Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) on Netflix
PG20211h 55mAdventureAnimationComedyFamilySci-Fi
LeBron James and his son Dom are pulled into a digital world by Al-G Rhythm, a rogue A.I. who seizes Dom and forces LeBron into a basketball game for his freedom.
- Netflix1.8/5
- IMDb4.5/1088,463 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes25%
Trailer
Plot summary
LeBron James has raised his sons Darius and Dom to chase basketball careers, but Dom would rather design video games. When the family visits Warner Bros. Studios over a film offer, LeBron turns it down while Dom is drawn to the studio's self-aware artificial intelligence, Al-G Rhythm, and the two argue. Al-G pulls father and son into the Serververse, keeps Dom, and tells LeBron he can earn freedom by assembling a basketball team to face his own. Dropped in Tune World, LeBron finds Bugs Bunny, the only Looney Tune left; the others scattered across the Serververse after Al-G lured them away. Aboard Marvin the Martian's spaceship the pair set out to recruit them, while Al-G has Dom build a basketball video game that will supply his team.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Plans for another Space Jam were scrapped when Michael Jordan declined to star in a sequel. Bob Camp, the artist who designed the proposed alien villain Berserk-O!, said a producer lied to the studio by claiming Jordan had signed on so pre-production could start; with no Jordan, Warner Bros. canceled Space Jam 2.
- A scene shot in June 2019 under Terence Nance's direction, in which Pepé Le Pew flirts with a bartender played by Greice Santo and is rebuffed, was cut from the film. Fans accused the studio of double standards, since a cameo by Alex and his droogs from A Clockwork Orange was kept in.
- After the film's release, a TikTok trend saw users go to big-box stores and steal the heads off Moose Toys' Space Jam action figures, especially LeBron James's. Over 36,000 such videos were posted by August 2021, some stores locked the figures away, and the thefts caused public confusion.
- South Park co-creator Matt Stone said an episode about the film industry's impact on American culture "would, for sure, be about Space Jam 2". The streaming specials South Park: Post COVID and South Park: Post COVID: The Return of COVID depict the film as a principal cause of society's collapse during the pandemic.
- Terence Nance left Space Jam: A New Legacy in July 2019 because he and the studio/producers had different takes on its creative vision, and Malcolm D. Lee replaced him as director. Cinematographer Bradford Young also left and was replaced by Salvatore Totino.
- Space Jam: A New Legacy was the first Warner Animation Group film to mix traditional animation with CG; the hand-drawn work was mostly tradigital, created with Toon Boom Animation's Harmony software.
- Malcolm D. Lee said Warner Animation Group had to teach ILM about "squash and stretch" and the characters' expressions, and that traditionally animating the Looney Tunes and translating them to CGI was not an easy process.
- Scenes in which Bugs Bunny and LeBron James visit the worlds of Pokémon, The Wizard of Oz, The Iron Giant, Friends, ThunderCats, The Flintstones and Akira were written and storyboarded, with concept art by animation director Devin Crane and illustrator Joel Parod, but were cut from the final film.
