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LeBron Gets a New Dream Team Space Jam: A New Legacy offers a delirious mix of live-action basketball stars and Looney Tunes faves. By Michael Mallory
T
here’s a lot more going on in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Space Jam: A New Legacy than simply the reteaming of a lionized hoopster and wascally wabbit. Sure, it’s built around a high-stakes basketball game between the Warner Bros. Looney “Tune Squad,” led by LeBron James, and a team of virtual avatar hoopsters called the “Goon Squad.” But it is also an epic match-up of 2D and 3D animation and visual effects, created by an army of artists comprising both toon legends and relative newbies. The film’s most notable newcomer to animation and visual effects is its director, Malcolm D. Lee, who is known for such live-action comedies as Girls Trip. “I didn’t know that I needed to make this movie,” says Lee. “Growing up I was a big fan of the Looney Tunes and I’m also a huge fan of LeBron and basketball, and this was an opportunity to play in a sandbox I hadn’t played in before.” Lee adds that the notable teams from Warner Animation Group and ILM guided him through the process, allowing him to “be more nimble about
the storytelling.” Space Jam: A New Legacy is of course the long-awaited follow-up to the 1996 hit Space Jam that paired Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. What hooked the director into the project
was the set-up story involving King James and his fictional son Dom (played by Cedric Joe), a videogame geek who’s ambivalent about basketball and who gets trapped inside the Warner Bros. digital server-verse. “That father/son
www.animationmagazine.net 8 august 21
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