Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Len Ikari145]

You can put me in the "Not a fan of Space Jam," camp.

Didn't like it as a kid, watched it again with friends as an adult a few years ago - still disliked it a whole lot.

It was interesting actually, a bunch of my friends were a bit too young to have actually grown up with it but had like nostalgia by cultural osmosis for the film despite never seeing it.

Then they watched and were like "oh no,"

Other than the iconic "I Believe I Can Fly" soundtrack and Bill Murray's appearance in the movie, I'm not all that nostalgic about Space Jam. I don't *hate* it necessarily, but as an adult, I don't find the film appealing or funny as I did as a child. Looney Tunes:Back in Action, OTOH, is still hilarious to me.

let's see what i can read tonight. hmmmmm

wait a tick.

BUSTER KEEL IS BACK?!

WHAT?! *notices two new chapters* Did the author just pull a Togashi? I thought for sure that the manga was cancelled.

[Nik Hasta]

WHAT?! *notices two new chapters* Did the author just pull a Togashi? I thought for sure that the manga was cancelled.

You guys are like... aware that the actual series was written and published to completion in 2012, right?

[The MunchKING]

...Why? Why?! WHY THE HELL IS THERE GOING TO BE A SPACE JAM SEQUEL IN 2021?! What drugs are the executives at WB taking to convince themselves that it's a good idea? The concept of the original was stupid. Not "ha-ha" stupid, just idiotic and ill-conceived. It was panned by reviewers worldwide and was a box office travesty. It's also what gave birth to American furries (looks over at Lola Bunny).

Oh please Disney beat them to that by like 20 years.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Other than the iconic "I Believe I Can Fly" soundtrack and Bill Murray's appearance in the movie, I'm not all that nostalgic about Space Jam. I don't *hate* it necessarily, but as an adult, I don't find the film appealing or funny as I did as a child. Looney Tunes:Back in Action, OTOH, is still hilarious to me.

I found it entertaining as a kid, and rather fondly remember it as one of my first visits to the cinema, I also remember the general hype around it with some fascination. But I haven't seen it since then and probably wouldn't be as entertained as I once was.

Oh well.

[Thezmage]

https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/32...n-space-jam-2/

[Dark Soul # 7]

[grampagen]

...Why? Why?! WHY THE HELL IS THERE GOING TO BE A SPACE JAM SEQUEL IN 2021?! What drugs are the executives at WB taking to convince themselves that it's a good idea? The concept of the original was stupid. Not "ha-ha" stupid, just idiotic and ill-conceived. It was panned by reviewers worldwide and was a box office travesty. It's also what gave birth to American furries (looks over at Lola Bunny).

Minerva Mink predated Lola by a few years, and if you wanna blame somebody in the WB that falls squarely on Paul Dini, but that's beside the point.

Space Jam was a weird phenomenon that coasted on two things, the hypetrain of 90s NBA Basketball riding on Michael Jordan's brand, and WB Executives being massively insecure about the franchise identity of Looney Tunes.

It was sort of an unspoken thing around that time, but as classic as it was Looney Tunes was perceived as somewhat tacky and archaic, as well as lacking a sort of modern kick for audiences rapidly approaching the new millennium in a youth-oriented media landscape. I imagine this was the result of the brand coasting on the same looped reels of animated shorts since the 60s or thereabouts. At the same time, this was also the era of the Disney Renaissance cresting somewhere around Hunchback, but before Mulan. The merchandising and marketing put these emergent franchises as 'for kids,' but Disney throwing money at the films also gave them a formulaic, epic quality that gave them some wiggle room and made the cultural perception around them broader.

The production of Tiny Tune Adventures and to a lesser extent Animaniacs reflected this, taking the archeytypes established by Looney Tunes but making them more palatable for the young ones, both to gain viewer traction but also to sell fruit snacks and plastic crap. Of course, neither could replace the originals in permeating the cultural landscape, Buster and Yakko simply don't permeate the public consciousness as deeply as Bugs Bunny. So how do you bring the old franchise forward, capture a youth audience, and yet convince everyone that the OG Looney Tunes are 'cool' and here to stay?

Michael 'Air' Jordan. He'd recently left minor league baseball on a near messianic hypetrain return to the Chicago Bulls after his first retirement. We sort of take it for granted now, but Jordan was a lot more than a shoe in the 90s, guy was - still is - a brand, a marketing machine, and the only other Michael that came close was in the middle of various scandals. Shit, MJ even had restaurants and stuff, and this wasn't his first foray into making cartoons, either.

So you have an ubiquitous franchise somewhat flagging in the public eye looking for a new hook, and the coolest person on the planet that was still willing to shill out his name. It's dumb as hell, but it was a guaranteed moneymaker, taking these classic characters and wrapping them up in the context of a mega hype sporting event. In addition, aesthetically the film was carrying on with the tech set by Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but was far more accessible than Cool World. By appealing to literally the lowest common denominator, captured the puddle-deep imaginations of hyped-up 90s kids awash in a sea of media brands. It's very much a lightning-in-a-bottle thing that can't quite be duplicated, least of all by WB animation on their own.

Remember how hard they tried?

Space Jam 2 otoh, seems to exist as something made by and for old people, because the staying power of the movie is the number of memes made in the last decade or so. I doubt it'll be good - even by the exceedingly low standards and energetic times of the original - but it's persisted in our minds rent-free for this long, and when someone says 'Space Jam' we have a Pavlovian response to the phrase 'come on and slam' =P

[master of read]

You guys are like... aware that the actual series was written and published to completion in 2012, right?

i did not know that. i thought the series was just canned.

[Nik Hasta]

Good post Gen.

You also reminded me that the Loonatics Unleashed was a thing and caused some kind of unstoppable cringe reflex in me.

[Nik Hasta]

I am actually quite interested to watch this.

While modern GoH is... let's go with "not what I would like it to be,"... the first major story arc has some of the best battles in the series and some really fun emotional beats to it. I am curious as to how far this first season is going to get. They have Il-Pyo and Jaegul in the trailer but, while they are both important, neither of them actually do much of anything until quite a way into the first story major arc with the GOH National Tournament.

So... either they are covering a lot of ground in this first season (like at least 40 odd chapters of the series) or they are moving things around to make stuff flow faster.

Or maybe both...?

Either way, looks fun. The fights will be good. I hope Mira is done justice because she's the best. If they get far enough, her fights with Lee Marin and Park Il-pyo are perhaps my favourites in the series because she's always the underdog.

Also, Gang Manseok getting the highest billing after the main three characters is hilarious to me given that he rapidly becomes completely irrelevant in the series.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Iron_Twister]

I used to enjoy Space Jam but kinda saw how it didn't exactly age well for me.

...But it did give us this.

[Jcogginsa]

Warren Ellis has been accused of being a predator

[Guy1]

This was actually an alternate ending they proposed but didn't get around to filming so someone made an animated version of it.

[master of read]

goddamn, this fight.........