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Film / Space Jam: A New Legacy

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Come on and slam,
and welcome back to the Jam.

"The only way you're getting your son back is if you and I play a little game called basketball."
— Al-G Rhythm

Space Jam: A New Legacy is a 2021 live-action/animated film that is the sequel to 1996's Space Jam. Ryan Coogler produces and Malcolm D. Lee directs, while LeBron James takes the main protagonist mantle from Michael Jordan this time around. The film was released on July 16, 2021 both in theaters and for a one-month duration on HBO Max only on their ad-free plan.

Set 25 years after the first film, LeBron and his son Dom (Cedric Joe) are having trouble connecting; LeBron wants Dom to be a basketball player like him, but Dom is more interested in becoming a video game developer. While on a tour of Warner Bros. Studios, LeBron and Dom find themselves getting sucked into a digital server called the Warner Bros. Server-verse, ruled by the rogue A.I. Al-G Rhythm (Don Cheadle), that houses worlds from the entire nearly-100 year old library of the studio.

Dom soon gets captured by Al-G and LeBron gets sent to the world where the Looney Tunes roam... but with only Bugs Bunny there thanks to the other Tunes being convinced to leave and explore the other worlds. Teaming with Bugs, they must traverse the Server-verse, find the rest of the Tune Squad and take to the court to rescue Dom by — how else? — challenging Al-G and his team of superpowered digital versions of NBA and WNBA stars to a basketball game.

A novelization of the movie was released on June 1, a month before the movie's release date of July 16.

Previews: Trailer #1, (trailer drop), Trailer #2.

Space Jam: A New Legacy contains examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    Tropes A to D 
  • Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Even more so than in the original film, where both Michael Jordan and the Tunes are fighting for their freedom. Here, LeBron James is fighting to win his son back, and the Tunes are fighting for their lives. The stakes are increased more as hundreds of thousands of civilians and LeBron's followers are teleported into the Server-verse and should the Tunes lose, they become a full time audience for Al-G.
  • Adaptational Expansion: In the comic adaptation, it is revealed that the monster Gossamer had been sent to the Scooby-Doo world, something that wasn't shown in the movie.
  • Adapted Out: In the comic adaptation, the only people to show up outside of the Tunes are the DC Animated Universe version of Superman and a variation of the DC Rebirth Wonder Woman. Fred and Shaggy make off-screen voice cameos while the other worlds are just alluded to when Bugs and LeBron go to pick up the other Tunes.
  • Advertised Extra:
    • Chronos, the speedy robot inspired and voiced by Damian Lillard, is the least prominent Goon Squad player. He only participates twice before he is defeated by Granny.
    • The McDonald's commercials and Happy Meal Toys leading up to the movie's release feature Marvin The Martian among the new Tune Squad and even wearing the movie's new outfits. In the actual film, Marvin is never seen wearing the new Tune Squad outfits or getting involved with basketball.
  • An Aesop: Don't force people to follow your same path. Let them be themselves and follow their passions. LeBron only realizes this when he and the Tune Squad are down at halftime, and Lola admits that because he's been trying to coach them into playing straight basketball instead of letting the Tunes be themselves, they've been trying to emulate him as best they could.
  • Alternate Continuity: A Freeze-Frame Bonus during the Warner Bros. meeting shows that the original Space Jam was also a movie in this world. Though later dialogue indicates the Tunes did indeed meet Michael Jordan 25 years before — perhaps it’s a documentary in this universe?
  • Alternate Tooniverse: Cyberspace has planets dedicated to several Warner Bros properties. A lot of which are inhabited by cartoon characters including a Looney Tunes world, DC Animated Universe, Themyscira, The Flintstones and The Jetsons.
  • Ambiguously Human: Al-G Rhythm. He looks like an African-American human, but he resides in the Server-verse and has the ability to teleport, create duplicates of himself, etc.
  • Amusing Injuries:
    • In LeBron's backyard court, he has an automatic dispenser for basketballs simply by saying the word "ball". His older son, Darius, gets hit a couple times by this by others saying ball without looking for a basketball.
    • Yosemite Sam takes Daffy Duck's "Shoot the ball!" order literally and unloads his revolvers on the ball... and on Daffy's head too, displacing his beak and leaving bullet holes in it, much like what happened between Daffy and Elmer Fudd in the "Hunting Trilogy" (Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning and Duck! Rabbit! Duck!).
    • Tweety's attempt at defense results in him being stepped on, turning him into a Pablo Picasso painting.
  • Animated World Hypotheses: Like the audience, LeBron notices that he's become a cartoon after entering the Looney Tunes world. The Looney Tunes characters stay animated throughout the movie, but their CGI forms are meant to give off the impression that they've shifted somewhat to live-action.
  • Arc Words:
    • "Let me do me."
    • "I'm a Tune, doc. I can survive anything."
    • "Family is everything."
    • "Fundamentals" and "looney", on virtue of being contrasted with each other for most of the movie.
  • Armor-Piercing Response: During halftime as the Tune Squad get into an argument, with Lola and Bugs giving the responses that make LeBron undergo his Jerkass Realization.
    LeBron: I've been trying to save my son and coach y'all at the same time! What y'all doing?
    Lola: We've been trying.
    LeBron: Trying to do what?
    Lola: Trying to be like... you.
    Bugs: And it's not working.
  • Artifact Title: The title Space Jam is very much an artifact of the 90s, when "jam" was a term for a slam dunk. Unlike the original movie, where the antagonists were aliens, this film doesn't involve outer space at all. Although it does involve cyberspace and prominently features Marvin’s flying saucer (stolen by Bugs) as a means of transportation throughout the Serververse.
  • Art Shift:
    • In the big game, thanks to Al-G, the Looney Tunes characters shift between a 2D animated style and a 3D CGI style. Tune World itself shifts to 3D the moment the basketball stage slams down onto the planet. James also shifts from live-action to animated when he ends up in the Looney Tunes world, but returns to being live-action for the game.
    • The sequence set in Themyscira is designed to look like a vintage comic book, with thicker outlines and Ben Day dot shading on the characters.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Road Runner only had a single scene in the first film while both Gossamer and Speedy Gonzales were just background characters. Here all three are present throughout as members of the Tune Squad (though Speedy's one appearance showed he was on the team in the first game). Granny also counts, though she was in the original more than the others, being the team's cheerleader. Still, she noticeably gets more focus in this as a player.
    • While Lola Bunny participated in the original movie's climactic game, she only had one scene before it. Here, she appears alongside all the other Tunes many times both during the game and before they play.
  • Ascended Fanboy: The opening of the movie establishes that LeBron has been a Looney Tunes fan since childhood, and is visibly excited upon getting to meet Bugs Bunny for real.
  • Ascended Meme: Bugs Bunny, momentarily impersonating Elmer Fudd, takes the appearance of "Big Chungus" when he does it. This is actually a reference to the cartoon Wabbit Twouble, but it probably would not have been in the movie if not for the meme. Animator Matt Williams, who did the sequence, wasn't aware of the meme until his animation director Spike Brandt informed him after the fact.
  • As Himself: LeBron James stars as a fictionalized version of himself. He gets nicknamed "King James."
  • Aspect Ratio Switch: The entire film was shot in 1.85:1, but some portions of the film are shot in 2.39:1 (including The Matrix, Austin Powers, and Mad Max portions of the film) and 1.33:1 (or 4:3 in television) for the Casablanca portions.
  • Attention Whore: Al-G Rhythm's actions throughout the film are because he has become self-aware as an A.I. and tries to use LeBron and Dom as pawns in seeking recognition from the world.
  • Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: The line "What in The Matrix hell?" (along with more "damns" and "hells") was added into the film to avoid being rated G.
  • Award-Bait Song: The end credits song, "We Win" by Lil Baby and Kirk Franklin, is more or less the equivalent to the first film's "I Believe I Can Fly".
  • Bad Vibrations: As the game is about to start, Al G. calls out "Let's get some butts in these seats!", which summons a massive crowd of Warner-owned spectators, big and small, that creates a rumble as they rush to the sidelines.
    Bugs: How big are these butts?
  • Bait-and-Switch: At one point, Sylvester enters and announces he's gotten Michael Jordan to help the Tunes in their game. An unknown figure makes his entrance as Daffy makes an enthusiastic introduction. Then the figure fully reveals himself to be... the other Michael Jordan.
  • Barefoot Cartoon Animal: The furry Tunes go barefoot while wearing their Tune Squad uniforms, as in the first film. And as always, this is Lola Bunny's usual mode of dress.
  • Be Yourself: The main message of the movie.
  • Better as Friends: Unlike the first film, Bugs and Lola are shown to be best friends rather than love interests. Regardless, Bugs still holds Lola in high esteem as he views her and the other Tunes as his family.
  • Big Bad: Al-G Rhythm, played by Don Cheadle.
  • Big "NO!": When Bugs Bunny pulls off a game-breaking, player-dooming move, Lola races towards him, screaming her denial at the top of her lungs.
  • Big Ol' Eyebrows: Anthony Davis as The Brow emphasizes this feature of his.
    LeBron: Dang, what'd they do to my boy A.D.?
  • Binomium ridiculus: In a reference to the Road Runner cartoons, as LeBron James is running from Bugs Bunny, who is driving an Acme truck, the scene freezes to show faux scientific names for them.
    LeBRON JAMES (BASKETBALLOUS SUPERSTAROUS)
    BUGS BUNNY (CLASSICUS TOONIOUS)
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: Having glitched out, Bugs says, "That's all, Folks..." before seemingly fading away forever. He Gets Better, however.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: We get this not-so-subtle moment from Bugs.
    Bugs: So you want me, a talking cartoon bunny, to play with you, an NBA superstar, in a high-stakes basketball game? (smirks at the camera) Sounds awfully familiar.
    LeBron: Who are you talking to?
  • Broken Lever of Doom: While LeBron and Bugs are retrieving the Looney Tunes from across the Serververse, they find Daffy acting as "Super Duck", having tied up a conductor so he can win the glory for stopping a speeding train. Unfortunately, he breaks the brake lever while trying to use it, requiring Superman to come to the rescue.
  • Call-Back:
    • Bugs and Lola recall some familiarity of the plot of both films. Bugs mentions it above. In Lola's case, she is recruited or joins as The Ace of the sport, second to the respective NBA players.
      Bugs: How often do you get to play with an NBA superstar?
      Lola: Been there, done that!
    • Bugs cries "We need your help!" to Lola in the same manner as when he screamed it to Michael Jordan in the first film.
  • Calvinball: How the climatic game ends up playing out, thanks to being coded from Dom's homemade game. The teams get points for style and special moves, but thanks to Al-G, this also directly benefits the Goon Squad for the first half until the Tune Squad goes Looney.
  • The Cameo: Tons. Many Warner Bros./WarnerMedia-owned characters show up in the background of the climactic game, including:
  • Cameo Cluster: Just like the first film, the audience during the big game scene features characters across multiple Warner Bros. properties, including Hanna-Barbera, the DC Universe, and The Iron Giant.
  • Camera Abuse: In the introduction of the Goon Squad, White Mamba throws a basketball at the camera, leaving a noticeable crack on the right side.
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • Bugs Bunny greets LeBron with his trademark "What's up, Doc?" upon his arrival in Tune World. He also says "This Means War!" to Al-G for turning him and the Tunes to 3D characters.
    • After being shot by Sam, Daffy Duck says "Let's try that again, shall we?". The phrase was made famous with its repeated use in the 1950s trilogy of cartoon shorts that included (The Hunting Trilogy) Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning and Duck! Rabbit! Duck!, in which he always ended up being shot in the head by Elmer Fudd the same comedic way Yosemite Sam does here.
    • Fred Flintstone makes his appearance known with a triumphant "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!"
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Dom creates a Basketball video game called DomBall. Al-G later uses its code to set up the Serververse's Basketball game.
    • LeBron teaches his son Dom a basic move in basketball which becomes a game-crashing glitch in DomBall. In the Serververse, Bugs triggers the glitch during the climax in order to sap Al-G's control over the basketball game.
    • The "posterize" feature from the game, in which the player can score an in-game poster after pulling off a slam dunk. During the actual game, LeBron himself dunks the ball over Al-G, trapping the latter inside his poster.
    • The fact that Granny was in the world of The Matrix ends up coming into play in the big game; it turns out that she is so accustomed to Bullet Time that she ends up being the only one able to put up a fight against Chronos the second time he tries to slow down time.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Early on, Bugs notes that Tunes can survive anything. This includes getting deleted. Bugs Took The Bullet because he knew that LeBron might not survive the process, though it is unclear if Bugs knew that he would.
  • Child Prodigy: Dom seems to be one, having already designed his own 3D console game and knowing a lot about computers, VR, and the like. He's 12, meaning he's verging on being a Teen Genius as well.
  • Circling Birdies: LeBron has Tweety birds circling around his head after being knocked by an Invisible Wall as he was attempting a slam dunk. The actual Tweety comes at him at this moment.
    • This happens twice.
    Tweety: We've got to stop meeting like this.
  • Claiming Via Flag: Marvin the Martian arrives in the nearly deserted Toon Town, and plants the Martian standard, claiming it on behalf of Mars. Bugs Bunny bamboozles Marvin out of his spaceship, and takes LeBron James on a whirlwind trip through cyberspace to collect the other scattered Looney Tunes.
  • Clumsy Copyright Censorship: During the prologue scene, 'Bron plays with Malik's Game Boy because his dad bought the Color one. Though the Game Boy used still displays the Nintendo and Game Boy logos upon it unaltered, when 'Bron turns it on, the iconic startup sound is replaced with a soundalike, indicating a line drawn by Nintendo on the soundbyte. Also, while he plays The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 there, the game music was changed to an 8-bit remix of the Looney Tunes theme, due to issues with the original composers of the Crazy Castle games.
  • Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Al-G gets mad at the Goon Squad because the Tune Squad is catching up to them and unleashes a string of bleeped-out obscenities.
  • Comic-Book Adaptation: DC Comics released one written by Ivan Cohen in late June 2021, three weeks before the movie came out.
  • Company Cameo: The crux of the film is that LeBron James and his son are touring Warner Bros. while being pitched on a collaboration, before getting sucked into the Warner Bros. Server-verse and facing off against its evil algorithm.
  • Company Cross References: Tons. Since the setting of the movie is in Warner Bros. digital space, characters from their many, many films and TV shows appear, including the very R-rated ones.
  • Continuity Nod: Sylvester notes that it's been 25 years since the Tunes met Michael Jordan, though apparently the passage of time made him forget what Jordan looks like. Also, they initially wear the same Tune Squad jerseys from 1996, prior to Al-G upgrading them against their will.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Al-G Rhythm is this to Mr. Swackhammer from the original Space Jam film, even though this film isn't a true sequel to the first movie. Whereas Swackhammer was a greedy alien and Corrupt Corporate Executive who sought to enslave the Looney Tunes to draw in more customers for his theme park, Moron Mountain, Al-G is a computer algorithm who maintains a tyrannical hold over the WB cyberverse and seeks to outright delete the Tunes from existence. While Swackhammer was presented as a traditionally-animated, obese goblin-like alien, Al-G typically takes the form of an African-American human male.
  • Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: In the original, Michael was a Nice Guy who had retired from basketball when the Looney Tunes came to him for help. LeBron meanwhile is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold — friendly, but strict as a parent and on the court — is still actively playing, and this time it's him who goes to the Tunes for help.
  • Cool Old Lady: Granny, as usual. She's seen pulling off a 30 point basket using Matrix-style kung fu, defeating and Rapid Aging one of the Goon Squad's heaviest hitters, Chronos in the process.
  • Cope by Pretending: Bugs keeps pretend versions of his fellow Tunes around (though the viewer only sees Porky's) to deal with being all alone on their world.
  • Covers Always Lie: The poster shows Daffy in a player uniform when in the actual movie he's the team's manager and coach, never dressing like that in the final product, even during the brief moment he joins the team's practice.
  • Crisis Catch And Carry: When Al-G arrives on Toon World and begins transforming it to 3-D, Tweety freezes from shock, even as a mailbox falls towards him. Speedy Gonzales races towards him and grabs him out of the way just in time.
  • Deadly Game:
    • This game is this for the Tunes; if they lose, they get 'deleted'.
    • Al-G makes this into a Hostage Situation, as he declares that the audience of civilians summoned to watch the game will remain in the Serververse forever should the Tunes lose.
  • Demographic-Dissonant Crossover:
    • A crossover between multiple different WarnerMedia owned franchises, both child-friendly, and adult-oriented. Rape-gang the Droogs are in the same crowd as Dorothy.
    • The dissonance is taken to its extreme with the appearance of Sister Jeanne from The Devils, a blasphemous, sexually charged, horrifically violent film which was originally rated X. It's so controversial that Warner hasn't even released the Bowdlerised, R-rated version on DVD, but somehow one of its major characters wound up in a film marketed as family-friendly.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • The characters on the Tune Squad are the only Looney Tunes characters to get any lines. A few other characters, such as Playboy Penguin, Rocky and Mugsy, Witch Hazel, and the Bear Family, are briefly seen boarding Al-G. Rhythm's rocket away from Tune World and are not seen or mentioned again.
    • Marvin the Martian is a downplayed example. He wasn't an especially large role in the original, but he still had a consistent presence in the climax due to his role as the referee. Here he has a whole scene devoted to him, but after that he only briefly pops up again later, at which point he has no plot relevance.
    • Daffy acts as "coach" in this movie, rather than part of the team in the original. Downplayed though given he's still one of the largest roles.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: After pulling off a move that deletes the player, Bugs glitches and seemingly fades away for good while a tearful Lola cradles him. Luckily, he comes back.
  • Disney Death: Bugs seemingly dies after pulling a Heroic Sacrifice via a glitched basketball move that permanently deletes the player using it. He even gets a dramatic death scene with some last words ("That's all, Folks..."). At the end, however, he shows up alive and well to greet LeBron in the real world, reiterating that he's a Tune and therefore cannot die.
  • Do Not Go Gentle: After before the Tunes get their Heroic Second Wind, Bugs tells the rest of the group this:
    "If we’re going out, we’re going out Looney!"
    • The actual movie treats this moment as the one where the Tunes start coming back from their near 1000-point deficit, at which point LeBron chooses to let them play according to how they want to instead of forcing them to play his way.
  • Double-Meaning Title: The subtitle refers to both this film being a sequel to the original Space Jam with a new generation of NBA stars at the helm, and James trying to get a new basketball legacy going with his son.
  • Drunk on Milk: Bugs' intoxicating beverage of choice is carrot juice.

    Tropes E to M 
  • Enemy Mine: As with the original movie, several Looney Tunes with normally antagonistic relationships work together on the same team. Particularly noticeable with long time foes Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote working together given the former wasn't on the team of the original squad.
  • Engineered Heroics: Bugs and Bron finds Daffy and Porky in DC World, where they attempt to stop a runaway train. They soon learn that Super Duck set the whole thing up to get the glory. Superman and other DC Heroes are not happy.
  • Exact Words: A trailer drop was released, with the promise of revealing when the first trailer will come. While it does that, it's preceded by Wile E. Coyote being crushed by... you guessed it, a trailer dropped from the sky with the Road Runner inside.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In the climax of the basketball game Dom realizes they can stop AL-G from controlling the game by using the glitched move LeBron accidentally used in his game earlier, remembering how it crashed the game. But he remembers afterwards that the character that uses this glitched move gets permanently deleted too, meaning whoever does it will be making a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: LeBron is trying to get his son into basketball, signing him up for basketball camp and Dom tells him he never listens to his dreams. The beginning of the film treats this as the result of a much younger LeBron losing a crucial game because of being distracted by playing on his Game Boy prior, which his coach calls out as a roadblock to preventing him from reaching his true potential.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: Before the final ten seconds of the game, Bugs Bunny shows some nervous looks that turn to determination right after LeBron volunteers to perform the Game-Breaking Bug that could cause him to get deleted.
  • Foreshadowing: One part of Dom Ball that Dom briefly shows to LeBron is in-game figures being beamed down onto the outside of the court, representing the people watching the game. This is later reflected for the big game thanks to Al-G stealing Dom's scanning code to beam people into the Server-verse as hostages.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: Averted, as LeBron James keeps the five fingers on his hands even after his transformation into a cartoon character.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: Lola is faced with one on Themyscira. Even with Bugs and LeBron about to be burned by lava, she remains set on completing her training... right up until LeBron mentions his son. THAT'S when she goes back to save them, sacrificing the final trial in the process. Even so, Wonder Woman still passes her, because something else that Amazons are judged on are their values.
  • Funny Background Event: A lot of individual reactions from the Warner Bros. crowd are incredibly amusing to watch. Some notable standouts include Adam West's Batman taunting LeBron, Pennywise playfully clapping to himself, and Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze... well, yelling like Schwarzenegger.
  • Glass Smack and Slide: When Lebron picks up a jump powerup for the first time during the game, he fails to control his movement in the air, causing him to slam into and slide down the court force field.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Dom moves to the Tune Squad after seeing his father enjoying himself and Al G. starting to lose his cool when losing.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: To defeat the Goons, Dom remembers his dad's Basketball move deleting his game. He decides the same move can be used to freeze the game and prevent Al G. from cheating, with the catch that whoever uses it risks getting deleted. While Bron intended to do so, with hope that him not being part of the Serververse would help him survive, it's Bugs that does it and eventually gets deleted. He Gets Better, though.
  • Heroic Second Wind: After LeBron has his Jerkass Realization, he finally allows Bugs and the other Tunes to be looney on the court in the second half of the game.
  • Hero with an F in Good: Daffy is first seen in the DC Universe as a Superman-type superhero who deliberately causes a runaway train incident so he can stop it himself and make himself look good. Superman and the rest of the Justice League are not impressed with his antics.
  • History Repeats: A famous basketball player is sent to the Looney Tunes world to play a basketball match against a powerful villain. To quote Bugs, "Sounds awfully familiar!"
  • Hourglass Plot: At the beginning, LeBron comes across as obsessed about playing seriously and unsupportive as a result. Al-G Rhythm uses his experience being disrespected to sympathize with Dom and the two have fun together, to the point where Dom considers Al-G his friend and agrees to play against his own father. As the film progresses, LeBron realizes he's been crushing both the Tunes and his son with his expectations. He becomes more laid-back and accepting of unusual tactics. He confesses this to Dom and they hug. As the game turns against him, Al-G becomes angrier and more of a Control Freak, thus losing Dom's friendship, which only enrages Al-G even more.
  • Impact Silhouette: When LeBron lands in Tune World, he leaves a hole in the ground, shaped not like himself, but like the Nike logo.
    • Bugs also makes one when crashing through a wall in The Matrix World.
  • Inflating Body Gag:
    • LeBron squashes his legs flat upon landing in Tune World after having been turned into a toon. He then reinflates them back to normal by blowing into his thumb.
    • After falling from a great height in Tune World, LeBron is made into a ball, which then deflates; Bugs inflates him back to normal with a bicycle pump.
  • Ironic Echo: Al-G is shown to be rather fond of doing this two times in the film.
    • Al-G, still sore from LeBron's rejection of his idea due to wanting to "focus on [his] game", throws this line back at him at why he's challenging him to a basketball game.
    • LeBron admonishes Dom for "letting [him] do [him]." Al-G also tosses that very same phrase in Dom's face (preceded by an admonishment that his father was right about him) when he makes it clear just how unhappy he is at Dom for abandoning the Goon Squad.
  • Jaw Drop: Daffy does this in the trailers and when he realizes that Sylvester got Michael B. Jordan by mistake.
  • Jerkass Realization: LeBron gets one at halftime. Mainly after learning that the Tunes are only losing because, as Lola and Bugs say, they're only doing how he would do in basketball since he explicitly refuses to let them do them. This leads to him finally realizing how restricting he was acting towards the Tunes and, by extension, his son, letting the Tunes play their way and properly apologizing to Dom during the game.
  • Kick the Dog: Al-G yells at Dom for losing at his own game, adding the fact that his father was right that "letting him be him is a mistake".
  • Lava Pit: One of the deadly trials that Lola Bunny must overcome to become an Amazon warrior is to cross to the other side of a lava pit, using only a long wooden pole. Lola plants one end of her pole on a rock outcrop that somehow hasn't melted, and vaults across the pit in one bound. Bugs Bunny and Lebron James try the same maneuver, but are less successful. Lola has to interrupt her test of worthiness to rescue these two from a horrible fate.
  • Literal-Minded: Daffy Duck tells Yosemite Sam to "shoot the ball". Sam proceeds to unload his revolvers into it... and in Daffy's face along the way.
  • Malicious Misnaming: Lola trash-talks the snake-like White Mamba by calling her "worm."
  • Market-Based Title: This movie is given a different title in Japan, called Space Players, unlike the original, which was still called Space Jam even in Japan.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The film unites every major film and TV franchise from Warner Bros. and puts them into one big "Serververse", where every IP has its own planet.
  • Meaningful Echo:
    • "You never let me just... do me." First said by Don to LeBron while calling him out, then LeBron to himself when while fully realizing WHY. Finally, it comes back at the end when LeBron encourages Dom to join the video game development camp rather than the basketball camp.
    • While trying to teach the Tune Squad how to play basketball normally, LeBron keeps stressing the "fundamentals." Near the end, Bugs tells him that taking care of those you love is fundamental.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Al-G's abuse and discrediting of Dom, as well as Dom's seeing the Tune Squad enjoying themselves, causes him to abandon the Goon Squad and join his father.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • "Tune World", the planetoid the Looney Tunes characters reside on, is a mishmash of various environments shorts from the series have been set in:
    • What happens when Lebron is about to arrive at Tune World? He first goes through none other than the iconic rings that open up many a Looney Tunes cartoon. He even makes a "twang" sound that normally accompanies the WB shield zooming in as he passes by.
    • Bugs impersonates Elmer Fudd by taking on a short and fat appearance, as he did in Wabbit Twouble.
    • This isn't the first time Daffy assumed the role of a Superman-type superhero. He had also done so as the title role in Stupor Duck. He has also met Superman before in Superior Duck, who doesn't appreciate Daffy muscling in on his turf; though Superman's design was more akin to the comics.
    • During the practice game, Foghorn Leghorn is seen wearing a football outfit, the very same one he had worn in Lovelorn Leghorn.
    • During the end credits, when Lola Bunny is seen playing tennis, she is wearing her outfit from The Looney Tunes Show.
    • This isn't the first time Scooby and Shaggy had cameo'd in a Looney Tunes movie.
    • Lola joining the Amazons may be one to the Loonatics Unleashed episode where the team encounters the all-female Apocazons who offered Lexi Bunny to join them.

    Tropes N to R 
  • Negated Moment of Awesome: LeBron jumps impossibly high and attempts a slam dunk in slow-motion... only to crash into an Invisible Wall in mid-air.
  • Negate Your Own Sacrifice: Bugs pulls a Heroic Sacrifice in the climax of the game, using a glitched move to stop AL-G from controlling the game, at the cost of getting deleted himself. At the end of the film, though, he appears in the real world to greet LeBron, recalling how he told LeBron previously that he is a Tune and therefore can survive anything, even getting deleted.
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • Al-G Rhythm can be heard saying “Welcome to the Space Jam!” in the initial trailer and in several promos, serving as both a title drop and an implication that the big game was going to be called The Space Jam. At no point in the film does Al utter such words, nor is the game referred to as The Space Jam.
    • Early promotional material showed that Marvin would be an Ascended Extra and have a larger role than the first film by being a part of the Toon Squad when in truth he has an even smaller role than in the first film. Similarly, Penelope was promoted as a player, which delighted many people who were upset about Pepe being cut from the film, only for this to end up being a lie as well, as she doesn't even appear.
  • Not So Invincible After All: The normally untouchable Road Runner gets subjected to as much slapstick humor as the other Tunes, at one point even getting the old Painted Tunnel, Real Train trick used against him by Wile E. Coyote. The crowning moment, however, is when he gets worfed by Chronos during the big game, and Chronos humiliates the bird by putting him on a silver platter right in front of Wile E. (much to the coyote's delight) while time is slowed down. Though to his credit, the bird easily escapes this and gets right back in the game like nothing happened.
  • Novelization: David Lewman wrote a junior novelization.
  • One-Steve Limit: During halftime, Sylvester reveals that he had found Michael Jordan to help the Tune Squad win... only to reveal that he had kidnapped Michael B. Jordan instead, who had simply left his seat to buy popcorn.
  • One-Winged Angel: Outraged at Dom for abandoning the Goon Squad, Al-G joins the Goon Squad himself and turns himself into a giant, muscular, nigh-on-impossible-to-beat basketball player, who cheats like crazy to win.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Road Runner in general is far more expressive compared to most of his and Wile E.'s cartoons, which make certain moments from the movie really stand out.
    • When the basketball court begins forming in Tune World, he's shown to be downright terrified for once in his life.
    • He's just as heartbroken as the other Tunes over seeing Bugs Bunny dying (Disney Death nonwithstanding). It's particularly noteworthy as we never see him actually sad before.
  • Painted Tunnel, Real Train:
    • While enticing LeBron James into chasing him, Bugs paints a huge tunnel onto a rocky wall and runs into it. LeBron then tries to follow him and predictably smacks into it, then Bugs emerges from the same tunnel driving an Acme truck.
    • During the big game, Wile E. sets up a painting of a tunnel, where a train emerges from it and hits The Brow after Tweety tells him that the "11:50 express is running on time".
  • Pinball Scoring: Given it's a basketball gaming app instead of regular one, there are all sorts of things to improve the score, to the point Tune Squad ends the first quarter losing by hundreds of points!
  • Platonic Declaration of Love: Midway through the game, LeBron stops playing for a moment to talk to Dom, in the process telling his son that he loves him and apologizing for trying to push him into basketball. Dom returns the sentiments and hugs his father, much to Al-G Rhythm's fury.
  • Pleasure Island: This how Al-G manages to split up the entire Tune World population by convincing them to explore the other worlds in the Server-verse. The only exception is Bugs who decides to remain in Tune World by himself.
  • Population: X, and Counting: The welcome sign for Tune World lists the population as one (later revealed to be Bugs); it moves to two as LeBron passes by the sign.
  • Pre-Mortem Catchphrase: When a Looney Tune needs to risks their life to get the last point needed to win the big game, they utter "That's all folks" just before they can suffer the consequences of their sacrifice, calling to mind how all the old Looney Tunes toon ended. Bugs seems to die, but he appears in the real world perfectly fine after a few scenes.
  • Putting the Band Back Together: Bugs and LeBron set out to retrieve the other Tunes from across the Server-verse:
  • Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: LeBron noticeably tries to find the right words to use when properly apologizing to Dom, eventually saying that "[he] don't even know if [he's] saying this right".
  • Recursive Canon: A Freeze-Frame Bonus during the Warner Bros. meeting shows that the original Space Jam was also a movie in this world.
  • Recycled Animation: The Nerdlucks' two cameos during the big game are reused animations from the first film.
  • Regional Bonus: The TNT's seen in Tune World are actually branded from the TNT network itself, In Latin America (except versions that have the text in English) and some countries that the TNT brand is never seen the logo symbol for TNT Sports (a brand used by the Latin American/Brazilian version of TNT) is used instead.
  • Relationship Sabotage: Al-G Rhythm pulls off a platonic version to get Dom on his side. After putting Dom somewhere else in the Serververse, he tells LeBron that he's not getting his son back unless he plays basketball against Al-G. However, when he drops in on Dom later, he tells him that LeBron challenged him to a basketball game and then ran off to find a team. He also emphasizes LeBron's problems with trying to force Dom to be like him. This helps keep Dom invested as a Goon Squad member until halftime.
  • Relationship-Salvaging Disaster:
    • LeBron and Dom are at odds thanks to LeBron's unsupportiveness before Al-G kidnaps them and forces LeBron into a game for his son's freedom. Interacting with the Tunes during the game forces LeBron to see that he's been forcing his style on his son as well, and they reunite.
    • Invoked by Bugs. Prior to the film, Al-G had scattered the Looney Tunes to the far reaches of the Server-verse by offering them transportation to visit other worlds, leaving Bugs alone on Tune World. He takes advantage of LeBron's need for a team to gather his fellow Looney Tunes back together. By the end, they've been reminded of their bond and they take a group vacation in the "real world."
  • Remake Cameo:
    • As stated before, the Nerdlucks make cameos in the crowd at the game with reused animation from the first film.
    • Double Subversion. Sylvester at one point claims he found Michael Jordan, and a figure walks in accompanied by smoke and flashing lights... which dissipates to reveal a very confused Michael B. Jordan, who quickly returns to his seat.
    • During the credits, Bugs is seen posing for a photo with Bill Murray.
  • Reveling in the New Form: Once LeBron James gets a team together with the help of Bugs Bunny to face Al-G Rhythm which consists of Bugs' fellow Looney Tunes, Al-G uses his powers to "upgrade" them and make them look more realistic. While most of the Tune Squad is horrified by this transformation, Daffy can't help but admire how expensive he looks.
  • Roger Rabbit Effect: The film shows the Looney Tunes characters become CGI during the game, alongside the live-action characters from the real world. The inverse also applies too, as LeBron became animated in the various 2D worlds. The traditional form of the trope also gets applied thanks to Bugs surviving his Disney Death and bringing his fellow Tunes for a visit to the "real world".

    Tropes S to Y 
  • Sanity Slippage: Al-G becomes increasingly annoyed as the Tune Squad starts catching up with the Goon Squad. What little patience he has is completely spent when Dom abandons the Goon Squad.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Pre-Villainous Breakdown, Al-G does this when the Tune Squad finally gets one point ahead of the Goon Squad at the end of the third quarter.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Al-G keeps adding to the rules of the game as it goes along to try to bend the odds in the Goon Squad's favor. When the Goon Squad starts to falter and Dom abandons him, Al-G decides to directly sabotage the Tune Squad by taking away their points and breaking past LeBron.
  • Screw the Rules, They Broke Them First!: Related to the above: Al-G becomes so hellbent on winning the basketball game at all costs that he cheats like crazy. Dom learns that the only way to beat Al-G is for LeBron to glitch out, as he had done in Dom's video game earlier, but at the cost of being erased. LeBron agrees to take the risk, but Bugs steps in to do the move himself. As LeBron is about to score the winning point, Al-G tries to physically stop LeBron, only for Dom to toss his father a jump pad so he can score. Al-G helplessly screams, "THAT'S CHEATING!", conveniently ignoring the fact that he cheated first.
  • Screw the Rules, They're Not Real!: Al-G Rhythm closes the point gap between his Goon Squad and the Tune Squad by appending extra points onto the Goons' last goal. "Hey, that's cheating!" Lebron James protests. But in the server-verse, Al-G has A God Am I status, which means he can tweak any quantity in the game on a whim.
  • Secret Test of Character: Lola is put through a dangerous obstacle course on Themyscira. If she finishes within a time limit, she will have earned the right to become an Amazon. When Bugs and James intervene to try and recruit her, she initially refuses. But when they are in danger and she learns they are trying to save James's son, she saves them at the cost of missing the deadline. Lola thinks she has failed, but Wonder Woman herself passes her anyway, saying that being an Amazon is about values as much as skill. Lola helps the others as her first Amazon mission.
  • Security Cling: Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote do this to each other when Al-G's timer runs out and the Space Jam basketball court begins to form.
  • Self-Deprecation: LeBron's stated reason for rejecting Al-G's idea of placing him in movies is "athletes acting never goes well".
  • Sequel Escalation: The first movie was ultimately just a basketball game between the Looney Tunes and some alien invaders. This time, it's a huge sporting event with virtually all of Warner Bros.' big-name characters... as well as everyone on Earth who tuned into the livestream. Just look at The Long List in The Cameo above.
  • Squashed Flat: Tweety gets stepped on by Arachnneka, leaving him flattened and looking like a Picasso painting.
  • The Stinger: What else but Porky Pig going "That's All, Folks!"
  • Take That!: A subtle one towards CG animation (with some shades of Self-Deprecation). When Al-G Rhythm changes the Tunes from 2D-animated characters to CG models, they treat it like it's a bad thing (except for Daffy, who actually enjoys his smoother design). Being hand-drawn characters who've been around for decades, it does make sense that they wouldn't be too keen about being "updated" with CGI.
  • Talking with Signs: Wile E. Coyote's method of communication, as always.
  • Tempting Fate: Right after Daffy says that the Tunes should be okay as they don't appear to have any major risks, Al-G then adds that the Tunes will be deleted if they lose. Bugs and Granny lampshade this.
  • Tentacle Rope: White Mamba winds Lola up in her serpentine lower half during part of the game.
  • This Means War!: Bugs, of course, proclaims this after Al-G's arrival turns everything on Tune World (as well as the Tunes themselves) into CGI.
  • Tin Man Typist: When Bugs activates the autopilot on Marvin's spaceship, robot arms come out of the console and take the wheel.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Granny was only a cheerleader for the TuneSquad in the first film, but here, she's a full-fledged player, with her age being no problem.
    • Gossamer similarly goes from an audience member to a full-fledged player. Speedy Gonzales also counts, as he was on the team in the first game, but his only appearance was the aftermath of him already being taken out of commission.
    • Road Runner is arguably a subversion. He wasn't on the first film's team, but his one appearance there still showed him as his usual Invincible Hero self.
    • Wile E. Coyote actually manages to get the best of Road Runner for once during practice.
    • The Looney Tunes as a whole do way better in this game compared to their performance in the first film. They play a lousy first half, but that's chalked up to LeBron's poor influence rather than a lack of skill. And when they come back to dominate the second half, they stay dominant, unlike in the first film where the Monstars are able to take almost all of them out of commission afterwards. In fact, while several of them run into Amusing Injuries here, they never come close to being horribly beaten as they were in the original.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: The normally villainous Gossamer is shown to be much friendlier here.
  • Toon Transformation: LeBron becomes a 2D animated character in upon being sent to Tune World. He remains in this form until Al-G finally reverts him back for the big game.
  • Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Whatever Taz's biology is like, it managed to scare Rick and Morty, who've gone through so many absolutely hellish scenarios on their own show with a Seen It All attitude.
  • Trainstopping: In DC World, Daffy Duck (as "Super Duck") and Porky Pig (as his cameraman) have intentionally set up a Runaway Train by tying up the engineer. But just as Bugs Bunny (in the role of Batman) and LeBron James (in the role of Robin) have arrived to ask them to re-join the Tune Squad, Daffy ends up breaking the emergency brake lever he was trying to pull, and the train accelerates. But right before they can crash into an orphanage, Superman stops the train just in time (as per usual), not amused by Daffy's stunt.
  • Two Decades Behind: Porky's rap under the name "The Notorious P.I.G." would have been a lot more relevant at the time of the first movie, considering the artist he's parodying died in 1997.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Al-G, an attention-hungry computer algorithm, is arguably one of the darkest villains in the series of live-action/animation hybrid films featuring the Looney Tunes, even rivaling Judge Doom.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Al-G becomes increasingly irritated at the Tune Squad catching up with the Goon Squad, cursing as he does so (with the swears bleeped out), and he does not take at all kindly to Dom reconciling with his father and abandoning Al-G, who admonishes Dom for not doing as well in the second half, and tries to use the abilities of the Goon Squad to make them unbeatable, even trying to cheat by directly sabotaging the Tune Squad. He is that hellbent on imprisoning everyone and eliminating the Looney Tunes. As LeBron scores the winning point, Al-G, who had tried to physically stop LeBron, helplessly screams, "THAT'S CHEATING!"
  • The Worf Effect: Not even the Road Runner is any match for Chronos' time manipulation powers; when the Tunes send him out to get past Chronos, Chronos slows down time and not only steals the ball, but serves him up to Coyote.
  • World-Healing Wave: After the game is won and everyone is sent back to the real world, all the damage done to Tune World is reversed.
  • You Just Had to Say It: Bugs and Granny have this reaction after Daffy's above Tempting Fate moment.
    Bugs: (glaring) You just couldn’t keep your big beak shut.
    Granny: (dope slaps Daffy) Blabbermouth!
    Daffy: I deserved that.

"If we’re going out, we’re going out Looney!"

 
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Daffy's Jaw Drop

Daffy does this when he realizes that Sylvester got Michael B. Jordan by mistake.

Example of:
Jaw Drop

Big Chungus

Rick and Morty

Bugs Bunny's ge...

Can We Just Wat...

The Tunes get a...

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Daffy's Jaw Drop

Daffy does this when he realizes that Sylvester got Michael B. Jordan by mistake.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (11 votes)

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Main / JawDrop

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Daffy's Jaw Drop

Big Chungus

Rick and Morty

Bugs Bunny's ge...

Can We Just Wat...

The Tunes get a...