75 out of 75 people found this review helpful.
Space Jam: It's Jammin'!
Date of Review: Jun 28, 2001
The Bottom Line: As Jessica Rabbit might say, "The Nerdluck's aren't really bad. They're just drawn that way."
I was amazed when Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out years ago. The combination of live action and cartoon characters was incredible. Well, here Hollywood has done it again. Space Jam brings together real people and cartoons into a funny and exciting show.
The story begins on Moron Mountain, a theme park in outer space. The tourists aren't coming anymore. Swackmore (Danny DeVito), the head of the Nerdluck's sends his troops after the cartoon characters of Looney Toons. He plans to make them slaves at Moron Mountain, to entertain the guests.
When the Nerdlucks land in the world of Looney Tunes, they are tiny. With their ray guns, they take the toons prisoner. The toons convince the Nerdlucks to let them go if the toons can beat them at basketball. No problem, except the toons don't know that the Nerdluck's can absorb the talents and skills of basketball players.
They go to the NBA and steal the talents of Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsey Bogues, Larry Johnson and Shawn Bradley. With their talents gone, the players are in a tizzy. Meanwhile, the Nerdlucks absorb the talents and grow to gigantic proportions. Now, they are the "Monstars" basketball team.
The Toons, in an attempt to save themselves, call on the talents of now baseball player Michael Jordan. Jordan is great in the way in which he interacts with the toons. He also shows himself as a role model throughout the film. First, we get to see him as a family man. Later, we see him standing up to the Monstars when they are bullying. We also see him accepting of Lola Bunny (the only toon who has played basketball before) and being very gentle with Tweety when he gets hurt.
This is a funny movie. I watched it with a roomful of fourth graders and they were absolutely mesmerized by it. (They did laugh at the end when the last 10 seconds of the game stretch out and they caught it.)
Besides being a fun movie, this movie also has some good messages about fighting for what you believe in, about how people should be treated and about judging people based on ability. I love this movie and highly recommend it. Michael Jordan may not be an actor, but he's charming enough on screen just being himself that he doesn't have to be.
