Space Jam: A New Legacy, not as bad as you’ve heard

Life is all about expectations, isn’t it? Having heard that that Space Jam: A New Legacy was an abomination and the worst thing since sliced rotten bread I was prepared to be complacent in a Warner Bros. train wreck. However, Space Jam: A New Legacy firmly had the pulse of kids aged six through nine in its advertising, so I gamely took our youngest to the theater to see it. Don’t get me wrong, the film is a complete hot mess that attempts to mash up every single Warner Bros IP into a package that will entertain everyone. The result is that there are a couple of funny jokes amid countless movie scenes, puns, or characters that younger audiences won’t get or appreciate.

For example, I loved the Michael Keaton, Batman era Penguin who was courtside during the game. I also noticed the three knights who were dressed as Michael Palin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The parents will be reminded that Warner owns Mad Max and look through the crowd extras more than they’ll pay attention to the big basketball game. There were also a couple of great jokes that Don Cheadle had.

For us, Space Jam: A New Legacy reminded us of that classic 1970’s formula of networks airing shows about shows that they were going to air. You’d see the greatest hits of the upcoming shows that were hosted by celebrities from the network that you already knew. It was the Battle of the Network Stars mixed in with just a little bit of Ninja Warrior. Celebrities, they’re just like us, am I right?

The film is also part ABC Afterschool Special. These were those poorly acted live-action shows that came on in the afternoons in the 70s. They were overly dramatic and usually starred Rob Lowe, Kristy McNichol, or Ike Eisenmann. While the plots might have differed, the one constant usually consisted of a character looking into the camera as the screen faded into commercial.

Combine the hammy acting of that and the roll call, firing list of things that Warner Bros owns and you’ve got an idea as to what people over 10 might think of Space Jam: A New Legacy.

The live-action scenes that star Lebron James are stilted. It’s also worth noting that his subject/verb usage in many of his scenes was incorrect.  There are also several instances where his voice was dubbed in at a different audio level. It’s even set up in the movie that athletes who star in movies are rarely successful, yet here we all are in this mainly joyless vehicle through Harry Potter town.

However, kids who are desperate to get out of the heat or sit down for 90 minutes to a barely interesting movie will tolerate it. Our 9YO didn’t laugh during the movie, but he said that he enjoyed it at the end of the film. If anything, the people who were the most vocal in the theater were the adults, which really surprised me because the entire premise and its results were transparent from the beginning.

Once A New Legacy gets animated we see a Warner Bros world where Bugs Bunny has to get the band back together. Look, there’s Matrix-land, we also see Yosemite Sam playing the piano in Casablanca and a couple of other classic IP instances that Warner didn’t have to pay for, but is really eager to remind you that they own.

The climax of the basketball game is what you’d expect, with Lebron reuniting with his son, as well as the lesson of letting people be who they are. By doing this the toons win the game and set themselves up for a sequel, hopefully in a couple of decades again. Not surprisingly, that same lesson was the punch line to the first Space Jam, in addition to most ABC Afterschool Specials, albeit in half of the time. Come to think of it, you might enjoy Mom’s On Strike more than you would Space Jam: A New Legacy.