections of the floor on the gym were also "fake[d]" as raytracing would've meant rendering it for four days per a few frames. Characters Abbate suggested the hurried workflow of the animators bled into the character animation, resulting in a quick-witted style the Looney Tunes cartoons are most known for. Although the animators had to work with almost 100 characters, they were the most focused on Bugs and Daffy not only because they were principal characters, but also because they were the most recognizable Warner Bros. characters to general audiences. Sculpting was incorporated the most on Bugs and Lola, including in "beauty shots" or sequences where Bugs and Lola are together. Perkins conceived the idea of the villains being secondary colors, as the main Looney Tunes were primary colors or brown. There was also a lot of experimentation with motion blur with the 2D characters, especially Tweety; as Simon Eves explained, "The workflow was that an artist would track some specific points on the sequence of 2D character-on-black that came from the animation house, and I think it was able to take a basic roto shape as well, and then it would generate an interpolated motion vector field which could be applied as a variable directional blur. The field would deform based on the relative motion of the tracking points on the camera, to produce more accurate blur as the character deformed." Music The soundtrack sold enough albums to be certified as 6-times 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 Barry White & Chris Rock), "Pump up the Jam" (by Technotronic), "I Turn to You" (by All-4-One) and "For You I Will" (by Monica). The film's title song was performed by the Quad City DJ's. There was also an original scoring soundtrack featuring most of James Newton Howard's scores from the film, except the main Merrie Melodies Theme itself. Release Warner Bros. released Space Jam through its Family Entertainment division on November 15, 1996. Box office Space Jam grossed $ 90.5 million in the United States and Canada, and in other territories, for a worldwide total of $250.2 million.
Space Jam was the first feature film to be produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 15, 1996, by Warner Bros. The film was a box office success, grossing over $250 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing basketball film of all time as well as the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1996. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics, who were divided on the out-of-place merits and the concept of combining Jordan and his profession with the Looney Tunes characters, though some praised the technical achievement of blending digitally live-action and animation (particularly in the basketball scenes). A fully-animated crossover sequel with the television series Teen Titans Go!, titled Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam, aired on Cartoon Network on June 20, 2021, while a standalone sequel, titled Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring LeBron James, is scheduled for release on July 16, 2021. Plot In 1973, a young Michael Jordan tells his father James R. Jordan Sr. that he wants to go to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to play in the championship team, then go to the National Basketball Association (NBA). A compilation of highlights from Jordan's basketball career, which includes highlights from high school, college, the 1984 and the 1992 Olympics, and the Chicago Bulls, is followed by an excerpt from the 1993 press conference in which Jordan announced his retirement from professional basketball to pursue a career in baseball, in which Jordan is popular, but less skilled. Meanwhile, in outer space, the amusement park Moron Mountain faces decline. Its owner, Mr. Swackhammer, sends his diminutive minions, the Nerdlucks, to Earth to abduct the Looney Tunes in order to develop new attractions. Upon the Nerdlucks' arrival, Bugs Bunny and the other Looney Tunes take advantage of the Nerdlucks' small stature and challenge them to a game of basketball. Through a documentary of basketball, the Nerdlucks learn that the sport's best players are employed by the NBA, and accept the proposal. The Nerdlucks go around various basketball games in the USA, stealing the talents of NBA players Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson and Muggsy Bogues, and soon transform themselves into the large, muscular, and talented basketball-playing Monsters, (whom Sylvester dubs Monstars) easily intimidating the Tunes, and prompting Bugs to seek professional help. While golfing with Bill Murray, Larry Bird, and his personal assistant, Stan Podolak, Jordan is suddenly lassoed down a hole and into the Looney Tunes' world. Bugs explains the situation to Jordan, whom hope is placed on as one of the best basketball players in the world. Jordan reluctantly agrees to play after a confrontation with the Monstars insults his pride, and organizes the Tunes into a team, the "Tune Squad". A female bunny named Lola, whom Bugs falls in love with, is added to the team thanks to her talents. Jordan sends Bugs and Daffy Duck back to his house to obtain his basketball gear. When they arrive, Bugs and Daffy meet Jordan's dog and kids, and are later seen by Stan, who follows them back to the cartoon world and joins the team as well. Meanwhile, the sudden incapacity of the five NBA players leads to worldwide panic that results in the season ending early. The players unsuccessfully try to restore their skills through practice, hospitalization, therapy, and prayer. The game between the Tune Squad and the Monstars eventually begins, but the Monstars dominate the first half, sinking the Tune Squad's morale. Stan overhears how the Monstars obtained their talent and informs Jordan. Bugs and Jordan rally the Tune Squad and dominate the third quarter using old-school gags and Acme weaponry. During a timeout, Jordan raises the stakes with Swackhammer: a win by the Tune Squad would require the Monstars returning their stolen talents, while a win by the Monstars would allow Swackhammer to make Jordan a new attraction for Moron Mountain for the rest of his life. With ten seconds left in the game, the Tune Squad are down by one point and one player, due to most of them being injured from the Monstars' rough playing, leaving only Jordan, Bugs, Lola, and Daffy left. Murray unexpectedly arrives and is recruited to fill the spot. In the final seconds, Jordan gains the ball with Murray's help but is pulled back by the Monstars. Remembering advice from Bugs, he uses cartoon physics to extend his arm and dunk the ball, winning the match with a buzzer beater. After watching Swackhammer admonish the Monstars, Jordan helps them realize that they only listened to him because they were smaller. The Monstars encase Swackhammer in a missile and send him back to his amusement park. Giving up their stolen talent, the Nerdlucks are recruited into the Looney Tunes ensemble and drop off Jordan at his next baseball game. Later, Jordan visits the incapacitated basketball players and returns their talent, to which the players convince a reluctant Jordan into participating in a three-on-three match. Two years later in 1995, Jordan returns to the Chicago Bulls to resume his basketball career. Cast Live-action Some of the film's live-action cast play fictional versions of themselves: Michael Jordan as himself Brandon Hammond as 10-year-old young Michael Jordan Wayne Knight as Stan Podolak, a publicist and assistant who helps Jordan. Theresa Randle as Juanita Jordan, Michael's supportive wife. Bill Murray as himself, a golfing buddy of Jordan. Larry Bird as himself Manner Washington as Jeffrey Jordan, Jordan's son. Eric Gordon as Marcus Jordan, Jordan's son. Penny Bae Bridges as Jasmine Jordan, Jordan's daughter. Charles Barkley as himself Shawn Bradley as himself Patrick Ewing as himself Larry Johnson as himself Muggsy Bogues as himself Thom Barry as James R. Jordan Sr., Michael's father and Jeffrey, Marcus and Jasmine's grandfather. Anne Lockhart as Baron's manager's wife NBA players Danny Ainge, Steve Kerr, Alonzo Mourning, Horace Grant, A. C. Green, Charles Oakley, Luc Longley, Cedric Ceballos, Derek Harper, Vlade Divac, Brian Shaw, Jeff Malone, Bill Wennington, Anthony Miller and Sharone Wright make cameo appearances in the film, as do coaches Del Harris and Paul Westphal. Broadcasters Ahmad Rashad and Jim Rome also appear, while Dan Castellaneta and Patricia Heaton cameo as basketball fans. Voice cast Billy West as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, and Bull Danny DeVito as Swackhammer, the proprietor of the intergalactic theme park Moron Mountain who seeks new attractions to save his failing business. Bob Bergen as Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Marvin the Martian, Herbie and Bert Bill Farmer as Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn June Foray as Granny Maurice LaMarche as Pepé Le Pew Kath Soucie as Lola Bunny, a female bunny who plays for the Tune Squad whom Bugs falls in love with. Lola is a new Looney Tunes character who is first introduced through this film. Jocelyn Blue as Nerdluck Pound, the aggressive orange leader. Charity James as Nerdluck Blanko, the dim-witted blue member. June Melby as Nerdluck Bang, the neurotic green member. Catherine Reitman as Nerdluck Bupkus, the eccentric purple member. Colleen Wainwright as: Nerdluck Nawt, the smallest yet scheming red member. Sniffles Dorian Harewood as Monstar Bupkus, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Larry Johnson. Joey Camen as Monstar Bang, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Patrick Ewing. T. K. Carter as Monstar Nawt, he becomes human-size after stealing the talent from Muggsy Bogues. Darnell Suttles as Monstar Pound, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Charles Barkley. Steve Kehela as: Monstar Blanko, he becomes big and tall after stealing the talent from Shawn Bradley. Announcer Frank Welker as Charles the Dog, Michael's pet bulldog who menaces Bugs and Daffy when they arrive at Michael's house. Production Development upSpace Jam producer Ivan Reitman in 2011. A conversation between him and a Nike executive sparked the idea of a film starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. In 1992 and 1993, two Nike ads, "Hare Jordan" and "Aerospace Jordan" respectively, aired on television and featured Michael Jordan with the character Bugs Bunny. Directed by Joe Pytka, the production of the 1992 ad was hindered by reluctance from Warner Bros. to allow Nike to modernize Bugs' character, but the commercial success of both ads "was a nice bit of research for Warner Bros. to understand that the Bugs character still had relevance and to tie it in with Michael," explained Pytka. This led to the company green-lighting a film featuring Jordan and Bugs, which came out of a plane meeting between a Nike executive and producer Ivan Reitman. At the same time, Warner Bros. tried to create more "adult, sophisticated material" in the animated film market that deviated from the formula set by Disney. The project was closed when Jordan retired from basketball in 1993, only to be reopened in 1995 when Jordan returned as a basketball player. Pytka was informed about the project only months before the start of principal photography; in addition to being hired as director, he also revised the script, including writing a scene where Jordan hits a home run after he returns to Earth that was filmed, but ultimately never used. Spike Lee was also interested in helping Pytka with the screenplay, but Warner Bros. blocked him from the project out of dissatisfaction from how he funded Malcolm X (1992). According to Pytka, it was difficult to get most actors involved with Space Jam due to its odd premise: "I mean, they're going to work with an animated character and an athlete — are you serious? They just didn't want to do it." Before Wayne Knight was cast as Stan, his initial choices were Michael J. Fox and Chevy Chase, whom he had worked with on Doritos commercials; Warner Bros. rejected both actors. There were also attempts to replace Jordan's character with a more experienced actor, but "we couldn't find anyone better." The easiest actors to obtain were the NBA players, except for Gheorghe Mureșan. The voice casting was very involved, as 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. The casting directors originally planned several voice cameos; however, that did not work out, and Danny DeVito ended up being the only celebrity voice actor in the film, which was for Mr. Swackhammer, who was originally planned to be played by Jack Palance. Swackhammer was also planned to be a live-action character until the very final days of development, with Dennis Hopper possibly playing the role due to his friendship with Pytka. Scale The Classic Animation faction of Warner Bros., which animated the commercials and was located in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, was originally planned to be the only company responsible for Space Jam. However, after only a week, the animation work was so complicated that Warner Bros. contacted more studios, including reassigning the Feature Animation division in Glendale from working on Quest for Camelot (1998) to Space Jam; ten of Classic Animation's members, including the production's animation director Tony Cervone, were taken out of the faction to become involved all throughout production, and development artists were reassigned to animating jobs, including supervising animator Bruce Woodside, who had little faith in the project: "Like so many other animators, I adore the classic Warner Bros. characters, but I really had little hope that tying them to the massive anchor of an apparently doomed marketing scheme could actually give them a successful second life in features." After Cervone was hired as animation director, Jerry Rees contacted Bruce W. Smith about being an animation supervisor on the film; Rees was fired by the time Smith joined, and Pykta hired Smith to be another animation director. Before January 1996, when animation production was put into overdrive, none of the animators' drafts or concepts for how the film should look met with Reitman's approval; Bill Perkins joined that month as animation art director, and when first arriving at the Sherman Oaks division, "we only had around eight months to do about 52 minutes of animation" and "it was just kind of a little skeleton crew." Cervone highlighted Reitman's role as supervisor: "It started off as a string of gags with no structure, and he helped a lot with that." The drafting process involved the animators and artists using the original cartoons as references. Ultimately, they went with Bob Clampett's 1940s style of animation and design due to being wilder than Chuck Jones'. Production of Space Jam totaled around 19 months, with filming taking up ten of them; this was half the time of any other film of its kind according to Smith. The animation was done at a very quick pace by more than 700 workers from 18 studios in London, Canada, California and Ohio, starting January 1996 by the recently joined producers Ron Tippe and Allison Abbate. In trying to track the huge amount work done at the 18 studios, Tippe hung stills of all the shots throughout the Feature Animation faction's hallways, with completed ones marked in red. Features about the film's production, including one from the official website, emphasized its state-of-the art computer technology when it came to its live-action/animation hybrid; "this film could have not been made two years ago," claimed Cervone in 1996. Due to its mixture of various art mediums as well as the "broad sense of humor and entertainment" unique to the Looney Tunes, Smith considered Space Jam an important part of diversifying the animation industry. Space Jam broke the record for amount of composited shots in a featured film, "roughly 1,043" according to Tippe, as well as a record number of FX shots, with around 1,100 in a single 90-minute film; Independence Day (1996), released the same year, had 700 FX shots within two hours of screen time. Tippe claimed the film would have, at most, "multiple characters, multiple levels of effects and, in some cases, up to 70 elements" in one shot. Filming Space Jam was one of the first-ever productions to be shot on a virtual studio. Jordan filmed in a 360-degree green screen room with motion trackers, playing and acting alongside green-suited NBA players and improv actors taken from the Groundlings Theatre and School around him serving as placement identifiers for the animated characters, with a CGI background replica of a real-life setting chroma keyed in. Although Bill Murray initially came in to only work on the golf course scene, he then wanted to be in the climactic basketball game after Pytka showed him the process of how he directed the live-action/animation scenes. This film's opening daytime baseball scene was filmed at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. Concept drawings and discussions between the animators and Pytka about how the animation would be incorporated into the live-action shots took place on set during shooting, and re-writes to the script would be done daily. As an experienced commercial and music video director working on a sports film, Pytka took on fast, unlimited camera movements and Dutch angles; this challenged the animators that had to integrate their characters in the shots. To connect the real and animated worlds together, blue-screen shots of miniatures by Vision Crew Unlimited were used; these include a Christo-inspired interpretation of The Forum arena for exterior shots, city rooftops for a transition scene with a wide skyline view of Chicago serving as the chroma-keyed background, and space ship parts initially produced by Boss Film Studios for a Philip Morris advertisement. Animation Tech Space Jam was one of the earliest animated productions to use digital technology. 2D animation and background layers were first done on paper before being scanned into Silicon Graphics Image files through Cambridge Animation Systems' software Animo; they were then sent to Cinesite via a File Transfer Protocol, for its animators to color and touch upon in Photoshop and composite into the shots. Unlike previous projects that used the Cineon digital film system, Cinesite were working with the quicker Inferno and Flame systems for Space Jam. The Holly render farm utilized for the film consisted of 16 central processing units, four gigabytes of shared memory, and took up one million dollars of the film's budget, "on top of which the deskside boxes had 256 megabytes of ram to splurge on whatever scene you needed to create and render," explained Privett. Cinesite had begun developing proprietary software for motion tracking when working on Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), which involved most of its shots incorporating a digital background; this made the company prepared for Space Jam, which consists of a bunch of moving camera shots with 3D backgrounds to be added. The CGI backgrounds moved around with the motion trackers via Cinesite's proprietary software Ball Buster, which identified the markers through algorithm. To avoid mistakes in the visuals as much as possible, Cinesite artists worked on the film by frame instead of viewing each shot as a whole; those, such as Jonathan Privett were dissatisfied with the method, primarily because it put them under much pressure: "We much preferred the good old fashioned run-at-24-fps, just-as-the-viewer-sees-it approach." Backgrounds The design of the stadium was heavily dictated by that of the film's many characters, and it was such a long process that it went through 94 revisions, explained Cinesite digital effects supervisor Carlos Arguello: "Tasmanian Devil was brown so we couldn’t have a wooden brown upper level, and there were so many colorful characters, and Michael Jordan and everybody had to look good in all the scenes." For scenes that take place in the stadium, shortcuts were made. For crane shots of the crowd of 15,000 people in the final basketball sequence, it was created with live-action extras, cloned animated crowd members, and a few computer-generated characters walking around the aisles in the stadium. When these shots involved camera movements, a few 2D extras were animated to reflect the angle of the camera, but much lighting was added to distract from the crowd, thus minimizing this work. The reflections of the floor on the gym were also "fake[d]" as raytracing would've meant rendering it for four days per a few frames. Characters Abbate suggested the hurried workflow of the animators bled into the character animation, resulting in a quick-witted style the Looney Tunes cartoons are most known for. Although the animators had to work with almost 100 characters, they were the most focused on Bugs and Daffy not only because they were principal characters, but also because they were the most recognizable Warner Bros. characters to general audiences. Sculpting was incorporated the most on Bugs and Lola, including in "beauty shots" or sequences where Bugs and Lola are together. Perkins conceived the idea of the villains being secondary colors, as the main Looney Tunes were primary colors or brown. There was also a lot of experimentation with motion blur with the 2D characters, especially Tweety; as Simon Eves explained, "The workflow was that an artist would track some specific points on the sequence of 2D character-on-black that came from the animation house, and I think it was able to take a basic roto shape as well, and then it would generate an interpolated motion vector field which could be applied as a variable directional blur. The field would deform based on the relative motion of the tracking points on the camera, to produce more accurate blur as the character deformed." Music The soundtrack sold enough albums to be certified as 6-times 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 Barry White & Chris Rock), "Pump up the Jam" (by Technotronic), "I Turn to You" (by All-4-One) and "For You I Will" (by Monica). The film's title song was performed by the Quad City DJ's. There was also an original scoring soundtrack featuring most of James Newton Howard's scores from the film, except the main Merrie Melodies Theme itself. Release Warner Bros. released Space Jam through its Family Entertainment division on November 15, 1996. Box office Space Jam grossed $ 90.5 million in the United States and Canada, and in other territories, for a worldwide total of $250.2 million.
R
$250 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing basketball film of all time as well as the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1996. It received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided on the out-of-place merits and the concept of combining Jordan and his profession with the Looney Tunes characters, though some praised the technical achievement of blending digitally live-action and animation (particularly in the basketball scenes). A fully-animated crossover sequel with the television series Teen Titans Go!, titled Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam, aired on Cartoon Network on June 20, 2021, while a standalone sequel, titled Space Jam: A New Legacy and starring LeBron James, was released in July 2021. Plot In 1973, a young Michael Jordan tells his father James R. Jordan Sr. that he wants to go to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to play in the championship team, then go to the National Basketball Association (NBA). A compilation of highlights from Jordan's basketball career, which includes highlights from high school, college, the 1984 and the 1992 Olympics, and the Chicago Bulls, is followed by an excerpt from the 1993 press conference in which Jordan announced his retirement from professional basketball to pursue a career in baseball, in which Jordan is popular, but less skilled. Meanwhile, in outer space, the amusement park Moron Mountain faces decline. Its owner, Mr. Swackhammer, sends his diminutive minions, the Nerdlucks, to Earth to abduct the Looney Tunes in order to develop new attractions. Upon the Nerdlucks' arrival, Bugs Bunny and the other Looney Tunes take advantage of the Nerdlucks' small stature and challenge them to a game of basketball. Through a documentary of basketball, the Nerdlucks learn that the sport's best players are employed by the NBA, and accept the proposal. The Nerdlucks go around various basketball games in the USA, stealing the talents of NBA players Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson and Muggsy Bogues, and soon transform themselves into the large, muscular, and talented basketball-playing Monsters, (whom Sylvester dubs Monstars) easily intimidating the Tunes, and prompting Bugs to seek professional help. While golfing with Bill Murray, Larry Bird, and his personal assistant, Stan Podolak, Jordan is suddenly lassoed down a hole and into the Looney Tunes' world. Bugs explains the situation to Jordan, whom hope is placed on as one of the best basketball players in the world. Jordan reluctantly agrees to play after a confrontation with the Monstars insults his pride, and organizes the Tunes into a team, the "Tune Squad". A female bunny named Lola, whom Bugs falls in love with, is added to the team thanks to her talents. Jordan sends Bugs and Daffy Duck back to his house to obtain his basketball gear. When they arrive, Bugs and Daffy meet Jordan's dog and kids, and are later seen by Stan, who follows them back to the cartoon world and joins the team as well. Meanwhile, the sudden incapacity of the five NBA players leads to worldwide panic that results in the season ending early. The players unsuccessfully try to restore their skills through practice, hospitalization, therapy, and prayer. The game between the Tune Squad and the Monstars eventually begins, but the Monstars dominate the first half, sinking the Tune Squad's morale. Stan overhears how the Monstars obtained their talent and informs Jordan. Bugs and Jordan rally the Tune Squad and dominate the third quarter using old-school gags and Acme weaponry. During a timeout, Jordan raises the stakes with Swackhammer: a win by the Tune Squad would require the Monstars returning their stolen talents, while a win by the Monstars would allow Swackhammer to make Jordan a new attraction for Moron Mountain for the rest of his life. Swackhammer then tells the Monstars to "crush the Looney Tunes", which results in the Monstars constantly fouling the players and injuring them seriously. With ten seconds left in the game, the Tune Squad are down by one point and one player, due to most of them being injured from the Monstars' rough playing, leaving only Jordan, Bugs, Lola, and Daffy left. Murray unexpectedly arrives and is recruited to fill the spot. In the final seconds, Jordan gains the ball with Murray's help but is pulled back by the Monstars. Remembering advice from Bugs, he uses cartoon physics to extend his arm and dunk the ball, winning the match with a buzzer beater. After watching Swackhammer admonish the Monstars, Jordan asks the Monstars a question, which causes them to realize that they only listened to him because they were smaller. The Monstars immediately turn on Swackhammer, encasing him in a missile and sending him back to his amusement park. Giving up their stolen talent, the Nerdlucks are recruited into the Looney Tunes ensemble and drop off Jordan at his next baseball game. Later, Jordan visits the incapacitated basketball players and returns their talent, to which the players convince a reluctant Jordan into participating in a three-on-three match. Two years later in 1995, Jordan returns to the Chicago Bulls to resume his basketball career. Cast Live-action Some of the film's live-action cast play fictional versions of themselves: Michael Jordan as himself Brandon Hammond as 10-year-old young Michael Jordan Wayne Knight as Stan Podolak, a publicist and assistant who helps Jordan. Theresa Randle as Juanita Jordan, Michael's supportive wife. Bill Murray as himself, a golfing buddy of Jordan. Larry Bird as himself Manner Washington as Jeffrey Jordan, Jordan's son. Eric Gordon as Marcus Jordan, Jordan's son. Penny Bae Bridges as Jasmine Jordan, Jordan's daughter. Charles Barkley as himself Shawn Bradley as himself Patrick Ewing as himself Larry Johnson as himself Muggsy Bogues as himself Thom Barry as James R. Jordan Sr., Michael's father and Jeffrey, Marcus and Jasmine's grandfather. Anne Lockhart as Baron's manager's wife NBA players Danny Ainge, Steve Kerr, Alonzo Mourning, Horace Grant, A. C. Green, Charles Oakley, Luc Longley, Cedric Ceballos, Derek Harper, Vlade Divac, Brian Shaw, Jeff Malone, Bill Wennington, Anthony Miller and Sharone Wright make cameo appearances in the film, as do coaches Del Harris and Paul Westphal. Broadcasters Ahmad Rashad and Jim Rome also appear, while Dan Castellaneta and Patricia Heaton cameo as basketball fans. Voice cast Billy West as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, and Bull Danny DeVito as Swackhammer, the proprietor of the intergalactic theme park Moron Mountain who seeks new attractions to save his failing business. Bob Bergen as Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Marvin the Martian, Herbie and Bert Bill Farmer as Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn June Foray as Granny Maurice LaMarche as Pepé Le Pew Kath Soucie as Lola Bunny, a female bunny who plays for the Tune Squad whom Bugs falls in love with. Lola is a new Looney Tunes character who is first introduced through this film. Jocelyn Blue as Nerdluck Pound, the aggressive orange leader. Charity James as Nerdluck Blanko, the dim-witted blue member. June Melby as Nerdluck Bang, the neurotic green member. Catherine Reitman as Nerdluck Bupkus, the eccentric purple member. Colleen Wainwright as: Nerdluck Nawt, the smallest yet scheming red member. Sniffles Dorian Harewood as Monstar Bupkus, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Larry Johnson. Joey Camen as Monstar Bang, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Patrick Ewing. T. K. Carter as Monstar Nawt, he becomes human-size after stealing the talent from Muggsy Bogues. Darnell Suttles as Monstar Pound, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Charles Barkley. Steve Kehela as: Monstar Blanko, he becomes big and tall after stealing the talent from Shawn Bradley. Announcer Frank Welker as Charles the Dog, Michael's pet bulldog who menaces Bugs and Daffy when they arrive at Michael's house. Production Development upSpace Jam producer Ivan Reitman in 2011. A conversation between him and a Nike executive sparked the idea of a film starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. In 1992 and 1993, two Nike ads, "Hare Jordan" and "Aerospace Jordan" respectively, aired on television and featured Michael Jordan with the character Bugs Bunny. Directed by Joe Pytka, the production of the 1992 ad was hindered by reluctance from Warner Bros. to allow Nike to modernize Bugs' character, but the commercial success of both ads "was a nice bit of research for Warner Bros. to understand that the Bugs character still had relevance and to tie it in with Michael," explained Pytka. This led to the company green-lighting a film featuring Jordan and Bugs, which came out of a plane meeting between a Nike executive and producer Ivan Reitman. At the same time, Warner Bros. tried to create more "adult, sophisticated material" in the animated film market that deviated from the formula set by Disney. The project was closed when Jordan retired from basketball in 1993, only to be reopened in 1995 when Jordan returned as a basketball player. Pytka was informed about the project only months before the start of principal photography; in addition to being hired as director, he also revised the script, including writing a scene where Jordan hits a home run after he returns to Earth that was filmed, but ultimately never used. Spike Lee was also interested in helping Pytka with the screenplay, but Warner Bros. blocked him from the project out of dissatisfaction from how he funded Malcolm X (1992). According to Pytka, it was difficult to get most actors involved with Space Jam due to its odd premise: "I mean, they're going to work with an animated character and an athlete — are you serious? They just didn't want to do it." Before Wayne Knight was cast as Stan, his initial choices were Michael J. Fox and Chevy Chase, whom he had worked with on Doritos commercials; Warner Bros. rejected both actors. There were also attempts to replace Jordan's character with a more experienced actor, but "we couldn't find anyone better." The easiest actors to obtain were the NBA players, except for Gheorghe Mureșan. The voice casting was very involved, as 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. The casting directors originally planned several voice cameos; however, that did not work out, and Danny DeVito ended up being the only celebrity voice actor in the film, which was for Mr. Swackhammer, who was originally planned to be played by Jack Palance. Swackhammer was also planned to be a live-action character until the very final days of development, with Dennis Hopper possibly playing the role due to his friendship with Pytka. Scale The Classic Animation faction of Warner Bros., which animated the commercials and was located in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, was originally planned to be the only company responsible for Space Jam. However, after only a week, the animation work was so complicated that Warner Bros. contacted more studios, including reassigning the Feature Animation division in Glendale from working on Quest for Camelot (1998) to Space Jam; ten of Classic Animation's members, including the production's animation director Tony Cervone, were taken out of the faction to become involved all throughout production, and development artists were reassigned to animating jobs, including supervising animator Bruce Woodside, who had little faith in the project: "Like so many other animators, I adore the classic Warner Bros. characters, but I really had little hope that tying them to the massive anchor of an apparently doomed marketing scheme could actually give them a successful second life in features." After Cervone was hired as animation director, Jerry Rees contacted Bruce W. Smith about being an animation supervisor on the film; Rees was fired by the time Smith joined, and Pykta hired Smith to be another animation director. Before January 1996, when animation production was put into overdrive, none of the animators' drafts or concepts for how the film should look met with Reitman's approval; Bill Perkins joined that month as animation art director, and when first arriving at the Sherman Oaks division, "we only had around eight months to do about 52 minutes of animation" and "it was just kind of a little skeleton crew." Cervone highlighted Reitman's role as supervisor: "It started off as a string of gags with no structure, and he helped a lot with that." The drafting process involved the animators and artists using the original cartoons as references. Ultimately, they went with Bob Clampett's 1940s style of animation and design due to being wilder than Chuck Jones'. Production of Space Jam totaled around 19 months, with filming taking up ten of them; this was half the time of any other film of its kind according to Smith. The animation was done at a very quick pace by more than 700 workers from 18 studios in London, Canada, California and Ohio, starting January 1996 by the recently joined producers Ron Tippe and Allison Abbate. In trying to track the huge amount work done at the 18 studios, Tippe hung stills of all the shots throughout the Feature Animation faction's hallways, with completed ones marked in red. Features about the film's production, including one from the official website, emphasized its state-of-the art computer technology when it came to its live-action/animation hybrid; "this film could have not been made two years ago," claimed Cervone in 1996. Due to its mixture of various art mediums as well as the "broad sense of humor and entertainment" unique to the Looney Tunes, Smith considered Space Jam an important part of diversifying the animation industry. Space Jam broke the record for amount of composited shots in a featured film, "roughly 1,043" according to Tippe, as well as a record number of FX shots, with around 1,100 in a single 90-minute film; Independence Day (1996), released the same year, had 700 FX shots within two hours of screen time. Tippe claimed the film would have, at most, "multiple characters, multiple levels of effects and, in some cases, up to 70 elements" in one shot. Filming Space Jam was one of the first-ever productions to be shot on a virtual studio. Jordan filmed in a 360-degree green screen room with motion trackers, playing and acting alongside green-suited NBA players and improv actors taken from the Groundlings Theatre and School around him serving as placement identifiers for the animated characters, with a CGI background replica of a real-life setting chroma keyed in. Although Bill Murray initially came in to only work on the golf course scene, he then wanted to be in the climactic basketball game after Pytka showed him the process of how he directed the live-action/animation scenes. This film's opening daytime baseball scene was filmed at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. Concept drawings and discussions between the animators and Pytka about how the animation would be incorporated into the live-action shots took place on set during shooting, and re-writes to the script would be done daily. As an experienced commercial and music video director working on a sports film, Pytka took on fast, unlimited camera movements and Dutch angles; this challenged the animators that had to integrate their characters in the shots. To connect the real and animated worlds together, blue-screen shots of miniatures by Vision Crew Unlimited were used; these include a Christo-inspired interpretation of The Forum arena for exterior shots, city rooftops for a transition scene with a wide skyline view of Chicago serving as the chroma-keyed background, and space ship parts initially produced by Boss Film Studios for a Philip Morris advertisement. Animation Tech Space Jam was one of the earliest animated productions to use digital technology. 2D animation and background layers were first done on paper before being scanned into Silicon Graphics Image files through Cambridge Animation Systems' software Animo; they were then sent to Cinesite via a File Transfer Protocol, for its animators to color and touch upon in Photoshop and composite into the shots. Unlike previous projects that used the Cineon digital film system, Cinesite were working with the quicker Inferno and Flame systems for Space Jam. The Holly render farm utilized for the film consisted of 16 central processing units, four gigabytes of shared memory, and took up one million dollars of the film's budget, "on top of which the deskside boxes had 256 megabytes of ram to splurge on whatever scene you needed to create and render," explained Privett. Cinesite had begun developing proprietary software for motion tracking when working on Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), which involved most of its shots incorporating a digital background; this made the company prepared for Space Jam, which consists of a bunch of moving camera shots with 3D backgrounds to be added. The CGI backgrounds moved around with the motion trackers via Cinesite's proprietary software Ball Buster, which identified the markers through algorithm. To avoid mistakes in the visuals as much as possible, Cinesite artists worked on the film by frame instead of viewing each shot as a whole; those, such as Jonathan Privett were dissatisfied with the method, primarily because it put them under much pressure: "We much preferred the good old fashioned run-at-24-fps, just-as-the-viewer-sees-it approach." Backgrounds The design of the stadium was heavily dictated by that of the film's many characters, and it was such a long process that it went through 94 revisions, explained Cinesite digital effects supervisor Carlos Arguello: "Tasmanian Devil was brown so we couldn’t have a wooden brown upper level, and there were so many colorful characters, and Michael Jordan and everybody had to look good in all the scenes." For scenes that take place in the stadium, shortcuts were made. For crane shots of the crowd of 15,000 people in the final basketball sequence, it was created with live-action extras, cloned animated crowd members, and a few computer-generated characters walking around the aisles in the stadium. When these shots involved camera movements, a few 2D extras were animated to reflect the angle of the camera, but much lighting was added to distract from the crowd, thus minimizing this work. The reflections of the floor on the gym were also "fake[d]" as raytracing would've meant rendering it for four days per a few frames. Characters Abbate suggested the hurried workflow of the animators bled into the character animation, resulting in a quick-witted style the Looney Tunes cartoons are most known for. Although the animators had to work with almost 100 characters, they were the most focused on Bugs and Daffy not only because they were principal characters, but also because they were the most recognizable Warner Bros. characters to general audiences. Sculpting was incorporated the most on Bugs and Lola, including in "beauty shots" or sequences where Bugs and Lola are together. Perkins conceived the idea of the villains being secondary colors, as the main Looney Tunes were primary colors or brown. There was also a lot of experimentation with motion blur with the 2D characters, especially Tweety; as Simon Eves explained, "The workflow was that an artist would track some specific points on the sequence of 2D character-on-black that came from the animation house, and I think it was able to take a basic roto shape as well, and then it would generate an interpolated motion vector field which could be applied as a variable directional blur. The field would deform based on the relative motion of the tracking points on the camera, to produce more accurate blur as the character deformed." Music The soundtrack sold enough albums to be certified as 6-times 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 Barry White & Chris Rock), "Pump up the Jam" (by Technotronic), "I Turn to You" (by All-4-One) and "For You I Will" (by Monica). The film's title song was performed by the Quad City DJ's. There was also an original scoring soundtrack featuring most of James Newton Howard's scores from the film, except the main Merrie Melodies Theme itself. Release Warner Bros. released Space Jam through its Family Entertainment division on November 15, 1996. Box office Space Jam grossed $
$250 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing basketball film of all time as well as the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1996. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics, who were divided on the out-of-place merits and the concept of combining Jordan and his profession with the Looney Tunes characters, though some praised the technical achievement of blending digitally live-action and animation (particularly in the basketball scenes). A fully-animated crossover sequel with the television series Teen Titans Go!, titled Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam, aired on Cartoon Network on June 20, 2021, while a standalone sequel, titled Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring LeBron James, is scheduled for release on July 16, 2021. Plot In 1973, a young Michael Jordan tells his father James R. Jordan Sr. that he wants to go to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to play in the championship team, then go to the National Basketball Association (NBA). A compilation of highlights from Jordan's basketball career, which includes highlights from high school, college, the 1984 and the 1992 Olympics, and the Chicago Bulls, is followed by an excerpt from the 1993 press conference in which Jordan announced his retirement from professional basketball to pursue a career in baseball, in which Jordan is popular, but less skilled. Meanwhile, in outer space, the amusement park Moron Mountain faces decline. Its owner, Mr. Swackhammer, sends his diminutive minions, the Nerdlucks, to Earth to abduct the Looney Tunes in order to develop new attractions. Upon the Nerdlucks' arrival, Bugs Bunny and the other Looney Tunes take advantage of the Nerdlucks' small stature and challenge them to a game of basketball. Through a documentary of basketball, the Nerdlucks learn that the sport's best players are employed by the NBA, and accept the proposal. The Nerdlucks go around various basketball games in the USA, stealing the talents of NBA players Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson and Muggsy Bogues, and soon transform themselves into the large, muscular, and talented basketball-playing Monsters, (whom Sylvester dubs Monstars) easily intimidating the Tunes, and prompting Bugs to seek professional help. While golfing with Bill Murray, Larry Bird, and his personal assistant, Stan Podolak, Jordan is suddenly lassoed down a hole and into the Looney Tunes' world. Bugs explains the situation to Jordan, whom hope is placed on as one of the best basketball players in the world. Jordan reluctantly agrees to play after a confrontation with the Monstars insults his pride, and organizes the Tunes into a team, the "Tune Squad". A female bunny named Lola, whom Bugs falls in love with, is added to the team thanks to her talents. Jordan sends Bugs and Daffy Duck back to his house to obtain his basketball gear. When they arrive, Bugs and Daffy meet Jordan's dog and kids, and are later seen by Stan, who follows them back to the cartoon world and joins the team as well. Meanwhile, the sudden incapacity of the five NBA players leads to worldwide panic that results in the season ending early. The players unsuccessfully try to restore their skills through practice, hospitalization, therapy, and prayer. The game between the Tune Squad and the Monstars eventually begins, but the Monstars dominate the first half, sinking the Tune Squad's morale. Stan overhears how the Monstars obtained their talent and informs Jordan. Bugs and Jordan rally the Tune Squad and dominate the third quarter using old-school gags and Acme weaponry. During a timeout, Jordan raises the stakes with Swackhammer: a win by the Tune Squad would require the Monstars returning their stolen talents, while a win by the Monstars would allow Swackhammer to make Jordan a new attraction for Moron Mountain for the rest of his life. With ten seconds left in the game, the Tune Squad are down by one point and one player, due to most of them being injured from the Monstars' rough playing, leaving only Jordan, Bugs, Lola, and Daffy left. Murray unexpectedly arrives and is recruited to fill the spot. In the final seconds, Jordan gains the ball with Murray's help but is pulled back by the Monstars. Remembering advice from Bugs, he uses cartoon physics to extend his arm and dunk the ball, winning the match with a buzzer beater. After watching Swackhammer admonish the Monstars, Jordan helps them realize that they only listened to him because they were smaller. The Monstars encase Swackhammer in a missile and send him back to his amusement park. Giving up their stolen talent, the Nerdlucks are recruited into the Looney Tunes ensemble and drop off Jordan at his next baseball game. Later, Jordan visits the incapacitated basketball players and returns their talent, to which the players convince a reluctant Jordan into participating in a three-on-three match. Two years later in 1995, Jordan returns to the Chicago Bulls to resume his basketball career. Cast Live-action Some of the film's live-action cast play fictional versions of themselves: Michael Jordan as himself Brandon Hammond as 10-year-old young Michael Jordan Wayne Knight as Stan Podolak, a publicist and assistant who helps Jordan. Theresa Randle as Juanita Jordan, Michael's supportive wife. Bill Murray as himself, a golfing buddy of Jordan. Larry Bird as himself Manner Washington as Jeffrey Jordan, Jordan's son. Eric Gordon as Marcus Jordan, Jordan's son. Penny Bae Bridges as Jasmine Jordan, Jordan's daughter. Charles Barkley as himself Shawn Bradley as himself Patrick Ewing as himself Larry Johnson as himself Muggsy Bogues as himself Thom Barry as James R. Jordan Sr., Michael's father and Jeffrey, Marcus and Jasmine's grandfather. Anne Lockhart as Baron's manager's wife NBA players Danny Ainge, Steve Kerr, Alonzo Mourning, Horace Grant, A. C. Green, Charles Oakley, Luc Longley, Cedric Ceballos, Derek Harper, Vlade Divac, Brian Shaw, Jeff Malone, Bill Wennington, Anthony Miller and Sharone Wright make cameo appearances in the film, as do coaches Del Harris and Paul Westphal. Broadcasters Ahmad Rashad and Jim Rome also appear, while Dan Castellaneta and Patricia Heaton cameo as basketball fans. Voice cast Billy West as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, and Bull Danny DeVito as Swackhammer, the proprietor of the intergalactic theme park Moron Mountain who seeks new attractions to save his failing business. Bob Bergen as Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Marvin the Martian, Herbie and Bert Bill Farmer as Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn June Foray as Granny Maurice LaMarche as Pepé Le Pew Kath Soucie as Lola Bunny, a female bunny who plays for the Tune Squad whom Bugs falls in love with. Lola is a new Looney Tunes character who is first introduced through this film. Jocelyn Blue as Nerdluck Pound, the aggressive orange leader. Charity James as Nerdluck Blanko, the dim-witted blue member. June Melby as Nerdluck Bang, the neurotic green member. Catherine Reitman as Nerdluck Bupkus, the eccentric purple member. Colleen Wainwright as: Nerdluck Nawt, the smallest yet scheming red member. Sniffles Dorian Harewood as Monstar Bupkus, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Larry Johnson. Joey Camen as Monstar Bang, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Patrick Ewing. T. K. Carter as Monstar Nawt, he becomes human-size after stealing the talent from Muggsy Bogues. Darnell Suttles as Monstar Pound, he becomes big and muscular after stealing the talent from Charles Barkley. Steve Kehela as: Monstar Blanko, he becomes big and tall after stealing the talent from Shawn Bradley. Announcer Frank Welker as Charles the Dog, Michael's pet bulldog who menaces Bugs and Daffy when they arrive at Michael's house. Production Development upSpace Jam producer Ivan Reitman in 2011. A conversation between him and a Nike executive sparked the idea of a film starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. In 1992 and 1993, two Nike ads, "Hare Jordan" and "Aerospace Jordan" respectively, aired on television and featured Michael Jordan with the character Bugs Bunny. Directed by Joe Pytka, the production of the 1992 ad was hindered by reluctance from Warner Bros. to allow Nike to modernize Bugs' character, but the commercial success of both ads "was a nice bit of research for Warner Bros. to understand that the Bugs character still had relevance and to tie it in with Michael," explained Pytka. This led to the company green-lighting a film featuring Jordan and Bugs, which came out of a plane meeting between a Nike executive and producer Ivan Reitman. At the same time, Warner Bros. tried to create more "adult, sophisticated material" in the animated film market that deviated from the formula set by Disney. The project was closed when Jordan retired from basketball in 1993, only to be reopened in 1995 when Jordan returned as a basketball player. Pytka was informed about the project only months before the start of principal photography; in addition to being hired as director, he also revised the script, including writing a scene where Jordan hits a home run after he returns to Earth that was filmed, but ultimately never used. Spike Lee was also interested in helping Pytka with the screenplay, but Warner Bros. blocked him from the project out of dissatisfaction from how he funded Malcolm X (1992). According to Pytka, it was difficult to get most actors involved with Space Jam due to its odd premise: "I mean, they're going to work with an animated character and an athlete — are you serious? They just didn't want to do it." Before Wayne Knight was cast as Stan, his initial choices were Michael J. Fox and Chevy Chase, whom he had worked with on Doritos commercials; Warner Bros. rejected both actors. There were also attempts to replace Jordan's character with a more experienced actor, but "we couldn't find anyone better." The easiest actors to obtain were the NBA players, except for Gheorghe Mureșan. The voice casting was very involved, as 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. The casting directors originally planned several voice cameos; however, that did not work out, and Danny DeVito ended up being the only celebrity voice actor in the film, which was for Mr. Swackhammer, who was originally planned to be played by Jack Palance. Swackhammer was also planned to be a live-action character until the very final days of development, with Dennis Hopper possibly playing the role due to his friendship with Pytka. Scale The Classic Animation faction of Warner Bros., which animated the commercials and was located in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, was originally planned to be the only company responsible for Space Jam. However, after only a week, the animation work was so complicated that Warner Bros. contacted more studios, including reassigning the Feature Animation division in Glendale from working on Quest for Camelot (1998) to Space Jam; ten of Classic Animation's members, including the production's animation director Tony Cervone, were taken out of the faction to become involved all throughout production, and development artists were reassigned to animating jobs, including supervising animator Bruce Woodside, who had little faith in the project: "Like so many other animators, I adore the classic Warner Bros. characters, but I really had little hope that tying them to the massive anchor of an apparently doomed marketing scheme could actually give them a successful second life in features." After Cervone was hired as animation director, Jerry Rees contacted Bruce W. Smith about being an animation supervisor on the film; Rees was fired by the time Smith joined, and Pykta hired Smith to be another animation director. Before January 1996, when animation production was put into overdrive, none of the animators' drafts or concepts for how the film should look met with Reitman's approval; Bill Perkins joined that month as animation art director, and when first arriving at the Sherman Oaks division, "we only had around eight months to do about 52 minutes of animation" and "it was just kind of a little skeleton crew." Cervone highlighted Reitman's role as supervisor: "It started off as a string of gags with no structure, and he helped a lot with that." The drafting process involved the animators and artists using the original cartoons as references. Ultimately, they went with Bob Clampett's 1940s style of animation and design due to being wilder than Chuck Jones'. Production of Space Jam totaled around 19 months, with filming taking up ten of them; this was half the time of any other film of its kind according to Smith. The animation was done at a very quick pace by more than 700 workers from 18 studios in London, Canada, California and Ohio, starting January 1996 by the recently joined producers Ron Tippe and Allison Abbate. In trying to track the huge amount work done at the 18 studios, Tippe hung stills of all the shots throughout the Feature Animation faction's hallways, with completed ones marked in red. Features about the film's production, including one from the official website, emphasized its state-of-the art computer technology when it came to its live-action/animation hybrid; "this film could have not been made two years ago," claimed Cervone in 1996. Due to its mixture of various art mediums as well as the "broad sense of humor and entertainment" unique to the Looney Tunes, Smith considered Space Jam an important part of diversifying the animation industry. Space Jam broke the record for amount of composited shots in a featured film, "roughly 1,043" according to Tippe, as well as a record number of FX shots, with around 1,100 in a single 90-minute film; Independence Day (1996), released the same year, had 700 FX shots within two hours of screen time. Tippe claimed the film would have, at most, "multiple characters, multiple levels of effects and, in some cases, up to 70 elements" in one shot. Filming Space Jam was one of the first-ever productions to be shot on a virtual studio. Jordan filmed in a 360-degree green screen room with motion trackers, playing and acting alongside green-suited NBA players and improv actors taken from the Groundlings Theatre and School around him serving as placement identifiers for the animated characters, with a CGI background replica of a real-life setting chroma keyed in. Although Bill Murray initially came in to only work on the golf course scene, he then wanted to be in the climactic basketball game after Pytka showed him the process of how he directed the live-action/animation scenes. This film's opening daytime baseball scene was filmed at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. Concept drawings and discussions between the animators and Pytka about how the animation would be incorporated into the live-action shots took place on set during shooting, and re-writes to the script would be done daily. As an experienced commercial and music video director working on a sports film, Pytka took on fast, unlimited camera movements and Dutch angles; this challenged the animators that had to integrate their characters in the shots. To connect the real and animated worlds together, blue-screen shots of miniatures by Vision Crew Unlimited were used; these include a Christo-inspired interpretation of The Forum arena for exterior shots, city rooftops for a transition scene with a wide skyline view of Chicago serving as the chroma-keyed background, and space ship parts initially produced by Boss Film Studios for a Philip Morris advertisement. Animation Tech Space Jam was one of the earliest animated productions to use digital technology. 2D animation and background layers were first done on paper before being scanned into Silicon Graphics Image files through Cambridge Animation Systems' software Animo; they were then sent to Cinesite via a File Transfer Protocol, for its animators to color and touch upon in Photoshop and composite into the shots. Unlike previous projects that used the Cineon digital film system, Cinesite were working with the quicker Inferno and Flame systems for Space Jam. The Holly render farm utilized for the film consisted of 16 central processing units, four gigabytes of shared memory, and took up one million dollars of the film's budget, "on top of which the deskside boxes had 256 megabytes of ram to splurge on whatever scene you needed to create and render," explained Privett. Cinesite had begun developing proprietary software for motion tracking when working on Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), which involved most of its shots incorporating a digital background; this made the company prepared for Space Jam, which consists of a bunch of moving camera shots with 3D backgrounds to be added. The CGI backgrounds moved around with the motion trackers via Cinesite's proprietary software Ball Buster, which identified the markers through algorithm. To avoid mistakes in the visuals as much as possible, Cinesite artists worked on the film by frame instead of viewing each shot as a whole; those, such as Jonathan Privett were dissatisfied with the method, primarily because it put them under much pressure: "We much preferred the good old fashioned run-at-24-fps, just-as-the-viewer-sees-it approach." Backgrounds The design of the stadium was heavily dictated by that of the film's many characters, and it was such a long process that it went through 94 revisions, explained Cinesite digital effects supervisor Carlos Arguello: "Tasmanian Devil was brown so we couldn’t have a wooden brown upper level, and there were so many colorful characters, and Michael Jordan and everybody had to look good in all the scenes." For scenes that take place in the stadium, shortcuts were made. For crane shots of the crowd of 15,000 people in the final basketball sequence, it was created with live-action extras, cloned animated crowd members, and a few computer-generated characters walking around the aisles in the stadium. When these shots involved camera movements, a few 2D extras were animated to reflect the angle of the camera, but much lighting was added to distract from the crowd, thus minimizing this work. The reflections of the floor on the gym were also "fake[d]" as raytracing would've meant rendering it for four days per a few frames. Characters Abbate suggested the hurried workflow of the animators bled into the character animation, resulting in a quick-witted style the Looney Tunes cartoons are most known for. Although the animators had to work with almost 100 characters, they were the most focused on Bugs and Daffy not only because they were principal characters, but also because they were the most recognizable Warner Bros. characters to general audiences. Sculpting was incorporated the most on Bugs and Lola, including in "beauty shots" or sequences where Bugs and Lola are together. Perkins conceived the idea of the villains being secondary colors, as the main Looney Tunes were primary colors or brown. There was also a lot of experimentation with motion blur with the 2D characters, especially Tweety; as Simon Eves explained, "The workflow was that an artist would track some specific points on the sequence of 2D character-on-black that came from the animation house, and I think it was able to take a basic roto shape as well, and then it would generate an interpolated motion vector field which could be applied as a variable directional blur. The field would deform based on the relative motion of the tracking points on the camera, to produce more accurate blur as the character deformed." Music The soundtrack sold enough albums to be certified as 6-times 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 Barry White & Chris Rock), "Pump up the Jam" (by Technotronic), "I Turn to You" (by All-4-One) and "For You I Will" (by Monica). The film's title song was performed by the Quad City DJ's. There was also an original scoring soundtrack featuring most of James Newton Howard's scores from the film, except the main Merrie Melodies Theme itself. Release Warner Bros. released Space Jam through its Family Entertainment division on November 15, 1996. Box office Space Jam grossed $