A closer look
Space Jam was not conceived as a beautiful, heartfelt narrative about the power of self-belief or the magic of Looney Tunes, but rather as an elaborate feature-length extension of a wildly successful Nike television commercial. The original ad campaign featured Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny playing basketball against aliens to sell expensive sneakers, and some brilliant Warner Bros executive looked at this thirty-second blatant corporate cash grab and decided it needed to be an hour and a half long. The fact that they managed to turn a shoe commercial into a cultural touchstone that still forces grown adults to passionately debate the physics of a cartoon rabbit dunking a basketball is nothing short of miraculous. It is the ultimate victory for late-stage capitalism, proving that with enough catchy music and 90s nostalgia, you can convince the world that a marketing stunt is a cinematic masterpiece
