If you were expecting a true sequel to the original Space Jam released in 1996, I regret to inform you that this is not that movie. If you were expecting a well-written cinematic masterpiece, I regret to inform you that this is also not that movie. Space Jam: A New Legacy is less of a sequel to the original and more like a modernized ABC Afterschool Special.
LeBron James plays LeBron James, a basketball superstar and bumbling dad insistent on pushing his sons to follow in his basketball footsteps. The movie opens with a flashback of a young LeBron heading into a school gymnasium before a basketball game and being gifted a hand-me-down Game Boy from his friend Malik. LeBron is so engrossed in this new toy that his coach must call him to attention during the game. Later, when he’s leading the charge on a final play, he misses what should have been the game-winning shot. After the game, his coach takes him aside to express disappointment that LeBron had been distracted by video games and had not given his all on the court.
Flash forward to present-day, where LeBron’s sons are on a private basketball court. Older son Darius (Ceyair J Wright) practices shooting while his younger brother Dom (Cedric Joe) sits on a nearby bench playing a handheld video game. LeBron joins the boys on the court, and calls out Dom’s halfhearted effort.
Later, LeBron visits Dom’s room, where he plays a game his son created called “DomBall,” which combines realistic basketball moves with bonus video game abilities. Dom would rather go to a game design camp than basketball camp. Later, he accompanies LeBron to a meeting at Warner Bros. Studios, where two executives (Sarah Silverman and Steven Yeun) attempt to pitch LeBron on an augmented reality device called the Warner 3000, which gives users the ability to insert themselves into WB movies and livestream it to all their social media followers.
SJ: ANL is doing a lot, and not in the best way. What it lacks in plot development it more than makes up for by packing in cameos and top-notch hand drawn and computer-generated animation. If you told me a group of executives sat around brainstorming how to cram in as many culturally irrelevant intellectual properties as possible, I would absolutely believe it.
The Warner 3000 is a creation of a sentient AI called Al G Rhythm (played fabulously by Don Cheadle), who tries to persuade LeBron to help him promote this new innovative technology. After LeBron rejects the pitch, Al G tricks him and Dom into entering “The Serververse.” He then kidnaps Dom and challenges LeBron to play a game of basketball to get his son back and free them from the Serververse. If he loses, they must stay forever. LeBron travels to Toon World to enlist Bugs Bunny in his quest to assemble a basketball team to beat Al G’s Goon Squad. LeBron and Bugs hijack Marvin the Martian’s spaceship and set off through the Serververse to collect various Loony Toons characters to build the Toon Squad: Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Granny, Tweety, Sylvester, Porky Pig, Speedy Gonzalez, Foghorn Leghorn, Taz, Lola Bunny, and a hairy red monster called Gossamer.
Meanwhile, Al G exploits Dom’s resentment toward his dad, and convinces him to give up the code to DomBall. That makes the big game a lot more interesting. Al G’s Goon Squad includes characters based on, and voiced by, real NBA and WNBA players: Wet-Fire (Klay Thompson), Chronos (Damian Lillard), The Brow (Anthony Davis), White Mamba (Diana Taurasi), and Arachnneka (Nneka Ogwumike). TBS’s Ernie Johnson and Lil Rel Howery from Get Out are transported in to serve as play-by-play announcers.
Whew. I told you this movie was doing a lot. It is not a great film by any metric, but Space Jam: A New Legacy does have something for everyone: feel-good family moments, Porky Pig dropping a rap verse, fictional character cameos, an entertaining battle of something akin to basketball, and a metric ton of CGI.
If you have elementary school-aged children or nostalgia for the ’90s, this might be a movie for you. Everyone else can safely skip it.