Space Jam: A New Legacy

The ‘world’s greatest athlete’ meets his match when an algorithm challenges him to a basketball game in a parallel universe.

Just loony: LeBron James with Sylvester, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Lola Bunny

In Warner Bros’ audacious Space Jam (1996), basketball legend Michael Jordan teamed up with Bugs Bunny to play a team of aliens. It was a one-off. At least, it should’ve been. A generation later, current basketball superstar LeBron James bounces into Jordan’s trainers for a re-play. This time, the hoopster is competing against a far more insidious antagonist – a humanoid algorithm. It’s a head trip, played out in a parallel universe, buried deep in the vault of Warner Bros’ server bank in Burbank. It’s there that Al-G Rhythm (Don Cheadle) struggles for global recognition and turns father against son. So LeBron James finds himself playing a game against his own child in order to secure the latter’s freedom from this digital netherworld.

This is essentially Tron meets Ralph Breaks the Internet with an all-star cast. But in order for this to work on any dramatic level, it needs more than a wild-and-crazy basketball game without rules. Steven Spielberg knew this when he conjured up Ready Player One, the last word in alternative interior worlds. Here, it would seem that LeBron James’ popularity and a troupe of Looney Tuners is enough to warrant a movie – even though it’s playing to two different generations (and interests). Basketball fans might get a little more out of Space Jam than most, but it seems unlikely. Besides the plot’s mawkishness (LeBron is more interested in his sport than his son – or is he?), slapdash animation and predictable outcome, A New Legacy lacks any narrative sophistication.

Don Cheadle is a fine actor, but he’s never been asked to play a mathematical entity before and his villainy is vapid. Worse, LeBron has all the screen charisma of a billboard, while the rest of the cast has little to get its teeth into. The real stars are the animated members of the Looney Tune stable, from Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to Porky Pig and the Tasmanian Devil. Yet the film doesn’t stop there. With Warners’ entire back catalogue at its disposal, A New Legacy hurls in every figure it can think of for no other reason than it can. So, in the same sequence, we have Mike Myers’ Austin Powers blended with Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa Lund from Casablanca. However, when you merge all the colours of the rainbow, you just get brown. Film buffs may get some pleasure from spotting their favourite WB characters from the spectators at the match – they’re certainly a bizarre bunch. And so Sister Jeanne des Anges from Ken Russell's The Devils whoops it up alongside Fred Flintstone, the Droogs from A Clockwork Orange and, cheekily, Dorothy from MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. No doubt the film extras had a whale of a time.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: LeBron James, Don Cheadle, Khris Davis, Sonequa Martin-Green, Cedric Joe, Ernie Johnson Jr, Lil Rel Howery, Wood Harris, Sarah Silverman, Steven Yeun, Michael B. Jordan;

Voices of  Jeff Bergman, Eric Bauza, Zendaya, Bob Bergen, Candi Milo, Gabriel Iglesias, Jim Cummings, Rosario Dawson.

Dir Malcolm D. Lee, Pro Ryan Coogler, LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Duncan Henderson, Ex Pro Zinzi Coogler, Ivan Reitman and Justin Lin, Screenplay Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Keenan Coogler, Terence Nance, Jesse Gordon and Celeste Ballard, Ph Salvatore Totino, Pro Des Akin McKenzie and Clint Wallace, Ed Bob Ducsay, Music Kris Bowers, Costumes Melissa Bruning.

Warner Animation Group/Proximity Media/The SpringHill Company-Warner Bros.
115 mins. USA. 2021. Rel: 16 July 2021. Cert. U.