Night At The Movies

Space Jam (1996) (Warner Brothers)

Synopsis:

When a group of diminuitive aliens who want to kidnap Bugs and the gang challenge the Looney Tunes to a basketball game, the Tunes think they will have no problem.  However, the aliens steal their talent from Charles Barkley, Mugsy Bouges, Shawn Bradley, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing.  Bugs, Daffy and the others call on Michael Jordan during his retirement a couple of years back to help give them a fighting chance against these Monstars.

Availability:
VHS:  Pan and Scan only
DVD

Cast/Crew:
Michael Jordan                                Himself

Wayne Knight
    Seinfeld (television)
    Third Rock from the Sun (television)
    Jurassic Park

Bill Murray                                    Himself
    Caddyshack
    Ghostbusters
    Ghostbusters 2
    The Man Who Knew Too Little
    What About Bob

Danny Devito
    Hercules
    Matilda
    Twins
    Junior
    Throw Momma Off The Train
 
Miscellaneous:
The stadium towards the end is filled with Warner Brother Looney Tunes, but if you look closely, you'll see several of them repeated many times, and it is not because the camera focuses on a particular section all of the time.  The animators thought there would be a lot of characters to put in, but when they took a look, there were only a couple of hundered characters, when they needed around two to three thousand.
The idea for the film came from Super Bowl Nike ads in which Michael Jordan and his Air Jordan shoes teamed up with Bugs Bunny and his HARE Jordan shoes to fight aliens and evil basketball denziens.
If you listen closely, Shawn Bradley tells the psychiatrist that he might return home to the farm or go on another mission to Africa.  He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and served a mission in Australia, where he created a media frenzy when he announced he would go directly to the pros.

MPAA Rating:
PG    Language (definitely not your Saturday Morning fare)

My Rating:
Extremely weak story.  I am a huge animation fan, and I believe that story is 99% of the film.  Regardless of how good it looks, if the story stinks, the whole film loses value.  Oh well, I paid money to see it opening night, and I have the video (which I got for free).  The animation is great (it is really good to see a ninties style on the WB characters), and I like watching Mike play, but this is not a good film.  Good for younger kids and Michael Jordan fans.

**1/2
S-Z
Night at the Movies