COME ON AND SLAM, AND WELCOME TO THE JAM

[Commode]

I honestly don't care if it's because of LeBron or not.  So many people are focusing which one is better the one with Jordan or the one with LeBron.  To me the more attention this movie and the characters get the better.  I like basketball, but have no interest in debating which one of these is better because of the basketball star that's in each, because the truth is both are pretty terrible.

I don't know, guess we will see in a couple years with this Wile E Coyote movie coming up.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I watched both movies back to back with friends last Friday. Well, we watched Looney Tunes: Back in Action in between, but basically back to back. I don't know which Space Jam is better, necessarily. I think I like Michael Jordan and more scenes in the original more, like the montage of all the basketball stars dealing with the loss of their skills and all of Bill Murray's scenes, I like the Nerdlucks and Danny DeVito as antagonists more than Al G Rythem, and the soundtrack is way more memorable. And even though both movies are essentially glorified commercials, the original is at least less obnoxiously overwhelming about it. That said, New Legacy has a more coherent story and LeBron's a better actor than Jordan, and the relationship between him and his son and how it relates to the Looney Tunes tracks better. I also did like a lot of the traditional animation in it, and even appreciated Bugs just wanting to reunite his friends, even if it was very uncharacteristic of him. I think most of the parodies/cameos were pretty shallow or missed opportunities, but I honestly did laugh hard at Coyote and Roadrunner in Mad Max and would totally be up for them to make an actual short like that. Coyote, Sylvester, and Granny probably had the best moments in the movie out of all the Looney Tunes in general. But I was very disappointed Daffy didn't play and was just the manager, and he definitely got way less to do here than in the original. Overall, I think nostalgia wins out for me in terms of what I would watch again, but both films are far lesser than Back in Action as far as live-action/animated LT films so it's kinda a moot point either way.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I kind of liked that the sequel was a shameless commercial. It was such a ridiculous trainwreck that it entertained me. And it's ironic because the first film was directed by a guy who only did one other movie but hundreds of commercials and music videos, while the sequel was by Spike Lee's cousin Malcolm D Lee who is a seasoned filmmaker. Granted, I haven't cared for his previous films, thought Barbershop 3 and Undercover Brother were mediocre, but he still had more experience making movies than the first guy.

But they should've gotten Lord and Miller or a someone like them to direct this film. Hire someone who thrives in animated comedy to do a Looney Tunes film for once.

[Avaitor]

I got around to the new film the other night, and yeah, it's not very good. It's funny, I had rewatched both the original and Back in Action in the past year, and I thought that the original Space Jam couldn't get any worse, yet here we go. Back in Action, meanwhile, is far from perfect, but it's the closest thing to a good Looney Tunes film we'll ever get. Aside from like, Roger Rabbit.

I do agree that LeBron is a better actor than Michael, and I do think that making his family a little more involved was good for the narrative. The animation was also pretty nice, both the hand-drawn material, and the CG models. Although I'll admit that when we hit that point, I was more interested in finding the Hanna-Barbera characters in the background. The Scooby gang looks similar to their takes on Scoob, so I was wondering if these were model tests for potential Flintstones, Jetsons, Wacky Races, Herculoids etc films.

But it's just not very funny, and turning Bugs into Vin Diesel from Fast and Furious is a weird idea. Still, I think there could have been something here if the film used the idea of the Looney Tunes branching off as a way to contextualize the hard times the franchise has had in the 21st century. A smarter film could make this a critique of why these wonderful cartoons have struggled to maintain the popularity they were able to hold onto even 20 years ago. But no, this is just Ralph Breaks the Internet for Warner.

[Dr. Insomniac]

At least Ralph 2 bothered to call plenty of old voice actors back to reprise roles. Aside from Rick, Morty, Wonder Woman, and the characters Jeff Bergman played since he was already in the film as Bugs, all the cameos were voiceless, resulting in a very vacant cast list.

And if only there wasn't such heavy executive oversight in making these LT movies, then maybe we'd finally get a good one. Joe Dante was notoriously frustrated with his experience on Back in Action, and having read the original director for Space Jam 2 left so late in production that Malcolm D. Lee was hired only a week before filming started, there's a similar problem here.

[Commode]

at least Ralph Breaks the Internet wasn't cynical enough to be made at a time when insert corporation here only made it to sell streaming service subscriptions.  Give it a couple years on Disney's part :wink:

the problem with Space Jam 2 is it centralizes on that important faction.  Why in the hell does Don Cheadle hate the Looney Tunes characters so much?  Why did he visit their world and separate them?  Why did he threaten to delete them if they lost the basketball game(a point I must reiterate that was made null and void by Bugs pointing out that "toons can't die Doc!"*)?  The Hanna Barbera characters, Flintstones Yogi Bear etc, all managed to exist in the serververse, managed to exist and not be molested by him, so its not a matter of the Looney Tunes being extremely dated and irrelevant properties no.  No.  The only reason this plot point, this attribute for both Cheadle's and Bugs/the Looney Tunes' characters, and the movie as a whole exists is, to sell the various WB properties.  Makes absolutely zero sense to split the characters up otherwise.

*unless the dip from Roger Rabbit is involved.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, they could've added at least a flashback scene of a dumb tech developer who wore a Bugs Bunny shirt accidentally torturing Don Cheadle back when he was in his beta testing phase, and he grew a Freudian hatred for Looney Tunes after that. It would've been a stupid reason to despise them, but at least it's something.

And now I'm thinking "Could this movie legally use dip? Or do they have to talk Disney and Spielberg's lawyers about that first?"