Space Jam (1996) review

(5/10)

This fun, basketball and Looney Tune movie is a classic to some, and is fairly entertaining, but for the most part, it seems just like propaganda for basketball fans with Looney Tunes to help it appeal to a wider audience than it actually accomplishes.

PLOT:There's a planet far out in space home to a theme park losing it's target audience to boredom, so the big, bad boss sends his tiny and dim-witted henchmen to Earth to fetch what he thinks will bring the kids back to his park: the Looney Tunes. The aliens go to Earth and try to steal away the Looney Tunes and force them into his boss's money-grabbing slavery, but the toons convince the aliens to give them a fair fight. Bugs Bunny and the rest of the toons decide on an event that goes against the current physical ability of the tiny, harmless aliens: basketball. The plan seems to work well until the aliens sneak into the human world and steal away the talents of many talented basketball players, such as Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and Larry Bird, turning them into a big, strong, brutal team of skilled players named the Mon-stars. Knowing they now need help to win their freedom, the toons go to the human world and get the help of Michael Jordan, one of the best basketball players out there. Will Michael Jordan get the toons into shape and help win their freedom? It's a decent plot executed almost decently.



ACTING/VOICES:The acting and voice acting in this movie is okay. Billy West, D. Bradley Baker, and Bob Bergen provide the voicing for the various Looney Tunes characters throughout, such as Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, and many others. They don't sound as authentic compared to the original, but they get the job done enough. Michael Jordan does an okay job as himself, the basketball player new to the toon world, as well as the other players, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, and Larry Bird. The voice acting and regular acting in this movie was just okay overall. Nobody truly surprised me. However, the other shiners (or honorable mentions) would be Wayne Knight as Stan, Bill Murray as himself, Danny DeVito as Swackhammer, Kath Soucie as Lola Bunny, and June Foray as Granny.

SCORE:The soundtrack of this movie was mainly made up of special songs composed specifically for the movie, including a modernized version of the classic, "Fly Like an Eagle". The score itself was nothing truly special.

ANIMATION:The animation in this movie was pretty good. The Looney Tunes are animated in a more modernized version of how they were back then, except set in the real world. It was okay overall. It got the job done.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie was just okay to me. I loved the fact that it had the Looney Tunes in it, and Michael Jordan played fairly well off the jokes they made. It was entertaining for the most part, and a good bit of fun. However, this movie is almost strictly for the fans of basketball. Even with the Looney Tunes added, most of the movie is centered around basketball and knowing MJ and the other players. Also, a lot of the jokes in here seemed just too juvenile and aimed toward the kids. I hardly laughed. The movie wasn't terrible, but it wasn't too good either.

OVERALL,a neutral movie with an almost-decent plot, okay acting and voices, a score and soundtrack not too special, okay animation, some good moments from the toons, and a bit of entertaining fun, but the movie is mainly for basketball fans, and the humor seems a bit too juvenile and childish.