Critic's Grade: B+

Combining live-action photography with animation in motion pictures is usually either very, very good ("Who Framed Roger Rabbit," for example), or so bad it's not even worth the trouble lamenting over (wouldn't the world be a better place without "Cool World"?). So it is with considerable pleasure that I find myself recommending "Space Jam," which takes the standard dreams-can-come-true moral and wraps it up in inspired Looney Tunes wackiness. Of course, this modernization of the classic characters created by Warner Bros. could never live up to the wonderment of the vintage cartoon shorts, but then again, not even most Walt Disney animated shorts can, either. There's NBA product placement and pro-basketball malarkey galore here, but hey, it's worth it to watch Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and the rest of the two-dimensional bunch go crazy on the court.

The plot is a fairly simple one, mirroring the real-life success story of basketball superstar Michael Jordan (playing himself), who has just finished his career shooting hoops, and now wants to pursue baseball. His retirement coincides with the arrival of the aliens in the world of Looney Tunes: hoping to resurrect his failing amusement park, its evil owner sends his henchmen to kidnap the toons and bring them back to serve as the park's main attraction. But Bugs being the trickster he is divises a plan of challenging their would-be captors to a basketball match, knowing full well that given their small size, their opponents will lose singlehandedly. Leave it to the enemy, however, to steal the talents of basketball players like Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing, thus making them the Monstars, the team to beat.

The rest of the movie involves Jordan being sucked into the animated world to assist the toons in winning the battle against the Monstars. This is the point at which animation and live-action meet, and the results are quite seamless. But "Space Jam" doesn't concern itself with being a mere technical achievement: there's a great deal of comedy here that remains true to the essence of what made Looney Tunes such a memorable series of cartoons and characters, and for those who see the movie, fond memories are sure to surface. It goes without saying that the animation all but usurps the live action in terms of keeping our attention, and Michael Jordan's acting is, of course, no more or less resonant than those Hanes commercials he appears in. Thankfully the filmmakers know what the audience is there for, and they know how to give it to us in a fashion that makes this a very entertaining feature. That's all, folks!

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