'Space Jam: A New Legacy' Travels To Cyberspace

HOLLYWOOD, CA — Nearly 25 years after Michael Jordan teamed up with a bevy of Looney Tunes characters, the animated and live-action film “Space Jam” gets a reboot, shooting hoops with NBA legend LeBron James as the new star.

Whereas the original film centered around the salvation of Bugs Bunny and his pals from an alien threat, “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” directed by Malcolm D. Lee, focuses on the uniqueness of a father and son relationship.

Watch the trailer.

As it turns out, James has a young son named Dom (Cedric Joe), who does not share his dad’s passion for basketball. And much to James’s disappointment, the boy would rather code and create video games.

In the film’s opening sequence, Warner Bros. executives pitch the basketball icon an algorithm called Warner 3000, in which James can be inserted into the Warner “Server-verse,” a cyberspace where the studio’s famous faces, past and present, reside.

Without mincing words, James flatly declines: “Athletes acting, that never works.”

Enter artificial intelligence G. Rhythm (Don Cheadle), an AI menace, who gets offended. Burning with anger, he forcibly injects James and Dom into the server-verse and holds them hostage. The only way the father-son duo can get out is to defeat the AI at basketball.

James assembles his dream team. It’s none other than — you guessed it — Bugs Bunny (voiced by Jeff Bergman), Lola Bunny (Zendaya) and their Looney Tunes pals. Their opponent? The AI’s “Goon Squad,” comprising strange-looking avatars of popular real-life basketball players, including Nneka Ogwumike, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard and Diana Taurasi. Oh, and the spectators? You’ll see the likes of Iron Giant, Scooby-Doo, Pennywise and Mr. Freeze.

Can James and his dream team pull a slam dunk and save the day?

Skip it. While it offers a few laughs along with visuals soft on the eyes, “A New Legacy” overall is a 115-minute journey into a vast cyberspace of branding and advertising.

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