Space Jam (1996)

I put Space Jam on for my kids recently, full of excitement, ready to share something I genuinely loved growing up. They were not impressed. And sitting there watching their blank faces while I tried to explain why this was once the coolest thing in the known universe, I had to do a bit of honest soul-searching about what this film actually is in 2025 versus what it was in 1996.

Because when it came out, it was pure magic. Full stop. Michael Jordan, fresh from his baseball detour and return to the NBA, teaming up with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang to beat a team of alien monsters in a high-stakes basketball game. The Monstars, powered by stolen talent from real NBA players, were genuinely intimidating to a kid. The concept is so gloriously, shamelessly absurd that it somehow wraps back around to brilliant. And the soundtrack, oh the soundtrack. That was everywhere. You could not escape it. It defined the mid-90s in a way that's hard to fully articulate to anyone who wasn't there.

There are still things that hold up, and I want to be fair about that. The Looney Tunes animation is crisp and energetic, and the gags land with the kind of classic timing that Bugs and Daffy have always had. That stuff is genuinely good because it draws on decades of craft. The concept remains gloriously daft. And MJ himself, not an actor by any stretch, somehow sells the whole ridiculous enterprise through sheer earnestness. He's so committed to it that you go along with him. The cameos from his NBA contemporaries are fun, and there's a warmth to the whole thing that's hard to be entirely cynical about.

But time has not been particularly kind to the rest of it. The blend of live-action and animation, which felt seamless and spectacular as a child, now looks rough in ways that are hard to ignore. The joins show. The plot is paper-thin, even by the generous standards you'd apply to a film aimed squarely at eight-year-olds. And some of the humour hasn't aged well, landing as corny rather than charming. Watching it now, you can see the corporate machinery underneath the whole thing quite clearly. This was always a product as much as it was a film, an extended advertisement stitched together with genuine affection and a massive budget. In 1996, that machinery was hidden behind the spectacle. Now it's a bit more visible.

It's a cultural time capsule more than anything else. A snapshot of a very specific moment when Michael Jordan was the biggest star on the planet, the Looney Tunes were having a mainstream revival, and the idea of a live-action and animation crossover blockbuster felt genuinely fresh and exciting. It captures all of that perfectly, and for anyone who was a kid in the 90s, it will hit somewhere deep and warm and nostalgic. I'm not immune to that. Parts of it made me smile despite myself.

But nostalgia is not the same as quality, and I think that's the honest verdict here. Space Jam is worth watching for the vibes, the jams, and the sheer audacity of its own existence. It reminded me, sitting alongside those unmoved kids of mine, that some things belong to a particular moment in your life more than they belong to cinema generally. It's fun in flashes, iconic in ways that still mean something, and absolutely a product of its time rather than something that transcends it. Approach it in that spirit and you'll have a good time. Just don't go in expecting greatness.

Two and a half stars.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 1996  | Watched: 2025-10-28

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel · Now TV Cinema · HBO Max
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)