Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam (2021)

(On TV, July 2021) If the corporations’ encroaching stranglehold over intellectual property is teaching us anything, it’s that given time, corporate-controlled pop culture will eat itself. Any takedown will be allowed if it can be profitable, or if it gives the semblance of boosting another more recent project. There’s no other way to explain the existence of Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam, a weird cultural artifact that can only exist when a single entity (Warner Brothers) controls three different Intellectual Properties (Space Jam, Teen Titans and Looney Tunes) and has a hot new project to promote. Obviously scheduled to coincide with the release of Space Jam: A New Legacy, this “film” consists in having the Teen Titan Go! crew do a comic riff on an abbreviated version of the original Space Jam (keeping the special effects and cartoon characters, explicitly fast-forwarding through the duller material between humans), with a minimal amount of framing material in having the alien Nerdlucks visit the Teen Titans and watching the film. Inspired by Mystery Science Theater 3000, they interject commentary over the original film (sometimes freeze-framing the action), break for commercial and poke fun at 1990s moviemaking conventions. The irreverent humour of the Teen Titan Go series is there, but it’s clear that for all of the poking at the original Space Jam, it’s a piece of IP meant to prime the kiddie audience in being interested in the newest sequel. The comedy is limited, and much of the film is really about rewatching Space Jam in abbreviated form. It’s far more interesting as an artifact of how far tie-in product owners are willing to go, even in derision, when a conglomerate has its tentacles squeezing tightly around popular culture.