Crossword Dictionary
Space Jam (1996)
Space Jam is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. The film stars basketball player Michael Jordan as a fictional version of himself; Wayne Knight and Theresa Randle appear in supporting roles while Billy West, Dee Bradley Baker, Kath Soucie, and Danny DeVito headline the voice cast. The film is a fictionalized account of the timeline between Jordan's initial retirement from the NBA in 1993 and his 1995 return.
Space Jam was the first film to be produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and was released theatrically in the United States on November 15, 1996 by Warner Bros. under its Warner Bros. Family Entertainment banner. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but it was a box office success, grossing over $250 million worldwide to become the highest-grossing basketball film of all time and the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1996.
A standalone sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy, was released in July 2021, with LeBron James in the lead role.
Plot
Swackhammer (DeVito), an evil alien theme park owner, needs a new attraction at Moron Mountain. When his gang, the Nerdlucks, heads to Earth to kidnap Bugs Bunny (West) and the Looney Tunes, Bugs challenges them to a basketball game to determine their fate. The aliens agree, but they steal the powers of NBA basketball players, including Larry Bird and Charles Barkley -- so Bugs gets some help from superstar Michael Jordan.