A triumph of merchandising rather than moviemaking, this garish follow-up to the 1996 animated/live-action team-up of basketball superstar Michel Jordan and many of the characters from the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies stable is a misguided combination of sitcom-caliber set-up, saccharine father-and-son bonding, eye-and-ear-splitting CGI hoops action and pointless appearances by droves of supposedly iconic figures from the Warner Brothers movie-and-TV catalog.
It also provides a showcase for LeBron James, who replaces Jordan as the human star; the movie’s treatment of him comes perilously close to idolatry. What passes for the emotional core of the plot is the strained relationship between James and his son Dom (Cedric Joe), who longs to be a video-game creator while his daddy pressures him instead to hone his basketball skills.
Their relationship reaches a breaking point during a pitch meeting with some empty-headed studio executives, where Dom is seduced by an A.I. figure called Al-G Rhythm (Don Cheadle), master of the company’s “Serververse,” to collaborate in creating a basketball video game in which his father and a “Toon Team” consisting of Bugs Bunny and friends will have to face a “Goon Squad” of grotesque avatars of some NBA and WNBA stars. As LeBron and Bugs scramble to assemble their team, James temporarily morphs into a cartoon himself, which frankly improves his performance.
This first half of the movie has some engaging moments, but when it turns to the game itself, things really go wrong. The toon characters, previously drawn in mediocre 2D, morph into unattractive CGI form, and Al-G fills the stands with characters from the Warners catalog, some actors in bad costumes and others animated. The game action is frantically chaotic, filled with gags intended to be hilarious that fall miserably flat. Along with Cheadle’s hysterical rants and the blinding visuals, they make the movie feel endless, and the inevitable reconciliation between LeBron and Dom is incredibly sappy.
One finds oneself wishing that Porky would just burst through the screen to shout “That’s all, folks!” Rather than celebrating the Warners cartoon legacy, this Space Jam reboot degrades it, while doing nothing to elevate LeBron’s brand. Still, given the nostalgia factor for fans of the Looney Tunes characters and the superstar status of James, this will have to be considered at least an optional purchase for collections in family entertainment.