space jam: a new legacy

We were in a room on the Warner Brothers lot working alongside some of the most talented animators in the world, while steps away in a soundstage one of the best actors in the world was doing a scene with one of the best athletes in the world. It might’ve been overwhelming if there wasn’t so much to do. No time to be overwhelmed. Animatics to review. New script pages to print out and rush to Malcolm D. Lee and Don Cheadle. Ooh, we just got a new drawing of cartoon LeBron James when he first meets Bugs Bunny.

That’s right: We were making SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY.

I read the first draft of SJ2 in 2018, and assisted Executive Producer Sev Ohanian from development through its release. In part because the company was so small at the time – only six of us! – Ryan, Zinzi, and Sev involved their assistants in the creative as well as the administrative. They encouraged us to give notes and valued our points of view throughout the process. It imparted to us the sense that we were collectively building something greater than ourselves, and that we were training for the future of the company. But at its core, it was about something deeper: a Black father who was struggling to relate to his son. It sprung from a desire to make something as meaningful to today’s kids as the original SPACE JAM was for us. 

While we were developing the film, I would get to the office by 8am and leave sometimes around midnight. There was never any pressure from my bosses at Proximity to stay that late. I was there because they were there even later, and we all really cared. We wanted to make something great. We wanted to make people laugh, and feel seen, and give them a ride they’d remember.

Today, when I spot a kid with a Toon LeBron shirt, or see a mom’s eyes light up when I say I worked on it, and hear those treasured words: “My son/daughter LOVES that movie,” it reminds me that behind all the wildness in the movie, people heard the message we hoped they’d hear: of acceptance, of love and basketball, and the 100-year-old truth that the Looney Tunes still got it.

Dezi Gallegos
Assistant to Sev Ohanian on the set of Space Jam: A New Legacy