July 2021 – Straight Outta Pride Rock

Space Jam: A New Legacy

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee

Written by everybody and they mama (But actually Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Keenan Coogler, Terence Nance, Jesse Gordon, and Celeste Ballard)

We’ve finally gotten a Space Jam sequel. I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve gone through various stages over the years, from “Why didn’t we ever get a Space Jam sequel?”, to “LeBron? I don’t want it” (Back when I was invested in basketball and was a hater), to “Yeah, this looks like fun”. Also at some point I went through my cynical “everything is a cash grab and there’s no real art anymore” phase. A lot of you are still there (or are there permanently), and that’s fine, but in the words of Abed from Community, “I guess I just like liking things”.

In case anyone doesn’t know, Space Jam: A New Legacy is the long awaited, or long dreaded, depending on who you ask, sequel to Space Jam. And Space Jam, as you all know, is a movie that is universally beloved by anyone who was born in the 90s and saw it as a child. Everyone else seems to dislike it, which I find insane, but we’re not here to talk about the original. This time around we’ve traded out Michael “I ain’t taking pictures with no nigga” Jordan for LeBron James and we’ve got Don Cheadle playing a malevolent algorithm, because it’s 2021 so of course he is. Also, shout out to Don Cheadle. He went all out for this role and I absolutely love it. He committed to every bit of silliness.

LeBron is playing a fictionalized version of himself, which feels like a pretty realistic version of a Black dad whose son plays basketball. “Get off those video games and get on the court” is pretty much his whole vibe. I gotta tell ya, as a Black boy who played basketball as a kid, but not as well as his father did, that brought back memories. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have the alternative skill set that Dom (LeBron’s fictional son, played very well by Cedric Joe) has in this movie. This kid has designed a whole video game in his spare time at the age of 13. I’ve lived through every generation of Playstation and I can’t even play a difficult skill level on NBA 2K, but oh well, that’s not the point.

Like Dom, the rest of LeBron’s family is pretty charming. The always wonderful Sonequa Martin-Green plays Kamiyah, LeBron’s wife. I don’t know why they changed all the names. LeBron is insanely famous, so the names of his family are on Wikipedia. They aren’t hidden. Also not the point. We haven’t even gotten to the Looney Tunes.

This movie, somewhat to its detriment, doesn’t focus as heavily on the Looney Tunes as the original Space Jam does. However, they definitely make use of their screen time when they arrive. Yeah, we have a lengthy sequence of tracking them all down through various WB properties, but I found that entertaining. That’s really a point of contention for a lot of people, apparently. People are upset that WB put a bunch of stuff they own in their movie. Some of the references felt like a bit much, sure, but at the end of the day, it’s fun to see things we like on screen. After we get our Tune Squad back, they’re all acting like they’ve never played basketball before, despite making references to the time when they did this before. Well, Lola can play, but of course she can.

Let’s talk about Lola. I have one complaint, and that’s that Kath Soucie isn’t doing the voice. That’s not meant to dismiss Zendaya, who did a great job. Kath is just a wonderful voice actress, whose voice is an integral part of Lola’s creation as a dope character. Also, as a huge fan of animation, I have an immense respect for voice actors and all that they do. I’m always happy to see them get a chance to shine in big blockbuster movies, when studios normally default to big name actors from recognizable live action roles. So shout out to Jeff Bergman, Eric Bauza, Bob Bergen, Candi Milo, Fred Tatasciore, and Jim Cummings.

If you legitimately have a complaint about Lola being “less sexy”, think about the fact that she’s a cartoon bunny, who exclusively appears in content made for kids (your incognito mode internet searches don’t count), and then shut up. And THEN hand over all of your internet connected devices to someone more responsible.

Ironically, my biggest complaints with this movie probably lie within the actual basketball game. The titular Jam, if you will. Although, wait, nobody is even from space! Also, it’s not really basketball? Look at me complaining about lack of structure in the basketball game between LeBron’s Looney Tunes and Don Cheadle’s NBA fever dreams. The basketball game in the last movie was ridiculous too, but this time around it was just such a complete mess. But at the end of the day, it was a funny mess. And that’s what I came for.

I think I’ve written just about enough about the silly cartoon basketball movie. Especially since I don’t know that anyone actually reads this blog, which I’m sure isn’t helped by the fact that I write a movie review maybe once every three months. I’ll try to do better. Anyway, it’s a fun time. That’s all I needed it to be. I laughed pretty much throughout the movie, so I dig it.

Also, the Goon Squad looks dope, and it’s dope that they let the NBA players voice their own characters.

Also also, the soundtrack slaps. It doesn’t slap as hard as the original, but it’s still pretty fire. Actually’s that’s a great way to describe the movie as a whole.

tl;dr: It doesn’t slap as hard as the original, but it’s still pretty fire.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Month: July 2021

Creative Differences Episode 134: Fancast Friday – King Arthur

Creative Differences Episode 133: Snake Eyes, Black Excellence, and Saying Nope to Horror

Creative Differences Episode 132: Space Jam: A New Legacy, Loki, Zola, and Gunpowder Milkshake

Movie Review: Space Jam: A New Legacy

Creative Differences Episode 131: Throwback Thursday – Space Jam

Creative Differences Episode 130: Black Widow, Comic Books, and Return of the Thirst

Creative Differences Episode 129: Throwback Thursday – Iron Man 2

Creative Differences Episode 128: Fancast Friday – Marvel Studios’ Young Avengers (Part 2)