#Pixar Villains Quotes

[slashingdisneypasta]

"Oh, that's the best one yet, I can't wait to hear how it ends... "

Charles Muntz, Up (2009)

[racer62]

A kids movie antagonist:

Ah hah! I have finally achieved my goal, now nobody can stop me!

The main character:

Aight, *checks watch* it's near the end of the movie, time to beat their ass.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Animation-twitter, animation video essay youtube, etc. would probably be better off if they assumed every upcoming animated movie was going to be CRAP.

The director of INSIDE OUT 2, Kelsey Mann, has talked a bit about the picture recently. After all, it's out in less than two months... And immediately, so much of what he's saying is either being misread or quoted out of context. Something something Anxiety is going to be "the villain", something something they cut characters Shame and Guilt out of the movie because they felt it was too heavy, something something-

And we've got other people freaking out that Pixar showed 35 minutes of it at CinemaCon... LIKE... What's THE issue? Pixar has done that before! CinemaCon attendees were treated to half-hour chunks of Pixar movies in the past, like MONSTERS UNIVERSITY. When TOY STORY 3 was coming out, Pixar prepared a cut of the movie that ended just as the toys were escaping Sunnyside Daycare... to show to college campuses across the country a month before release.

Y'all need to calm down.

This movie isn't even out. We don't know how it'll tell its story exactly. Maybe there's more here than it seems? Maybe Anxiety will be an antagonist in the sense that she's doing what she feels is right, or is straight-up malevolent. I doubt it's the latter, that would be kind of... Not nuanced? For a sequel to INSIDE OUT? Having Anxiety just be an evil scheming bad guy just doesn't seem like it'll happen, nor is it a good idea. I think director Kelsey Mann meant that by her kicking the other emotions out of the main control room, she'll be the "big bad" of the movie. Why she kicks those emotions out could be related to how anxiety tends to work within the human brain. Taking control of your brain, thinking that it's steering you to make the right decision, making you cautious of dangers more so than "Fear" does. Pixar movies have had antagonists in the past that aren't necessarily evil, they just think what they're doing is right.

I also doubt that Pixar would let out a movie that flat-out stigmatizes people who suffer from anxiety disorders, such as myself. Maybe the Shame and Guilt characters were cut from the movie because director Mann, writer Meg LeFauve, and several others just didn't like the direction the story was going with them in it. Maybe it was too depressing for THEM, not because of any concerns for kids in the audience. People tend to associate Pixar with "tearjerking storylines", maybe it's possible that this went WAY TOO FAR at one point? I don't know, neither do you. Pixar's team isn't Disney Animation's leadership. Pete Docter is less controlling than John Lasseter based on everything I see and hear, but there are probably still some ground rules and some do's-and-don'ts. But I think it was ultimately down to the director not enjoying making the film back when it had these characters in it. As a writer/creator myself, I sometimes pull back when I feel something I'm making is causing ME lose the drive to make the thing in the first place. Maybe it hit too close to home for Mann, LeFauve, someone- Just a few variables, ya know? Not just "Pixar is too afraid to be sad", "Disney's telling them what to do", etc. etc.

Maybe animated movies shouldn't have this kind of pre-release thing... How about, just... Movie title, release date, BOOM. Nothing else. No interviews with the filmmakers and cast, no nothing... Wanna know more? You have to see it when it comes out! Put that in big letters in the teaser trailer!

But if they did that, twitter and the YouTube Animation Opinion Industrial Complex would sound the alarm: "They're not saying anything... IS THIS MOVIE IN TROUBLE???"

(sarcasm for those last two sets of sentences)

You can't win. And watch... It'll come out, and it'll be disliked for some weird reason. Probably because it isn't... PUSS IN BOOTS 2 or whatever. While the rest of the world goes, "Yeah, that's was pretty solid." And said population streams it on Disney+ a gazillion times. I'm not part of this "animation fandom" thing, quite frankly I don't even know what half of these people want most of the time. It seems like every movie is an oncoming stinker to them, and it ends up being a stinker. Sometimes the worst thing ever made, a work of evil. You know I still see people raging over that completely harmless CHIP N' DALE RESCUE RANGERS movie from two years back? The fuck is that all about?

I get that INSIDE OUT is a sequel to a beloved Pixar movie, I get that the original movie means a lot to so many people. I love it myself. At the same time, I'm not gonna be weird about a sequel I never even wanted until the day they announced it. Okay, if it isn't very good, I'll just go on with my life. But we're not even there yet... It's not out... This is the only INSIDE OUT sequel. Now if we were coming up on an INSIDE OUT 3, and INSIDE OUT 2 managed to somehow upset everybody? Then I'd somewhat understand...

Others will dole out their dislike of recent Pixar movies as their reason, but you know me... I feel each Pixar movie - for the most part - is a statement of its filmmaking team. Not a Mr. Pixar person coming up with each and every movie. (That was Lasseter in a sense, lol.) If "animation is cinema", then you oughta look at these movies as director-driven. I feel the other way around reduces the films to a brand, and not the people who actually make them. INSIDE OUT is first and foremost a Pete Docter-directed film... Made at Pixar. Not a "Pixar film". Pixar isn't a person nor is it a collective, it's a place. It should be judged on how functions as a movie and as a sequel to INSIDE OUT, not up against other movies made at the studio by other people. Like I'm not here for THE INCREDIBLES or UP, I'm here for an INSIDE OUT sequel. I know, that's a very radical opinion to have. Silly me!

I just don't get it... I'm just gonna do it the old-fashioned way... I'm going to see the movie, and hope that I like it or get something out of it.

[geode-crystal]

Writeblr Interview tag game!

Wooo thanks for the tag @tildeathiwillwrite this looks like fun!

Open tag for anybody else who wants to answer these :)

Short stories, novels, or poems?

Yes, yes, and yes lol.

I tend to write novel-length things purely because I just... keep going XD I usually get more ideas than a short story allows. I do need to work on keeping things to the point sometimes!

But I have written short stories and one-shots (mostly as responses to promts) and I am very technically a published poet, since a few of my poems were published in a collection thanks to a writing competition back in high school .

What genre do you prefer reading?

Fantasy, full stop. I also love books that play on fairy tales and folklore.

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

I usually like to have a general idea of where I'm going, and figure the rest out along the way. Sometimes I make full outlines when projects get Really Big.

What music do you listen to while writing?

I either put on one of my incredibly random playlists or go to youtube and look for "relaxing [insert video game here] music." Pokemon soundtracks are actually really nice to write to.

Favorite books/movies?

Soooo many lol.

I'm a big fan of Disney and Pixar movies (as one of my previous posts made pretty obvious lol), particularly the Disney renaissance. Adore The Princess Bride. Love Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Love Studio Ghibli movies, personal favorite being Castle in the Sky. Of course, we have the classic Muppet Treasure Island as well. And I love every version of Scott Pilgrim out there, the movie, Netflix anime, and graphic novels are all amazing.

And for books... oh my gods there are too many to list here, but shout outs to Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland series, the Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones (as well as Howl's Moving Castle), Raybearer and Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko, and the Hero's Guide series by Christopher Healy. Percy Jackson, too.

A lot of my favorite whump moments come from the good old Deltora Quest series by Emily Rhodda and The Mage of Trelian by Michelle Knudsen.

Any current WIPs?

So many. Too many. I need to escape lol.

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

I've based a few characters off of people I know before. Mostly my close friends. One of whom I write with a lot, so we've used each other as inspiration several times lol.

Are you kill happy with your characters?

No no no no no, not at all lolol. It's exactly the opposite. I have so much difficulty permanently killing off characters, to the point that my first novel-length project way back in my first year of high school ended with the villain getting polymorphed into a fish instead of dying. XD

I only do permadeath when it is absolutely necessary for the story. But... well, to quote The Return of Jafar: "You'd be surprised what you could live through."

Coffee or Tea while writing?

Don't usually drink or snack while writing.

Slow or fast writer?

Completely depends on the project, but I would say fairly slow. Especially compared to my writing buddy they're an absolute speed demon lol

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

Depends on the fantasy world, really. Definitely some kind of musician and/or storyteller, like a troubador or something. Maybe some kind of minor nobility, with all the "fun" I've had with the burden of expectations. I would love to have some kind of magic, especially if it's music-based. So..... basically a bard!

I'd also be very likely to be something not fully human, be that an elf or fairy or mermaid... or even a changeling.

Most fav book cliche:

There's a long list! But I really like Found Family stuff, and any time magic comes with A Price.

Least favorite cliche:

Characters getting pointlessly killed off just for the sake of Extra Drama.

Favorite scene to write?

Hurt/comfort, both ends! I especially love anything with added Guilt for one or all parties!

Reason for writing?

To paraphrase Brian David Gilbert: stories come to me in my dreams like a prophet receiving visions from an angry god.

I write because I'm always coming up with different ideas. I write because I was basically designed to study and create stories. Even if I don't physically write anything down, I will always find a way to tell some kind of story, be it just piecing together ideas in my head or through singing Broadway-style songs or even just attempting to draw a character. I write because it's just what I do!

[as8bakwthesage]

I hate how “The Owl House” in season 3 basically pissed away its episodic storytelling to make Luz out to be an inconsiderate jerk to her friends and loved ones. I hate how people really want to focus on “serious and mature” storytelling when they mean misery porn. And the way Luz is treated in season 2b and season 3 is just misery porn and there’s nothing enjoyable about it. The show isn’t “mature” when they traumatise Luz and then make her out to be hidden away and hiding her feelings when that had NEVER been the default for Luz even when she was going through traumatic shit previously.

Alongside the constant redemptions we see villains going through in a lot of these shows, it’s disheartening to see people just really try and woobify them.

Mature storytelling are movies like “Encanto”, “Coco”, “Toy Story”, “Inside Out”, and most of Pixar’s lineup of movies. “Wandavision” is mature storytelling. And the big thing about all of these movies/shows is that they tell heartfelt and impactful stories because they don’t try to make misery porn where they torture their main character.

Cartoon fandom has a bug up its ass about anything that is hammy and cheesey and fun. They scoff at shows like “Rise of the TMNT” until it gets quote-un-quote “Dark and Mature” which it doesn’t. ROTMNT is an episodic comedy at the end of the day where the characters never feel like they are just constantly being tortured. There are serious moments, sure, but never at the expense of the comedy. They compliment each other nicely.

I guess my point is - stop seeing edgy grimdark shit as “mature” because that’s not mature or for adults, that’s for 14 year old me when I was obsessed with Creepypasta. And no, not fun years.

[baronessofmischief]

Beauty and the Beast, 1991

Iron Giant, 1999

Up, 2009

Tangled, 2010

Mulan, 1998

Tarzan, 1999

The Prince of Egypt, 1998

There’s probably another dozen movies I could find; blood may not be as prominent in animated movies, but this is by no means the first time it’s ever been shown on screen. It can also be seen in some older cartoons like the 1990s animated Batman pilot and Sunbow’s G. I. Joe, but to say Puss is the first— or even one of the first— is false.

“… but for the adults watching it, the people who have seen the world and fear death, those with anxiety, get panic attacks, unsure about life the universe, getting married, being a family. These aren't ideas catered to kids.”

Death, slavery, colonialism, racism, war, grief, ethnic persecution, abandonment, loss, anxiety, doubts about one’s place in the universe, struggles in relationships, familial abuse or neglect, and being or having a family have been key themes in probably over a hundred animated children’s movies for decades.

I know you’re probably referring to animated comedies, but there are a number of animated movies that are meant to appeal to both kids and adults with a wide array of more serious topics including these quoted here, and serious topics don’t have to be directed only at adults. Kids can handle a lot and I guarantee there are studios that have pushed the envelope when it comes to darker tones and scenes because children experience the darkness in the world too. Iron Giant is set within the very real threat of the Cold War; the destruction and danger is immediate and real, including a scene where a military agent chloroforms a kid after threatening him, alluding to something happening to boy’s mother if he doesn’t comply. The Hunchback of Notre Dame begins the movie with a religious authority figure hunting down and killing a Rromani woman and nearly drowning an infant. The villain in Tarzan inadvertently hangs himself, his silhouette backlit by lightning. Carl and Ellie in Up have to face the reality that they’ll never have children. The Prince of Egypt is first and foremost a drama (including the pretty historically significant use of blood). The list goes on.

Disney and Pixar have heightened stakes in a bunch of movies and while they may be two of the biggest animation studios, others like Don Bluth, Aardman Animations, Studio Ghibli, Reel FX, Cartoon Saloon, Blue Sky, and others from Dreamworks have been delivering on a sense of real danger in movies for decades. Sure Puss In Boots: The Last Wish deserves the praise it gets, but to say it’s doing something revolutionary with the themes it has isn’t fair to so many other movies and storytellers that have come before it.

I can't fanthom to explain you in full how much of a significant moment this is in animation

You don't show blood in animated films, it's like almost a taboo thing. You can show characters getting beat up and bruised but never bleeding. It defies all corporate beliefs of making it a "kids movie". Even GDT's Pinocchio which has fucking nazis in it and guns shooting people never showed blood in it. It's just that sacred of a thing in animation that studios never cross.

But Puss in Boots, they showed it. Not only that, you get a fucking close up on it. Do you know how rare that is? The people who made it probably fought every tooth and nail to get this moment approved, because this is unprecedented in this industry. You don't show actual blood bleeding I cant stress how much this is such a nono in this industry.

But for this moment it's perfect, the inevitability of death in Puss in Boot's eyes, the amount of risk the studio took to get this moment in the film approved, shows how much DreamWorks really cares and wants this movie to not just be another haha kids film but for the adults watching it, the people who have seen the world and fear death, those with anxiety, get panic attacks, unsure about life the universe, getting married, being a family. These aren't ideas catered to kids.

Everytime I've seen people be like "oh studios need to stop making boring ass animations and actually make a film about serious topics and have better animation and care about the movie" THIS IS IT FOLKS. A STUDIO LISTENED AND IT'S OUT HERE IN YOUR FACE.

So seriously go watch Puss in Boots. It's incredible and you're missing out on something beautiful if you don't.

[kah-hoa]

What is your thoughts on Disney and Pixar character's eyes?

Talking more so about Disney's need to make remake live actions of their old stuff and to make it quote-n-quote "up to date".

It feels less like I am consuming a work of fiction and more like watching a "piece mouth" disclaimer video if I'm making any sense.

I would also like the return of villains more akin to Ursula, Scar or Frollo- As in, "personally motivated villainy" flavored character because there's clear focus, intent and proactivity. They also provide a better back-n-forth with the MCs to bounce back, which makes the characters truly shine.

EDIT: Ah, you meant eyes, ops.

Sorry I am kind illiterate sometimes. XD

Well, I miss traditional art a bit, the digital one looks a bit too samey, kind miss the more stylized touch from hand draw

[bearpillowmonster]

I know this is nothing new but this grinds my gears when I see this kind of stuff because people say exactly what's on their minds when it comes to this stuff and they're loud about it and yet somehow people still come to their own conclusions anyway.

Pete Docter did an interview on Lightyear, he wasn't director but he was producer and a long time Pixar creative.

But who thought this? You'd have to be completely oblivious or in a bubble to think "Where's Woody and Mr. Potato Head?" what the actual- How in the world would you even put two and two together that this was even connected to Toy story if you thought that? I just can't believe that THIS was the reason you came up with. There's more to that quote though.

No, I think what people wanted was a disconnect and what you gave them was something just haphazard. Maybe you made it, maybe you like it, that's fine, but this is not the reason the majority of people didn't like your movie. It wasn't that it was different. Quite the opposite, it was that it was trying to be like something else. I'm thinking along the lines of Marvel/Star Wars, I mean you hired Chris Evans for one, but I'm not going to hold that against you but that you didn't take your own plot seriously and made 90% of your characters are comic relief because Marvel popularized movies making jokes apparently. The "idea" of a spaceman jumping through hoops to beat his top speed in order to get everyone back home after being trapped on this planet resulting in time travel- Not only that! But Zurg in general, as a villain, has massive potential and I'm not talking about a Darth Vader rip either, I mean look at some of this cool stuff

Random little weird sci-fi stuff. Water (elemental ref) in a vitamin jar. Sandwich in a box. A vending machine with these things, it's like an in between of real sci-fi and a toy, which is EXACTLY what this movie should've been and was where it shined for me but it merely didn't have enough of that to capture that feeling. Look at their knives, someone liked it enough to make a replica

That's because it's not just a knife, it's a laser knife, it's detailed but also simplistic, not like an irl one would be but A TOY, a good toy I might add and it fits my exact description that I was just going over.

But everything else feels so forced by the end of it and we spend the majority of the movie focusing on the wrong stuff, we focus on those comic relief characters like it's a Minions movie.

In fact the idea of unfamiliarity isn't entirely false because we had Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Sure, that wasn't Pixar and I don't really blame them for not using its material or characters for that sole reason but they couldn't have thrown something- anything in there as a nod to those fans? That show is very different from Toy Story and proved your claim wrong years before you did it. And those characters were extremely more likeable and they were aliens! And they made jokes but not so much that they couldn't be taken seriously! Like actual characters! It wasn't that a Buzz Lightyear spinoff didn't have potential, it was that it was done in bad taste. Money!

[novelist-becca]

“Some people have a bad day. I’ve had a bad life. If I want something, it’s taken from me. If I win a fight, I lose the war. Threats only work on people who have something to lose. But me? I’ve already lost it all.”

- Héctor at some point

[slashingdisneypasta]

"Something changed that day, inside Lotso.

... something snapped."

- Chuckles, Toy Story 3

[incorrectvisionquotes]

Wanda: Vision, repeat what I said

Villain Vision:...

Wanda: Say it!

Villain Vision:... People are friends, not food

[poquititititititititititititito]

Héctor: What would you do... if there was a child right infront of you?

Ernesto:

[lightbulb-cuz-im-lit]

OK SO I WAS REWATCHING THE INCREDIBLES AND THIS IS AN ACTUAL QUOTE FROM WHEN SYNDROME’S GUARDS ARE WATCHING THE EVIL ROBOT INVADE!

LMAOO THEM PIXAR WRITERS WERE THE OG SAVAGES #TheIncredibles

[multifandomaddictedfangirl]

Ernesto de la Cruz is such an interesting disney villain. Ready to do ANYTHING for glory and fame and adoration of the public. Selfish, manipulative, greedy, and emotionalessly cruel. Love it. I loved the plot twist in the movie, when I realised he was the bad guy. You don’t see it coming. For a while, I thought this movie didn’t have a villain. But then you discover that not only he is a FRAUD - cause he lied to the entire world about his work and stole songs from his best friend and music partner - he POISONED that said-best friend so that he’d keep up the fraud, and planned on letting a kid DIE in order to protect his secret.

Like, yes, he is THAT level of bad guy.

And you just don’t see it coming. At all.

endless list of pixar characters → ernesto de la cruz (coco)

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Can you recommend any good movies or shows outside of MHA. Especially if they have a similar vibe bcuz I love the themes of MHA❤ but anything really different thats good could be great too ❤

I mean, I can try skhrndjd but I don't promise anything because I have a certain personal taste so yeah. I'll try and also explain why I pick that certain show / movie and what should be looking at while watching. Let's go!

My personal lists of TV shows and movies similar to bnha / mha to watch :

THE INCREDIBLES (Pixar) :

Is it a kids movie? Yes. Has it yet one of the best approaches related to the legal and social issues of living in a world with people who have powers? Absolutely yes.

Should superpowers be legal? It's like people being born with weapons on their bodies. How can you regulate that? But in denying their powers, you're also denying their existences and freedom to be. So how to balance both people without powers and people with powers living together?

If you look at the structures of the movies (yes, both movies are very important), I can argue this piece of media is priceless when talking about superheroes worlds and concepts. Both villains make valid points about how unfair is living as a simple human while people out there have the privilege of powers, and every hero also make valid points at how unfair it is to be unable to be yourself because everyone sees you as a weapon.

As you can see, I'm a super fan of these movies, (bad pun, sorry sorry).

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY (Netflix) :

Children being raised as soldiers and having to deal with the abuse their adoptive parents made them go through? Does that remind you of something?

I love this show and the implications it brings, including the idea that we're not free and there are beings outside of space and time controlling us and our movements. Once again, the issues with TUA is that a found family is trying very hard to go past their traumas to work together and save the world.

You'll be able to explore the issues that come with having certain powers, the great division between normal people and people with powers and the complications of being a human weapon, even against yourself and the ones you love.

Also, the soundtrack and the way they use it is priceless. I can't wait for the next season!

KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN! (manga) :

If what you're looking is a found family being chaotic together, then feel free to enjoy this manga as much as I do.

The first 20 chapters are just like a fanfic. Characters being idiotic together for no reason, domestic drama, comfort comedy reliefs. The characters are also more basic and shallow, so you don't have to analyze everything they do in order to enjoy it. The conflict is also not that deep, a perfect read to relax and have fun. The ending is very open and not that progressive so this is not something you're about to see for the plot or the character arcs.

HOWEVER God I love this manga. It sounds so silly, but the way they keep things simple really are a perfect beginning when you want to write meta or study the way some characters, situations and context are written. I can point out many similarities between KHR and MHA / BNHA, starting with the main characters and going forward to villains. And yeah, there are some secret jewels you'll have to find on your own.

If you ever read it, write to me. This fandom is almost dead so I can guarantee no drama. Like I said, perfect for de-stressing.

THE BOYS (Amazon Prime) :

Minors, don't ever watch this. It has full violence, gore, sexual content and explicit issues.

This is a show for the ones who know how oppressive and abusive the hero system can be. They are half cops, half celebrities, but even the government needs to be careful when handing this weapons. But what about people who really want to be superheroes? What about the victims of those heroes? What about the heroes being abused and manipulated? What about the people with powers on the streets being used as weapons and entertainments?

If what the League of Villains criticize about the hero system is not clear for someone, they should watch the boys and understand why we can't talk about "heroes being good" and "villains being bad sometimes".

If what you're looking for is a anti-hero found family trying to bring down the system, go for this one, but be careful and look for content warnings for each episode.

The first and the last recommendations are the ones I use when criticizing hero content. You can also check DC and Marvel, of course, but they are pretty famous on their own. If you do, please go check for stories involving mutants or people with powers who have not the same privileges as normal superheroes. They deal with a bunch of real life issues like misogyny, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc.

The middle two recommendations are my comfort shows. I'm a sucker for found families being chaotic together. I've re-read the KHR manga at least 6 times and I quote the Hargreaves on a daily basis.

If you ever watch any of this shows, please let me know. And if you have your own recommendations, please send them to me!

[frankendykes-monster]

Space Jam: A New Legacy is content to be content.

The original Space Jam was a calculated marketing exercise. Michael Jordan was the biggest sports star of the nineties, and Space Jam capitalised on Jordan’s brand potential while also allowing the athlete to refashion his own narrative into a family-friendly mythology. Space Jam packaged Jordan for a generation, smoothing the wrinkles out of his story by presenting a wholesome family man making an earnest transition from basketball to baseball.

It also helped Warner Bros. to figure out what to do with their Looney Tunes characters, which had largely laid dormant within the company’s intellectual property vaults. There had been a conscious effort to revitalised the company’s animation with shows like Tiny Toon Adventures and even Animaniacs, but those classic and beloved cartoons were a merchandising opportunity waiting to happen. So the logic of the original Space Jam was clear, it was an excuse to tie together two potentially profitable strands of intellectual property.

Space Jam itself was something of an afterthought. The movie struggles to reach its ninety-minute runtime. It often feels like the production team have to utilise every scrap of film to reach that target, with extended riffs focusing on Bill Murray and Michael Jordan on the golf course and with a lot of the improvisation from the voice cast included in the finished film. The movie’s ending comes out of nowhere, and Space Jam struggles to hit many of the basic plot beats of a scrappy sports movie.

The movie itself was immaterial to the success of Space Jam as a concept. After all, the film only grossed $250m at the global box office, enough to scrape into the end of year top ten behind The Nutty Professor and Jerry Maguire. However, the film’s real success lay in merchandising, with the film generating between $4bn and $6bn in licensing and merchandising. Key to this was the success of the six-time platinum-certified soundtrack which remains the ninth highest-grossing soundtrack of all-time.

In some to trace a lot of modern Hollywood back to the original Space Jam. So much of how companies package and release modern media feels like an extension of that approach, the reduction of the actual film itself to nothing more than “content” that exists as a larger pool of marketable material. After all, the unspoken assumption underlying AT&T’s disastrous decision to send all of their blockbusters to HBO Max was the understanding that HBO Max itself was often packaged free with company’s internet. Movies would no longer be their own things, but just perks to be packaged and sold as part of larger deals.

In the decades since the release of Space Jam, the industry has become increasingly focused on the idea of packaging and repackaging intellectual property. It has become increasingly common for films to showcase multiple intellectual properties housed at the same studios. Simple crossovers like Alien vs. Predators or The Avengers now seem positively humble when compared to the smorgasbord of brand synergy on display in projects like The Emoji Movie or Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Interestingly, as Disney have steadily securing their intellectual property portfolio with additions like Pixar and Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. have becoming increasingly bullish about showcasing the depth and breadth of their bench. The LEGO Movie imagines a wide range of properties consolidated under one brand. Ready Player One depicted a pop culture user space lost in nostalgia for properties and trinkets. However, those movies also managed to tell their own stories, even as they grappled with the weight of brand synergy pushing down on top of them.

Space Jam: A New Legacy has no such delusions. It understands that it does not exist as a story or as a feature film. Instead, it has distilled cinema down to a content-delivery mechanism. The plot of the movie finds basketball star LeBron James sucked into the “Serververse” and forced to ally with the Looney Tunes in order to play a basketball game with the fate of the world in the balance. However, while the original Space Jam ran a brisk and unfocused ninety minutes, A New Legacy extends itself to almost two hours. There is always more content to repackage and sell, after all.

A New Legacy slathers its cynicism in nostalgia, directly appealing to a generation of audiences who have convinced themselves that Space Jam was a good movie and a beloved childhood classic. A New Legacy is built around the understanding that the original Space Jam walked so that it might run, counting on the audience’s nostalgia for the original film to excuse a lot of its indulgences. After all, it would be a betrayal of the franchise if A New Legacy wasn’t a crash and vulgar cash-in. In many ways, A New Legacy does what most sequels aspire to do, scaling the original film’s ambitions aggressively upwards.

As with the original Space Jam, there is layer of irony to distract from the film’s clear purpose. In the original Space Jam, the villainous Swackhammer planned to abduct the Looney Tunes and force them to play at his themeparks. The implication was that the characters did not want to be sold into corporate servitude, stripped of their own identity and rendered as crass tools of unchecked capitalism. The irony of Space Jam lay in the fact that the entire movie was a variant on Swackhammer’s themepark and the Looney Tunes were dancing to that theme anyway as Daffy puckers up and kisses the Warner Bros. stamp on his own ass.

In A New Legacy, a sentient algorithm – Al G. Rhythm – is cast as the movie’s primary antagonist. The film gestures broadly at a satirical criticism of the modern film industry, with Al G. Rhythm shaping and warping the future of movie-making by suggesting things like computer-generating movie stars and producing a constant array of recycled intellectual property. A New Legacy recognises the machinations of Al G. Rhythm as unsettling and horrifying, with throwaway jokes about the theft of ideas and the violation of privacy, but the villain largely serves as a smokescreen to let the movie have its cake and eat it.

After all, A New Legacy revels in Al G. Rhythm’s plans. LeBron James is turned into an animated figure and dumped into classic Looney Tunes shorts like Rabbit Season and The Rabbit of Seville. The film understands that while the audience might be afraid of the algorithm, they also yearn for it. After all, it isn’t Al G. Rhythm who structures A New Legacy so that the film spends an extended sequence touring the company’s beloved intellectual properties.

A New Legacy is really just an investors’ day presentation that celebrates the sheer amount of content that Warner Bros. own. It’s not too difficult to imagine the film screened investors before the Discovery deal, as proof of just how many viable franchising opportunities existed within the copyright of the company itself. It’s a weird and unsettling showcase, in large part because it feels like that warning from Jurassic Park. The studio were so obsessed with whether they could do a thing that they never stopped to consider whether they should.

The film’s middle section includes a whirlwind tour of the properties owned by Warner Bros. After Bugs “plays the hits” with James, the two set off on an adventure to recover the other Looney Tunes from other beloved Warner Bros. properties. Some of these advertisements make sense: Daffy and Porky are living in the world of Superman: The Animated Series, while Lola seems to have found the Wonder Woman from the Bloodlines animated films. Others make much less sense in a movie aimed at kids, like the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote hiding in Mad Max: Fury Road or Yosemite Sam living in Casablanca.

Of course, it’s debatable how much of A New Legacy is aimed at kids, as compared to the kids of the nineties. Its target market seems to be kids in the late nineties who never grew up, because they never had to. Elmer Fudd and Sylvester are hiding out in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Granny and Speedy have taken refuge in the opening scenes of The Matrix. While the original Space Jam featured odd pop cultural shoutouts to things like Pulp Fiction, at least that was somewhat contemporaneous.

To be fair, there is no art driving these choices. Many of these references serve to point the audience towards established properties. It is a sentient recommendation algorithm for HBO Max and a handy way of stoking audience interest in upcoming projects like The Matrix 4 (December 2021) or Furiosa (June 2023). It is a helpful reminder that Superman: The Animated Series has been remastered in high definition to stream on HBO Max. Foghorn Leghorn even rides a dragon from Game of Thrones to remind viewers that the show is streaming on HBO Max and that there are prequels coming.

It’s all very bizarre, but also strangely lifeless. The climax of the film finds the inevitable basketball game played in front of a crowd of familiar pop culture icons drawn from a wide range of sources: King Kong, The Iron Giant, Batman ’66, The Wizard of Oz, The Mask and many more. It feels very much like a surreal power play, a company showcasing the depth of its own vaults at a turbulent time in the industry. It leads to weird moments, like Al G. Rhythm even quoting Training Day, perhaps the film’s most unlikely draw from the “Warner Bros. Intellectual Property Vault.”

The most revealing aspect of the movie is its central conflict, with Al G. Rhythm cynically manipulating LeBron’s son Dom. Dom is convinced that his father doesn’t understand him, that his father is unable to see that his skill lies in video game coding rather than old-fashioned basketball. Rhythm is able to create a schism between father and son, using Dom’s code and his anger to attack and undermine LeBron James and the Looney Tunes. It’s a very broad and very archetypal story. There are no points for realising that Dom eventually comes around to his father and accepts that Rhythm is a villain.

However, it signals an interesting shift in these sorts of narratives. Traditionally, these sorts of generational conflicts played out between fathers and sons, with fathers presented as antagonistic and sons presented as heroic. The original Star Wars saga is built around Luke Skywalker trying to wrestle and grapple with his father Darth Vader. In Superman II, the eponymous superhero is forced to confront Zod, a representative of his father’s generation and the old world. Even in Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne is set against his surrogate father figure Ra’s Al Ghul.

The metaphor driving these sorts of stories was fairly simple and straightforward. Every generation needs to come into their own and take control of their own agency within the world. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi ends with Darth Vader dead and Luke staring out into the wider universe. Times change, and each generation has an obligation to try to create a better world than the one left to them by their parents. In the conflict between parents and children, it has generally been children who have prevailed.

However, in recent years, the trend has swung back sharply. It’s notable that the villain in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens is an errant child who doesn’t properly respect his parents, and that Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker ends with order restored when the protagonist takes the name of the beloved heroes of the older films. Shows like Star Trek: Picard are built around the idea that kids need their older generation of parents to swoop in and tell them how to properly live their lives.

A New Legacy is an interesting illustration of this trend. The movie ends with a reconciliation between LeBron and Dom, but it is very clearly on LeBron’s terms. Dom is manipulated and misled by sinister forces, and his father has to save him while realigning his moral compass. Father knows best. It demonstrates how the underlying logic of these stories has shifted in recent years, perhaps reflecting the understanding that perhaps the older generation won’t surrender the floor gracefully.

As with Ready Player One, there’s a monstrous Peter Pan quality to A New Legacy. It is a film about how the culture doesn’t have to change. It can be recycled and repurposed forever and ever and ever. At the end of Space Jam, Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny parted ways. There was an understanding that the two worlds existed apart from one another. However, A New Legacy ends with the collapse of these worlds into one another; the “Serververse” manifesting itself in the real world. As LeBron walks home, Bugs asks if he can move in.

Of course, with HBO Max subscription, the audience can take Bugs home anytime they want