it ain't Roger Rabbit, but still worth the admission
Itty-bitty aliens come to Earth and will enslave the Warner Brothers cartoon characters to work forever at Moron Mountain (hmmm, who could that name be a dig at?). Bugs and gang have to win a basketball game to get their freedom back, so they enlist Jordan. The aliens retaliate by stealing the talents of five NBA players. Oooooooooo, those meanys.
Jordan comports himself well. After all, he did make those McDonald's commercials with Bugs and gang, so it ain't like this is a Brave New World for him. But still, acting where there is basically nothing there to interact can't be the easiest task in the world, so he scores big points given his limited range.
The movie lurches along in such fits and starts it really never settles down to tell a story. One minute we're in cartoon land, the next we're back on Earth retrieving some items Jordan needs or we see Knight being his obsequious self.
The animation is quite smooth, but given the number of years since Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, it's no groundbreaker. All the characters, and I mean all of Warner Brothers Looney Tune cartoon characters make appearances, which is fine with me. There are Beatles' lovers and Stones' lovers. Well, there's the Warner's camp and then there's the Disney side of the fence. Given how the Warners characters always had a sharper, more sarcastic, bordering-on-mean streak to their humor; I'm on the Warners' side. So I was in hog heaven. Just wish it wish written as the characters should have been written.
Animation was given a great looking shadow effect instead of the totally flat look that the classic Looney Tunes had. It does make them more "real" in appearance.
Movie gets in some innocuous jabs at other movies, Disney (how could they resist?), and Jordan's stupefying list of endorsements; but no great shakes compared to a typical The Simpsons episode. So for a movie which lists four writers, it isn't joke intense. (Plus other reviewers have gone out of their way to expose some of the movie's few best jokes. Not helpful from an enjoyment standpoint. So how the characters are handled leaves a lot to be desired at times. Instead of writing good scenes, nearly every one is stomped, crushed, flattened, smushed in or to bring the scene to a close. The easy, ultra-lowbrow, not even slapstick "out" is taken nearly every time.
Still, it is fairly entertaining. But the Jam marketing juggernaut is now bearing now on America, so hopefully consumers will realize where to draw the line on all the Jam crap.
Be sure and stick around for the very end of the credits for one last good scene.
Space Jam is tepidly good, but not great, holiday treat.
Movie's suitability for: