When he was growing up my brothers’ two favorite things on the planet were sports and cartoons. Every morning he would be mesmerized by his favorite cartoon characters, and every afternoon he would want to go and play basketball or football with his friends. I imagine that his two obsessions were similar to the favorites of every other boy his age.
The movie “Space Jam” takes both those things and puts them together in a movie. Space Jam is for the most part a basketball movie. Rather than be full of basketball stars however, Space Jam is full of cartoon characters making way for one very important basketball star, Michael Jordan.
The basic premise of the movie is that a group of aliens want to take Bugs Bunny to their planet. In an attempt to stay on earth Bugs challenges them to a game of basketball. If they win, he goes, if he wins they he gets to stay. It seems like an easy bet, the aliens don’t seem very strong, so of course the Looney Toons will win. Think again.
Bugs then realizes that the aliens have a special talent to absorb the talents of others. For this particular task the aliens have gone to NBA stars like Larry Johnson and Charles Barkley to get their talent.
There is one basketball talent the aliens haven’t tapped into, the then baseball player Michael Jordan. Desperate to save himself and his friends Bugs goes to Michael for help.
For the most part this is a pretty kid friendly movie. The only thing to advise against is perhaps some of the naming choices in the movie. The planet the Looney Toons are going to be sent to is “Nerdluck”, specifically a part of a theme park called “Moron Mountain”.
Space jam is available where DVDs are sold and online through Amazon.com