While Space Jam: A New Legacy rebooted the Space Jam franchise, many fans still look at the original 1996 movie as the best. With Michael Jordan, arguably the most famous athlete in the world, partnering with the equally iconic Looney Tunes, this movie became a classic family-friendly adventure for the ’90s. It mixed lovable characters, high-profile athletes, a fun story, and some ridiculous Easter eggs to make a movie that all ages could enjoy.
With the new movie, many people are likely revisiting the original to see how it holds up – or younger audiences might be introduced to the original movie for the first time. But if fans keep a sharp eye out, they may notice some fun details they hadn’t noticed before. Space Jam is filled with funny and clever Easter eggs that make the movie all the more fun to look back on, especially since so many of those Easter eggs are more likely to be caught by adults than by children seeing the movie for the first time.
Doctor Who Disguise
The Fourth Doctor Gets A Shout Out
As if featuring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny in the same movie wasn’t enough, Space Jam also introduces aliens into the story. In an attempt to beat the Looney Tunes in a basketball game, the small aliens plan to steal talent from professional players by visiting an NBA game in disguise.
The tiny extraterrestrials all crowd into a trench coat with a hat and scarf in order to blend in with the basketball game fans. As a result, their outfit bears a striking resemblance to the classic look of the Fourth Doctor from Doctor Who. Given all the strange aliens on Doctor Who, it feels like an appropriate disguise, but also one that is very niche. It’s not an Easter egg many fans are going to catch right away.
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Product Placement
Product Placement Is Much More Common Today
In modern studio movies and big crowd-pleasers like Space Jam, product placement is just to be expected. Sometimes it can be quite distracting and damaging to the movie, but there are ways to make it clever. Products can be hidden in plain sight, or even give hints about a character. For example, in modern movies, audiences have noticed that iPhones are typically only used by the good guys in movies. That helps those who pay attention to phone logos which characters might be hiding their true nature.
In Space Jam, when Stan (Wayne Knight) comes to pick Michael up for the game, he says, “Slip on your Hanes, lace up your Nikes, take your Wheaties and your Gatorade, and we’ll grab a Big Mac on the way to the ballpark.” Jordan did celebrity endorsements for all those products, so it was a clever nod to the idea of product placement and celebrities being paid to sell something to the public before product placements become so much more commonplace.
Friend Of The Producer
Space Jame Shares A Producer With Another Bill Murray Movie
It is not just athletes that have fun cameos in Space Jam as one of the most beloved comedic actors of all time, Bill Murray, also shows up in a smaller role. He really wants a chance to play. After being introduced in the first act, Murray returns for the climactic game.
In a meta-comedy moment, Daffy Duck asks Murray why he is there, and Murray replies that the producer is a friend of his. Most kids in the audience will not understand the reference, but the line will likely lead adults to wonder just who Murray is talking about. Space Jam was produced by Ivan Reitman who directed Murray in the 1984 sci-fi comedy classic Ghostbusters. The line is not just there for laughs, but is actually true.
The Monolith
Warner Bros. Nods To Many Of Its Own Properties
Ever since the first trailer of Space Jam 2 was released, many fans criticized the overblown use of Warner Bros. properties, including a number of franchises that didn’t seem to relate to Space Jam at all. There are nods in the new movie to franchises like The Lord of the Rings, for example, which seems as far removed from Space Jam as the Warner Bros. projects can get.
But the original movie did also sneak in some references to movies that the younger audiences are likely not familiar with. When the alien planet Moron Mountain is introduced, the famous monolith from the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey can be seen floating in space. Of course, it does work for its sci-fi nod to a movie about aliens battling cartoon animals on a basketball court.
Charles Barkley
There Is A Pun On This Player’s Name
Aside from Jordan, there are a number of basketball players who appear in Space Jam. The most prominent cameo is from Charles Barkley who is one of the players who has their talent stolen by the aliens. The movie spends a little bit more time with him than it does some of the other players. However, he might also get another subtle shout-out in the movie that plenty of the audience will have missed.
Though it is never fully confirmed, Jordan’s dog in the movie is named Charles. This appears to be a pun at the expense of his colleague. The dog’s full name could easily be Charles BARK-ley, a pun surrounding the basketball player’s name and the barking of a dog. It would be a clever addition to the movie.
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Bosko The Talk-Ink Kid
The First Warner Bros. Animated Character
The Looney Tunes are among the most iconic cartoon characters ever created, and Space Jam gives them the opportunity to shine in a big-budget movie. Not only does it give these classic characters a chance to be introduced to a new generation of audiences, but the movie is also filled with homages to the cartoon’s roots.
The gym the Tunes practice in is called Schlesinger Gym after Leon Schlesinger who founded the production company that later became Warner Bros. Also, when the Tunes first meet the aliens, a poster of Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid can be seen on the wall, which was Warner Bros’ first animated character. It’s a reminder that even among all of the glitz of the modern day, the studio has not forgotten its roots.
Larry Johnson’s Grandmother
Johnson Provides Another Meta Nod
One of the funniest subplots in the movie involves some of the NBA’s most recognizable stars losing their talent to the evil aliens. The professional athletes are forced to come to terms with suddenly being terrible at basketball, which doesn’t go well. While none of the players are professional actors, it’s still fun to see them all try their hand at it and play basketball really badly.
When Michael Jordan meets with his colleagues at the end of the movie, NBA player Larry Johnson says that his grandmother can play better than he can now. This is a nod to a series of commercials for Converse sneakers that show Johnson playing basketball against his grandmother. It’s a fun meta nod, not unlike all of Michael Jordan’s product endorsements being listed earlier in the movie.
Saint Paul Saints
As fun as Jordan is throughout Space Jam, Bill Murray really does add a great spark of comedy brilliance when he pops up in the movie. Murray often elevates the comedy of anything he is in, even if it is just in a cameo role. And while the role might really have been a favor to Ivan Reitman, Murray seemed to have another demand for his role.
At the end of the movie, Murray is seen wearing a baseball cap for the Saint Paul Saints. This is an actual professional baseball team of which Murray is part owner in real life. He has had a stake in the team since 1993 and has even popped up to help out at games over the years, checking tickets at the gate.
The Saint Paul Saints actually commemorated the 25th anniversary of Space Jam in 2021 in honor of Murray. They had the hat he wears in the movie on display and gave away tickets to the sequel to fans at baseball games (via MLB.com).
The Ducks
A Nod To Another Disney Sports Movie
As iconic as Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes have been in the world of animation, they have always had some steady competition with Disney animation as well. That rivalry appears to have spilled over into this movie as there are some in-jokes about the competition.
When the Tunes are trying to come up with a name for their team, Daffy Duck, of course, suggests “The Ducks”. Bugs then replies “What kind of Mickey Mouse organization would name their team the Ducks?” At the time, Disney owned the NHL team the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.
Of course, the team’s name was actually immortalized in the kids’ movie The Mighty Ducks, about a fledgling youth hockey team. The movie got two sequels, an animated series, and two decades later, a Disney+ series. The Ducks certainly have staying power as well.
Post-Credit Scene
Nowadays, audiences are well trained to wait for post-credit scenes thanks to the MCU. However, in 1996, post-credit scenes were not that common. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was the most famous one of the time, and a lot of people did not know about it when the movie initially hit theaters in 1986. There are probably a large number of people who have seen Space Jam yet didn’t know there was a stinger at the end.
Admittedly, the additional scene is not much for the story, but it keeps with the classic Looney Tunes tradition. Bugs Bunny appears at the end to deliver the classic “That’s all folks!” line only for Porky Pig to interrupt and remind Bugs that’s his line. Daffy then tries to deliver it himself only for the aliens to steal the line at the last moment. Michael Jordan then appears and asks, “Can I go home now?”
It’s a fitting way to end Space Jam with all of the animated characters wanting to steal the spotlight and Michael Jordan simply tired after a job well done.
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Space Jam’s Sequel Went All In On Easter Eggs
Because part of the fun of the original Space Jam is the presence of so many Easter eggs (and many that adults will notice more than the kids watching these movies), Easter eggs are also a huge part of the 2021 sequel.
Space Jam: A New Legacy brought in characters from a lot of other Warner Bros. properties, which is probably where the most prolific Easter eggs come from. Fans got to see Daffy Duck pretending to be a superhero in Metropolis and Lola Bunny as a colleague of Wonder Woman, for example. More hidden were characters from The Lord of the Rings watching the game at the climax of the movie. Batman’s butler, Alfred, also appears while riding an out-of-control subway train.
Of course, the nods to other Warner Bros. properties are only part of the cameos that appear in the movie. Space Jam: A New Legacy also features a lot of actors and athletes in cameo roles. From Steven Yeun to Ernie Johnson Jr. to a photo of Bill Murray after the credits, there is a plethora of fun cameos for the audience to spot.
One of the best Space Jam cameos is utilized as part of the story in both a nod to the original movie and a nod to modern pop culture. The characters lament not having Michael Jordan on their basketball team to help them. When Sylvester believes he has found Michael Jordan, the music plays the Chicago Bulls theme from the 1990s and in walks… not the right Michael Jordan.
Instead, it’s actor Micheal B. Jordan, who does provide the team with a rousing speech and a “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” in a nod to his breakout role on the TV series Friday Night Lights. It’s one of the best instances in which the movie manages to combine every kind of Easter egg it utilizes into one gag.
Space Jam: A New Legacy definitely lives up to the original Space Jam when it comes to giving the audience a ton of Easter eggs to look for.
Space Jam
- Release Date
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November 15, 1996
- Runtime
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88 Minutes
- Director
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Joe Pytka
- Writers
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Herschel Weingrod, Timothy Harris, Steve Rudnick, Leo Benvenuti