MPA Rating
PG
Tiny Bookstore Suggested Age
Ages 4 and up. You may be able to watch with a younger child, but words like “butt” and others that you know a toddler will love repeating over and over are sprinkled throughout the film. There are cartoon injuries and mild cartoon violence.
The Rundown
As someone who was already a teenager when the original Space Jam was released, I was able to see this movie fairly objectively and free from any type of allegiance to the original. And let’s not forget that, while the original was savaged by some critics, it’s now considered a classic for people of a certain generation.
LeBron James is not a professional actor, but he does a good enough job. He won’t be getting any Oscar nominations, but if the standard we’re looking at here is acting quality in family-friendly movies, then you have to give him credit for a solid performance. Don Cheadle elevates everything that he’s in, and it’s fun to see him embrace the goofiness and comedy of the antagonist, Al G. Rhythm.
There are a lot of references to other movies and Warner Brothers properties, but I felt that it worked. Too many movies that are derived from older sources try a little too hard to distinguish themselves. Space Jam: A New Legacy really leaned into what it is. In a time when TikTok and memes reign supreme, you can see how fully accepting the callbacks and being “very meta” can work.
In A New Legacy, LeBron is introduced as a man who has sacrificed to focus exclusively on being the best basketball player on the planet.1 Although he had an interest in video games, he was encouraged to dismiss that hobby as a distraction. Fast-forward to the present day, and LeBron is trying to raise his children with the same laser-focus on basketball. The problem is that his son, Dom, is more interested in designing video games. Although LeBron humors Dom’s interest in video games, he doesn’t take a true interest in it and expects Dom to follow in his size 15 Nike footsteps.
Overall, this is a fun movie. I liked it more than the original. If you’re looking for it to be more than just a fun movie, you’ll probably be disappointed. This is a movie about a basketball star who is literally sucked into the internet and is playing basketball with a group of cartoon characters. Adjust your expectations accordingly, and you’ll have a good time.
Moral of the Movie
You can’t have a family-friendly film without there being a lesson hiding in there somewhere. There’s a recurring theme about self-acceptance and tenacity, but I can’t help but feel like the big lesson in the film is more for the parents than the children. As important as self-acceptance is, it’s also important for adults to accept their kids. Space Jam: A New Legacy makes that point without being too aggressive about it. There’s also a more subtle point about parents not taking their kids’ sports so seriously, but one can argue that LeBron may have missed that one himself.
- I am not taking a public position on “Who is the G.O.A.T.: Lebron v. Michael Jordan.” I know better than that. ↩
