In all honesty, The Bunny and The Goat (2021) may be the best advertising that Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) could’ve had. A promo for the six-minute video consistently made the rounds throughout June during The NBA Playoffs, doing what just about every major studio is doing now. They’ll give you a 30-second teaser to drop what you’re doing and go online to watch a slightly longer piece of advertising. Does it work? Sometimes. I mean, Klay Thompson once got me to watch a Kaiser Permanente ad because it sounded more like his comeback narrative for the 2020-2021 season (sadly, we know how things turned out). Long story short, I’m not opposed to The Bunny and The Goat and actually think it’s far more clever than general reviews give it credit for.
Space Jam 2, as with the original, was sold as a groundbreaking cross-over event between The NBA and Looney Tunes. You would buy a ticket, sit down, and watch Bugs Bunny do these trick shots that no human could do. Even with his gargantuan talent, LeBron James couldn’t pull off half the stunts that Bugs could, or so I wanted to believe on paper. Imagine a Harlem Globetrotters movie on par with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) and you’ll begin to see what my ideal version of this franchise would be. I’d be down for random cameos, maybe sticking in Kevon Looney for a pun or having James get a call from Doc Rivers while saying “What’s up Doc?” You know… have fun with the sports lingo. In an ideal world, THIS would be our Space Jam.
And, quite frankly, we kind of get it with The Bunny and The Goat.
What I love is that even in the TV promo there is a certain feeling of misdirection happening. The 30 for 30 logo appears, suggesting that we are about to see a trailer for something big. Last summer brought with it an impressive docuseries called The Last Dance (2020) – ironically starring Space Jam (1996) star Michael Jordan – and given that this is Finals season, it was a good time to prop up whatever crazy new documentary that ESPN had in the works. Depending on your level of gullibility, that first five seconds will have you believe in something real.
For starters, we were finally getting a documentary on LeBron James. That’s right, the indomitable veteran, considered greatest of his generation, who just took The Los Angeles Lakers to Championship status for the first time in a decade. “Lesser” talents have gotten 30 for 30 titles dedicated to them. What could we possibly say about James?
Shortly after you begin to realize that yes, this is just a crass promo for Space Jam 2. Some of the air may deflate, but it’s goofy in all of the right ways. Anyone who spent last summer watching Jordan lean back in his armchair and talk about his career will notice how pitch-perfect the shot composition and editing here is. Everything is set up to mimick The Last Dance, and it even alludes to plot points from the film without overtly saying what they are. It builds anticipation without needing to show footage. People familiar with The NBA will recognize the presence of newscaster Rachel Nichols as she discusses the film from a more academic angle before cutting to the comedic centerpiece: Bugs Bunny. Hypothetically, what’s funnier than a cartoon tearing down James?
For what it’s worth, James’ ability to resonate has as much to do with talent as it does with his marketing abilities. He is, after all, the man who once had the hubris to try and trademark the phrase “Taco Tuesday.” He sold Sprite Cranberry so well that it became a meme. Whosever idea it was to make him the center of Space Jam 2 is smart. He would actually be game for whatever crazy antics would be on display and, most of all, it would be believable. Again, I’m not saying any of it is GOOD, I’m just saying that as a marketer, it would be easy to sell anything with his likeness.
Hopping on over to YouTube gives you access to one of the more creative trailers of the past year. I mostly say this because of how well it understands its audience. The 30 for 30 iconography works well enough where a generic press junket interview could look classy. Not only that, but it features characters that aren’t fully introduced in the regular trailers. Don Cheadle plays Al-G Rhythm whose whole purpose in The Bunny and The Goat is to undermine confidence in a campy way. Meanwhile, stars like Diana Taurasi and Anthony Davis make appearances as themselves for bits that I’d argue are halfway decent. When James suggests that Bugs is the best teammate he’s ever had, it cuts to Davis looking annoyed.
The sincerity by which it recounts the plot may play flat as a joke for some, but honestly, the commitment is admirable. If nothing else, this is the most subdued the whole franchise has been, as if crouching in the bushes before the big release. You don’t get much if you want spectacle, but you get playful banter and inside jokes that work to NBA sensibilities. It hypes up moments from the film by suggesting it was the ultimate game of basketball. You’re left curious wondering just what that all means. Sure, some of it is downright cornball including lines where people say “Welcome to the space jam” with too much anticipation, but it works given that none of it should be taken seriously as more than a teaser.
Besides the humor of the piece, the one aspect that received complaints was the presence of Lola Bunny. Months before, some objected to making a cartoon rabbit look less sexy and more like an anthropomorphic bunny in baggy clothes. This time around, there was an objection to Zendaya being cast as the voice actor. She was no Chuck Jones and existed mostly for empty marquee filling. Given that the other characters were voiced by qualified vocal talents, it was a confusing choice that even in Space Jam 2 never felt resolved in a way that warranted it. Was it just some trick to make Lola seem more special? Shouldn’t the rest of the movie do that for us?
It’s very much a non-starter of a controversy though a perfect symbol of how Space Jam 2 favored brand loyalty over craft. Zendaya was fine, but then again she’s one piece in a bigger film that finds Speedy Gonzalez running through The Matrix (1999) and The Roadrunner embracing Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) action. What does any of this mean? Absolutely nothing. It mostly feels like a chance to remind audiences that the platform you’re watching this on, HBO Max, is owned by Warner Bros. and has some awesome stuff to watch from D.C. And Game of Thrones. Disney+ has the loading screen that takes you to another similar movie, HBO Max just has movies that reference other movies hoping you’ll just watch them and give them your money.
This is why The Bunny and The Goat, I feel, is better than Space Jam 2. Sure it’s shameless marketing, but it’s the type that feels organic to what people would want to see out of an NBA/Chuck Jones movie. Show these two worlds colliding in a way that compels you to look further into these franchises. Maybe have a James Harden beard gag for five seconds, or joke about how nobody could beat Steph Curry in a three-point contest. The ways to make this cartoonish are endless, and it’s a bummer that a quick ESPN bit does it so much better than a whole studio pushing so much content at audiences that Space Jam 2’s basic premise feels secondary to your ability to freeze frame and find shout-outs to The Devils (1971) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Question: do these make the film better? NO.
Without getting into it, I’d go further and argue that the film fails to establish its supporting cast of athletes to the point that only those with loyalty stand to recognize why we should care about them in the latter half of the movie. Not enough time is spent focused on basketball and more on consumerism, on serotonin levels getting boosts for finding the Animaniacs cue in the score. While I’ll give director Malcolm D. Lee credit for making half of it feel less than egregious, it’s still taking away precious resources from celebrating the culture that even the original Space Jam failed to live up to at times. We don’t need characters rapping over Odd Future-knockoff beats (also, Damian Lillard was right there). We just need a celebration of a sport that has more than its fair share of quirks to pull from.
I understand that a lot of people came out the other side of The Bunny and The Goat without half the enthusiasm I felt. To be honest, it’s not an exemplary piece of art. All it is is selling a film by cleverly discussing it in a forum unique to ESPN. To me, it is tonally pitch-perfect and embraces an aspect of the film that I wish was stronger. Sure it has shout-outs to contemporary basketball trends, but it doesn’t do enough to make it feel substantial. It doesn’t feel like it is pure within the DNA of the story. I would never say that this short was a masterpiece worthy of being saved in The Smithsonian, but it was a fun reminder of how to be playful with mass media. Most importantly it did something that’s a bit rare but not entirely foreign. It made me want to see Space Jam 2 more than the actual promos did.
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