How the film "Space Jam" was filmed: footage from filming and interesting facts (14 photos)

To save his son, the famous NBA champion goes to a fairy-tale world, where he is forced to fight on the basketball court with digital copies of famous players on a team of cartoons.





1. The duet of Michael Jordon and Buggs Bunny first appeared on screens five years before the release of the film Space Jam. Specifically, in 1991, the famous Nike company released an advertisement where basketball players interact with the famous rabbit.



Nike commercial (1991)

After some time, another video was released, thanks to which even viral rumors began to appear about the creation of a full-length film about Michael Jordan and Buggs Bunny. But at that time, few people believed that anyone would implement such an idea. But in vain.

2. When it came to making the film, the little-known director Joe Pitka was put in the director's chair, who mainly shot only videos and advertisements, including the one where Jordan and Buggs Bunny first appeared.





But his filmography was very meager, since in his collection there was only one film, “Ride at Full Speed,” which did not appeal to the audience very much. And if he had made the disastrous “Space Jam,” then he could have said goodbye to his career as a feature film director.

3. In order to film the cartoons, live actors had to interact with extras dressed in green suits. After this, the background was removed, and drawn characters were inserted in place of the extras.



4. Despite the fact that the main cartoon characters had long been invented, the animators had to work hard, since the usual drawing did not allow everything planned to be realized on the screen for the correct interaction of cartoons with living characters. Therefore, we had to involve more than a hundred artists (including 3D), each of whom did his own thing.



5. One of the main conditions of filming Michael Jordan was the opportunity to train during the break between filming. Therefore, a full-fledged basketball court was even built next to the studio.

And after filming ended, the site was not demolished. It became a place where NBA stars, as well as famous actors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, constantly gathered.



6. Animator and director Chuck Jones, who at one time was one of the main artists of the Looney Tunes series, spoke about the film Space Jam in a sharply negative way, calling it simply terrible.



Chuck Jones - cartoonist

7. With a budget of $80 million, the film "Space Jam" grossed $230 million worldwide. Not a bad result, but it was 17 films away from the top-grossing film of 1996, which was Independence Day. But at that time the film became the highest-grossing film about basketball.

By the way, I recommend that you read my separate article about how the film “Independence Day” was filmed. I'm sure you'll like it.

8. Lola Bunny the rabbit first appeared only in this film. This character had never appeared in a Loney Tunes cartoon before. Although, it was originally planned to include the rabbit Hunny Bunny, who appeared only in comics, in the film.



At one time, many people thought that Babs Bunny from the Tiny Toon cartoon was a child version of Lola Bunny, since all the other Tiny Toon characters also had their own adult versions. But this, in principle, could not have happened, since the animated series "Tiny Toon" first appeared in 1990, while "Space Jam" - in 1996.

Well, when the failed sequel to the film “Space Jam” was released in 2021, the creators decided to greatly remake Lola, depriving her of her signature figure. The creators decided to make it stronger and more independent for the sake of the modern agenda. True, the fans did not appreciate this step, as they wanted to see the usual sexy Lola.



I personally don’t understand when films are made to suit an agenda. The creators focus on not offending various minorities, forgetting that they offend ordinary people. And anyway, who said that a strong female character can't be sexy, even if it's a bunny?

9. Remember the moment when Bill Murray appears at the match? To the question “How did he get here?” Bill told Michael that his producer friend pushed him there.



This was not just a joke, but the pure truth. Producer Ivan Reitman (who directed and produced Ghostbusters), knowing that Bill Murray would like to be involved with animated characters, literally pushed him into Space Jam. The scene for Bill Murray was written at the very last moment, somehow wedging him into the scene with the match.



10. According to the plot of the film, Michael Jordan leaves basketball for baseball. But before filming began, he had already retired from baseball to resume his basketball career with the Chicago Bulls.

11. In 1996, movie websites were primitive one-page sites. And in general, at that time, few people promoted their films via the Internet, since this was not common.



But in the case of Space Jam, a whole team was hired to take care of the site. The site was crammed with a variety of information. And although today this site looks cheap and unprofessional, at that time it was quite large-scale within the framework of one film.

By the way, this resource still works today. You can go to it yourself and see what it looks like with your own eyes.



12. Despite the fact that the word “Jam” is mainly translated as “Jam” (Jam), here it has a completely different meaning, and two. In basketball, the word "Jam" is used to describe an overhand shot. Also, this word refers to short 6-minute cartoons like "Looney Tunes". Now you know what the jam has to do with it.

13. The creators wanted to release a sequel to the film with Michael Jordan, but he refused. As a result, in 2003, the rather mediocre film “Looney Tunes is Back in Business” was released, starring Brandon Fraser and Steve Martin, which also dealt with the interaction of living people with Buggs Bunny and other cartoons. True, there was no talk about basketball anymore.



Space Jam 2, 2021

Well, in 2021, the official second part of the film “Space Jam” was released, but this time the main role in the film was played by basketball player LeBron James. But the film was such a failure that with a budget of $150 million, it grossed only $162 million worldwide. Let me remind you that to break even, you need to collect on average twice as much as was spent on filming.