I can usually tell I’m not going to get on with someone, movie-wise, if they try to reclaim Space Jam as some kind of underappreciated masterpiece. Even my fuzzy memories told me it was a slapdash ninety minute commercial that deserved nothing more than ironic reappropriation; rewatching it only confirmed that. This is an ugly movie, not just aesthetically but in its crass and pointless storyline. This is a weak way of introducing someone to the Looney Tunes bunch because it puts less effort into characterising them than it does into characterising Wayne Knight’s sidekick to Michael Jordan – of all of them, Daffy is the one to emerge with his blustery ego-driven personality intact. Bugs is flattened into a generic hero type that also wants to fuck the girl rabbit, and everyone else is essentially a victim of random slapstick and gross-out gags (I don’t know why the “Spitshine!” gag bothers me so much because I’ve laughed at far grosser jokes, but it feels so tonally out of place with the Looney Tunes spirit that it sets my hair on edge). There’s a rare moment of genuine magic that puts the hollowness of the movie into perspective – when Bugs and Daffy team up to sneak into Jordan’s house and are caught by his (fictional) children. Comedically, we have the joys of watching Bugs and Daffy just talk to each other, but we also get to see these characters as the magical larger-than-life creatures that kids see them as, as well as the hilariously adult cynicism with which Bugs and Daffy respond (which, of course, only serves to make them more magical to children). Otherwise, this film is filled with the kind of gags and emotions you see in your average commercial – things that hit strongly in the moment and fly out of your head immediately after.