Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Space Jam 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Hare Jordan.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 2, 2021

Timed to capitalize on this month's theatrical release of Space Jam: A New Legacy, Warner Bros. is unleashing another catalog title on 4K: Joe Pytka's Space Jam, a 1996 film that combined Looney Tunes and basketball with mixed results. Fitfully entertaining but stretched awfully thin even at just 88 minutes, Space Jam's meta-plot took its cues from star Michael Jordan's surprise 1995 return to basketball after a brief, unsuccessful stint in minor league baseball. Fusing its story elements with familiar toon faces like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the Tasmanian Devil -- not to mention real-life guest stars including Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, and Bill Murray -- it pinballs towards a lengthy championship game against the Monstars, a villainous team of aliens hoping to bring Air Jordan back as the star attraction for their failing theme park. Long story short: if you dropped countless quarters into NBA Jam or wore any of those dumb Looney Tunes shirts where they rocked baggy pants and gold chains, you probably have fond memories of this one.

Space Jam is objectively not a great movie and probably won't play as well with younger audiences as the newer one ("Who's Shawn Bradley, dad?"), but it's still pretty fun in spots and doesn't take itself seriously. The fusion of animated elements with live action, while not as polished as top-tier blends like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, is capably done and even better than some more recent efforts like this year's toothless Tom and Jerry. But for an alternate take on Space Jam (as well as a full synopsis), please refer to my colleague Brian Orndorf's review of the 2011 Blu-ray.

Space Jam 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

NOTE: These screenshots were sourced from the 4K disc and output to 1920x1080. So while they obviously don't reflect 4K's full resolution or HDR enhancement, they should at least provide a general sense of the new 2160p transfer's tangible improvements, from its better color and image detail to the more accurate framing.

Advertised as a new HDR-enhanced 4K master, Space Jam arrives on the format with a mostly pleasing 2160p transfer that corrects a few of the 2011 Blu-ray's visual shortcomings but back-pedals elsewhere. For starters, it's worth noting that portions of this film have always looked soft and very light on grain, such as Jordan's arrival and stay in WB world, including the climactic basketball game; this was a necessary style choice to ensure that live-action elements didn't stick too far out against the more smoothly-rendered animation. Other built-in source "defects" (for lack of a better word) include a bit of aliasing on specific CG backgrounds, such as a few sharp angles and edges on Moron Mountain and the baseline and free-throw paint on animated basketball courts; it's easily spotted on screenshot #4, but again hardly distracting in-motion. A few composites are jarring as well, like MJ's extended hand (screenshot #22) as well as Bugs and Daffy's nighttime trip to Jordan's house, which features a few rough edges. But since these problems have either always been part of the show or present on earlier releases, they're not really worth complaining about.

So within those pre-drawn boundaries, Space Jam enjoys a fairly across-the-board upgrade on 4K... which, as usual, has largely to do with the format's higher resolution, roomier encoding, and HDR enhancements. But it's obvious that this isn't the same master or a cheap upscale: film grain is more evident in critical close-ups and wide shots alike, from facial features to clothing and background details, with overall live-action image detail similarly getting a nice boost. Compression artifacts and banding are usually* less evident this time around, with the aforementioned grain replacing what looks more like digital noise in the previous release. But color is perhaps the biggest game changer here, and it applies to both live-action and animated elements: from the bright stadium lights and team uniforms to the Monstars' skin tones, colorful WB world backgrounds, and vivid lighting choices in MJ's home during Bugs and Daffy's nighttime raid, it's a vivid but mostly tasteful effort that suits the source material well. Colors are much better saturated overall with minimal bleeding, which creates additional depth and just an overall more pleasing image. (Even Shawn Bradley's T-shirt, which was a dull gray on the Blu-ray, now looks more like navy blue... but either way, I guess it matches his team's colors.) There are times when some of the colors seem pushed a little too far: a few skin tones leaned slightly on the pink side, but for the most part they still look more natural than their Blu-ray counterparts.

* The main reservation I have with this 2160p transfer concerns its contrast levels, which intermittently seem pushed too high during certain stretches and mostly seem to affect hand-drawn and CGI elements. These are perhaps most evident during the darkest scenes, where black crush occasionally creeps in and some animated line-work and shadow details are slightly compromised. Screenshot #20 offers a pretty good example of this: check out the Pulp Fiction suits on Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd, as well as the green center court rings, in comparison with the less-boosted Blu-ray. While this phenomenon isn't necessarily apparent during most scenes -- and even then, not always all that negatively -- it keeps this otherwise solid transfer from reaching higher marks. (That, and a few inarguably excessive moments of digital noise reduction, such as the screenshot below in comparison with the Blu-ray.) These moments are few and far between, with the good outweighing the bad by a pretty decent margin -- and it's also been re-framed at the correct 1.85:1 aspect ratio, which is long overdue. But yeah, there's definitely a little room for improvement here.

For our thoughts on the included Blu-ray (which again, is just a recycled 2011 disc rather than a fresh 2K port of this brand-new restoration), please see Brian Orndorf's review of that earlier release. I've also attempted to match a few of this review's other screenshots with their Blu-ray counterparts for a quick-and-dirty comparison (again, keeping in mind the 4K shots were output at 1920x1080 with no HDR enhancement), but you'll have to hunt for those.

Space Jam 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The upgrades continue with a full-bodied Dolby Atmos mix which easily repurposes the Blu-ray's already-great DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track into a more smoothly immersive and enveloping sonic experience. As expected given the subject matter, Space Jam takes many opportunities to both zip around the surround channels with cartoon chaos and go for a more heavily immersive arena-like experience during the basketball sequences, especially the rather lengthy third-act showdown between the Tune Squad and the Monstars. Height channels are put to good use during both scenarios (the opening trip through space and a height-adjustable chair gag in WB land, for example), although it most consistently favors the latter in the form of towering crowd noise and monster dunks. The era-specific soundtrack is represented extremely well with excellent bass response, strong channel separation, and mostly smooth balancing. All the while, a solid dynamic range is maintained which ensures you won't be reaching for your remote every five minutes -- that's a good thing, as not all home video releases bother to tastefully remix audio tracks for a smaller environment. As usual, dialogue is crystal-clear during most moments; Jordan, Barkley, Bird, and Bill Murray's golf game is one rare exception, as it suffers from a slightly gauzy distortion likely caused by limited on-set recording. But overall, this is a pitch-perfect Atmos mix that really can't be improved upon, even if the previous one sounded good enough to most ears.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are included on both discs -- see above for the complete lists.

Space Jam 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This two-disc release ships in an eco-friendly keepcase with pretty dull cover art and a matching slipcover. A Digital Copy redemption slip is also tucked inside. The included Blu-ray's bonus features are 100% identical to the previous release, although the the audio commentary is helpfully offered on both discs.

Space Jam 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Joe Pytka's Space Jam is no masterpiece by any definition -- it is, after all, based on a sneaker commercial -- but it's a pretty fun and lighthearted romp that doesn't take itself too seriously. Warner Bros.' 4K edition easily dribbles past their 2011 Blu-ray with a mostly good but imperfect new 2160p transfer and a teriffic Dolby Atmos mix that takes advantage of the format. Bonus features are identical to the previous release (and so is the Blu-ray, unfortunately), which means this one's pretty much for 4K-equipped fans only. If that means you, consider this one Recommended.