A List Of Things To Love About 'Space Jam' (4 photo + 4 video)

The Premise: Space Jam is a movie about a group of evil space aliens who want to enslave the Looney Tunes. In order to do so, they agree to a winner-take-all basketball game in the cosmos against Bugs Bunny and company, which, if they win, will result in the beloved characters being forced to entertain the masses at an intergalactic theme park called Moron Mountain. Immediately after agreeing to the deal, the aliens promptly steal the talent from a number of NBA players using a space laser, which the Looney Tunes counter by kidnapping Michael Jordan during a round of golf and begging him to play for them.

Bill Murray on Space Jam. Honestly, Bill Murray is basically infallible, but why he decided to do Space Jam for this random scene that doen't even makes sense, no one will ever know.

I give the Monstars (and the producers of the film) all the credit in the world for picking Muggsy Bogues and Shawn Bradley as members of the team, for comedy purposes if nothing else, because it meant we got to see the 5'3" Bogues standing next to the 7'5" Bradley, and that's just a great visual. But from a basketball perspective, the team -- which also featured Charles Barkley, Larry "Grandmama" Johnson, and Patrick Ewing -- left a lot to be desired. Here is what I am getting at: The Monstars should have considered dropping Johnson and Ewing (Bogues and Bradley stay, because, again, hilarious) and replacing them with, like, Scottie Pippen and Mitch Richmond. Also, I have put entirely too much thought into the roster of a cartoon alien basketball team.

I am going to temporarily overlook the fact that there is one (1) female character of note in this whole movie and that she is an animated rabbit who has been sexualized to a degree that is uncomfortable on a number of levels in hindsight (especially given the crushes a nation of boys had on her in the late-90s), because I would also like to point out that there are not nearly enough movies where girl bunnies are hecka awesome at basketball.

And finally, of course, the soundtrack. Everyone always points this one out when they talk about Space Jam, so I'll be brief and limit myself to two short points before shutting this post down: 1) The song "Buggin,'" which is rapped by Bugs Bunny, was written by Jay-Z, and that is one of the more enjoyable facts to toss out at a dinner party (provided people at your dinner party care about rap music and cartoons, which, if they don’t, means you probably need new friends); and 2) No less than 70% of all basketball highlight videos should be set to the song "Hit 'Em High." I mean that. Play me out, fellas.