November 15, 1996
Animation/Family
PG
United States
Director: Joe Pytka
“What’s up, Doc?”
This movie starts with the retirement of Michael Jordan from the NBA in 1993 to pursue a career in minor league baseball, following in his father’s (Thom Barry) footsteps. In real life, Michael wasn’t a terrible baseball player, but in the film, he was one of the worst. He seemed to like to relax by playing golf with Larry Bird and Bill Murray, which he was almost as good at as basketball.
When Michael apparently gets his first hole-in-one, Stan Podolak (Wayne Knight), Michael’s baseball publicist, wants to take a picture of him reaching for his ball. Michael reaches down in his pose, where he’s sucked down into the ground.
Before this happens, the Looney Toons are having a bit of a problem. They’re being threatened to be slaves on a theme park in space called Moron Mountain, which is owned by Mr. Swackhammer (Danny DeVito). The Looney Toons get the opportunity to defend themselves from the tiny aliens, Pound (Jocelyn Blue), Blanko (Charity James), Bang (June Melby), Bupkus (Catherine Reitman), and Nawt (Colleen Wainwright), and they decide to challenge their potential captors to a basketball game. What they’re unaware of, however, is the aliens stealing the talents of Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnson, and Shawn Bradley. This turns the tiny aliens into the Monstars, where Pound (Darnell Suttles), Blanko (Steve Kehela), Bang (Joey Camen), Bupkus (Dorian Harewood), and Nawt (T.K. Carter) are giant basketball gods. This leads Bugs Bunny to magnetically drag Michael’s golf ball into the hole so he can take Michael down to Looney Toon Land and get his help. Michael agrees to participate, and the rest of the movie is getting the Toons ready to play, and The Ultimate Game itself.
It goes pretty much how you’d expect. The Monstars, with their talents of some of the greatest players in the world, dominated the Toon Squad. It isn’t until Bugs comes up with the idea of passing out some water to the rest of the Toons, which he labels “Michael’s Secret Stuff”, giving the others the confidence they need to gain some points. It works a little too well, and when the Toon Squad is closing in on the Monstars’ score, Swackhammer calls a timeout. During this, Michael makes a deal with him, saying that if the Toon Squad wins, the Monstars have to give the other players their talent back, and if the Monstars win, Swackhammer gets Michael himself. Swackhammer agrees, then proceeds to go back to his team and tell the Monstars to “crush ’em”. And they take that literally.
The Toon Squad is taken down one-by-one, leaving Michael with no other option than to put in Stan, who had managed to sneak his way into Looney Toon Land. Of course, Stan doesn’t last long, and Michael is unsure of what to do. That is, until Bill Murray unexpectedly shows up (which, it needs to be noted, that Swackhammer hilariously confuses him with Dan Aykroyd). Bill had mentioned earlier on the golf course to both Michael and Larry Bird that he could help the NBA by playing basketball. Neither of them took him seriously, but in the end, he helps bring the Toon Squad to a win by one point.
The Monstars give their stolen talent back via a basketball and Michael makes it to his final baseball game. Afterward, he joins Charles, Patrick, Muggsy, Larry Johnson, and Shawn to get them to touch the ball so they can play again. They tease him about being a baseball player and mention that he probably doesn’t know how to play basketball anymore, and that leads Michael to rejoining the Bulls.
I love animation/live action mash-ups, and while this movie isn’t the most well-done, it is up there in the entertainment factor. Having grown up with these cartoons, as well as this particular era of basketball, I can’t help but feel nostalgic whenever I watch it. It’s also filled with some of today’s top voice actors, including Billy West, Dee Bradley Baker, Bob Bergen, Bill Farmer, June Foray, Maurice LaMarche, and Kath Soucie. This film is stupid and crazy and fun, and if you want a nice feel-good movie for the whole family to enjoy, I do recommend it, especially if they’re aware of these basketball legends.
That’s all, folks!
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