I'm talking about nostalgia for the Animaniacs.įor those not in the know, Animaniacs debuted in the fall of 1993 as part of Warner Bros.' attempt to revive their television animation department (with not a little help from Steven Spielberg), a goal that saw the likes of Tiny Toon Adventures launch in 1989 and Batman: The Animated Series doing its thing in 1992. I'm not talking about nostalgia for Space Jam. Aside from beefing up the female character bench (even at 16, I rolled my eyes at how the one female character, Lola Bunny, was entirely sexualized), the WB movie could take advantage of an altogether new generational nostalgia.
Here's the thing: There is one way to allow this new Space Jam movie to be an even more significant event that it would be if it were merely LeBron James palling with Bugs Bunny and friends to win another basketball game.
I may not like what it represents in terms of the total domination of nostalgia-driven IP scores, but it's not like audiences show up for movies like Ransom or Michael anymore. That all being said, I imagine a kid-friendly Space Jam 2 will still play well as a kind of cross-generational nostalgia-bait title. You'd think Hollywood would have learned from the blow-out stardom of Will Smith, but then that same industry went and cast Liam Hemsworth in Independence Day: Resurgence 20 years later and was shocked when general audiences didn't show up. To be fair, a film like Space Jam 2 starring a black celebrity is (sadly) just as big of a deal in 2021 as it was in 1996.
That's as much the fault of audiences (who no longer see grown-up movies in theaters) as the studios. But in 2021, a movie like Space Jam 2 will be par-for-the-course in terms of what kind of film Hollywood prioritizes. The Seven Samurai-ish concept (see also: Three Amigos, Galaxy Quest and A Bug's Life) led to a strange mix of character+IP+unconventional movie star stew, a film that mostly works on its own goofy terms but now is held in nostalgic fondness partially because it was unique unto itself back in the day.īack in 1996, Space Jam grossed $90 million domestic and $230m worldwide on an $80m budget (back when 2.87x your budget was an unmitigated win) partially because it stood out from the crowd alongside Ransom, Michael and Jerry Maguire. The Joe Pytka-directed flick concerned Michael Jordan (who had just retired and unretired from basketball with an infamous moment as a baseball player in between) who must help the Looney Tunes defeat malevolent aliens by besting the bad guys in a basketball game. Directed by Terrence Nance and produced by (among others) Justin Lin, Ryan Coogler and "King James" himself, the WB release will attempt to tap into generational nostalgia for the original 1996 animated basketball comedy.
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