Space Jam: A New Legacy and Space Jam: Slam Dunk Scene

Our client Ravensburger USA, in conjunction with Warner Brothers, wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the live-action, animated film Slam Dunk in the form of two jigsaw puzzles. The first puzzle – a 1,000 piece offering – was based around the final court scene of the original Michael Jordan film. The second – a 300 piece puzzle – celebrated the LeBron James sequel ‘A New Legacy’.

This turned out to be an interesting exercise in navigating the minefield of image likeness and image rights. Beginning with puzzle one and Michael Jordan, the cost of having any suggestion of the original live action star was not viable. So, through a progression of pencil concepts, his presence featured less and less as the project developed – until in the end he was completely omitted!

The New Legacy puzzle became a waiting game to see if the film’s stars and their ‘people’ were happy with the likenesses we’d created of them. Fortunately all parties were more than happy - and this one, along with the first Space Jam puzzle (now focusing purely on Bugs and the other Toons), more than exceeded Ravensburger and WB’s expectations - SLAM DUNK!!!