Space Jam (1996)

Space Jam is a 1996 American live-action animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel Weingrod. The first film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation, it stars basketball player Michael Jordan as himself; the live-action cast also includes Wayne Knight and Theresa Randle while Billy West and Danny DeVito headline the voice cast. The film follows Jordan as he is brought out of retirement by the Looney Tunes characters to help them win a basketball match against invading aliens intent on enslaving them as amusement park attractions.

Space Jam premiered in Los Angeles on November 10, 1996, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 15, by Warner Bros. under its Family Entertainment label. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided over its premise of combining Jordan and his profession with the Looney Tunes characters, while the technical achievements of its intertwining of live-action and animation were praised. It was a commercial success, grossing $250.2 million worldwide against an $80 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing basketball film of all time until 2022, and the tenth-highest-grossing film of 1996.

A standalone sequel, Space Jam: A New Legacy, was released in 2021, with LeBron James in the lead role. The sequel received generally negative reviews and failed to match the commercial success of the first film.