Trivia / Space Jam

• Acting for Two:
  • Billy West as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.
  • Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil and Toro.
  • Bob Bergen as Marvin the Martian, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Barnyard Dawg, Hubie and Bertie.
  • Bill Farmer as Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam and Sylvester the Cat.
  • Colleen Wainwright as Sniffles and Naut.
• All-Star Cast: An odd case.
  • Michael Jordan and a bunch of other basketball stars working with Bugs Bunny and a bunch of other Looney Tunes. Yeah.
  • The Looney Tunes voice cast included several of the leading Los Angeles VA's of the time, headlined with Billy West and featuring Dee Bradley Baker, Bob Bergen, Bill Farmer, and Kath Soucie, with Celebrity Voice Actor Danny Devito and June Foray reprising as Granny. (Producer Ivan Reitman attempted to assemble a cast that would outdo Mel Blanc.)
• Billing Displacement: The soundtrack features it in a way. The title track "Space Jam" is only the third of the album, behind "Fly Like An Eagle" and Coolio's "The Winner".
• Breakaway Pop Hit: "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly, Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle" as performed by Seal, and "For You, I Will" by Monica. Also "I Turn To You" by All 4 One... only after it was covered by Christina Aguilera. (All 4 One wanted to release it as a single, but the label had felt they had already done enough with the soundtrack)
• The Cast Showoff: Not in the movie itself, but Billy West, who voices Bugs and Elmer, as well as Bob Bergen voicing Porky and Dee Bradley Baker as Daffy, along with other characters performing a rap song on the soundtrack called "Buggin'" (written by none other than Jay-Z), which is all him singing to himself in his Looney Tunes voices.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Joe Pytka wasn't happy that the original ending of the film was dropped and replaced in the final cut.
  • The other NBA stars featured weren't so kind to the film if this video is anything to go by.
  • This is averted with the staff of Cinesite (who handled the film's CGI and VFX work), who openly enjoyed working on the film and acknowledge it in retrospectives.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: The Nerdlucks are all voiced by women. The Monstars aren’t.
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • The Latin American Spanish dub was directed by Francisco Colmenero, who voiced a golfer playing with Michael Jordan as well as Daffy Duck (Pato Lucas in the dub).
  • The Brazilian dub was directed by Isaac Bardavid (best known as Wolverine and Skeletor), who voiced Monstar Bang.
• Disowned Adaptation: Chuck Jones already wasn't fond of Looney Tunes work made without his or any other member of Termite Terrace's supervision, but he was especially vocal about his disdain for this movie. He felt the plot was too shallow for a 90-minute feature. He argued it was completely out of character for Bugs to be requesting assistance against the Monstars, saying that Bugs would take them out by himself in only seven minutes. He particularly took offense at the inclusion of Toilet Humor, paying special notice to Porky's "I think I wet myself" line. Reportedly, he got so worked up over the movie during its opening party that he had to be removed from the premises.
• Edited for Syndication: Bugs' response to Daffy's team name suggestion of "The Ducks" ("What kinda Mickey Mouse organization would call their team 'The Ducks'?") is muted on (the Disney-owned) Freeform airings.
• First Appearance: Of Lola Bunny.
• He Also Did: Korey Coleman, founder of the award-winning animated movie review site Spill, was an assistant animator for Space Jam; he animated Tweety's shadows.
• Hostility on the Set: According to this interview with animator Dave Spafford he didn't like working on the film or working with Joe Pytka as well as using (in his words) "the modern Chuck Jones shit".
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released a set of eight statues that could connect to each other in their Happy Meals. Bugs' toy was re-issued for the 2019 retro line.
• The Other Darrin:
  • The French dub of this movie hired new voice actors for each Looney Tunes, save for Albert Augier as Elmer Fudd. Unfortunately, he was also replaced when the old cartoons were redubbed.
  • Several voice actors for the Looney Tunes were replaced in this movie, some going on to take over their roles later
    • Billy West replaces Greg Burson as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd (except for one scene mentioned below voiced by Burson), going on to become their go to voices from here on until 2003 and 2015 respectively.
    • Dee Bradley Baker replaces Joe Alaskey and Jim Cummings as Daffy Duck and Taz.
    • Bob Bergen replaces Joe Alaskey as Marvin the Martian.
    • Bill Farmer replaces Joe Alaskey and Maurice LaMarche as Sylvester and Yosemite Sam.
    • Maurice LaMarche replaces Greg Burson as Pepe Le Pew.
• The Other Marty: For reasons unknown, Greg Burson recorded dialogue for the film that remained in the final cut even after the characters he played were recast. His voice is heard as Elmer Fudd in the scene where the Tunes are discussing which contest to challenge the Nerdlucks, and almost all of Foghorn Leghorn's dialogue is his (Bill Farmer, the actor credited, has only one audible line in the film).
• Playing Against Type: Wayne Knight as a well-meaning yet bumbling goofball, as opposed to the Four Eyes, Zero Soul Fat Bastard type that he became famous for in Seinfeld and Jurassic Park.
• Reality Subtext: Michael Jordan did indeed return to basketball after a stint at baseball (where he was set to retire into at the time) and led the Chicago Bulls to victory on his first game since retiring! In reality, there were sliiiiiiightly fewer Tunes and aliens involved.
• Stillborn Franchise:
  • A sequel was planned as early as 1997. As development began, Space Jam 2 was going to involve a new basketball competition between the Looney Tunes and a new villain named Berserk-O!. Due to Michael Jordan's contract not agreeing to a sequel (despite a producer lying to design artists by claiming that Jordan had signed on in order to keep development going), Warner Bros. eventually canceled plans for a direct sequel with Jordan, and eventually cast LeBron James in the lead role for a follow-up, Space Jam: A New Legacy, released in 2021.
  • Various other ideas for the sequel were considered, planned, and almost entered production. These include Spy Jam with Jackie Chan (which became its own separate movie), Race Jam with Jeff Gordon, a different film with Tiger Woods in the leading role (Golf Jam possibly), and Skate Jam with Tony Hawk (this almost entered production), but were never finalized for various reasons.
• Swan Song: The Latin American Spanish dub of Space Jam was Luis Puente's final film before he died on November 2, 1996, eight days before the film's release.
• What Could Have Been: Slam on to this page to see this trope.

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