Space Jam took viewers and the Looney Tunes to space for a basketball game, and it also introduced a new Tune: Lola Bunny, but why did the studio create a new character instead of using an existing one? Bugs Bunny and company have gone through a variety of adventures since the Looney Tunes’ debut in 1930, but none can compare to what they went through in Space Jam. Directed by Joe Pytka and released in 1996, Space Jam brought together the Looney Tunes and professional basketball in a story that wasn’t the critics’ favorite but won over the hearts of the audience.
Space Jam told a fictionalized version of what happened during Michael Jordan’s initial retirement in 1993 and his return in 1995, during which he was recruited by Bugs Bunny to help the squad win a basketball game against a team of aliens known as Monstars, who wanted to enslave them and turn them into the entertainment of their amusement park. The Tune Squad was formed by the most popular characters from the Looney Tunes, but they weren’t exactly the most skilled athletes, and they needed at least one more player (aside from Jordan) who knew what they were doing – and that’s when Lola Bunny arrived.
When the Looney Tunes are showing their disastrous basketball skills to Michael Jordan, Lola Bunny arrives to try for the team, with Bugs being immediately enamored (and making the big mistake of calling her “doll”). Lola showed off her talent at playing basketball and immediately earned a spot in the team, which also made way for a subplot in Space Jam involving Bugs and Lola, who got together at the end of the movie. As mentioned above, Lola Bunny is an original character who made her debut in Space Jam, and even though there was already a female counterpart to Bugs Bunny called Honey Bunny, who appeared in comic books and Looney Tunes merchandise but never made the transition to the animated shorts, the writers went for a new character.
When Space Jam was in development, there weren’t many female characters in the Looney Tunes that could be used in the movie, so the writers considered bringing Honey Bunny into the mix. Artists then drew some concept art of Honey Bunny for Space Jam: A New Legacy.
In both Space Jam movies, Lola Bunny is an independent, self-reliant character who in the first movie also leaned towards a femme fatale vibe, which completely changed in the second movie. In The Looney Tunes Show, however, she was more of an eccentric character who got herself involved in bizarre situations, and yet her portrayal has been more consistent than that of Honey Bunny. It’s unknown if Lola Bunny will appear in future Looney Tunes projects, but she has definitely won a place in the hearts of fans.
