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Human Characters
The James family
LeBron James
LeBron as a human...
..and as a toon.
Played by/Voiced by: Himself (as an adult), Stephen Kankole (as a child), John Eric Bentley (MultiVersus)
The most famous basketball player of his time, and a man who tries to do right by his family, although he makes a few mistakes along the way.
- Affectionate Nickname: Bugs calls him "Cleveland" (highlighting his stints with the Cavs).
- As Himself: Subverted. LeBron James is playing a fictionalized version of himself. If anything, it's closer to LeBron James playing a guy named "LeBron James".
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Michael Jordan had retired from basketball (at least prior to his comeback) and kept a good relationship with his children before the Tunes recruited him to help them thwart the Nerdlucks/Monstars, LeBron is an active basketball player and has a strained relationship with his son and finds himself seeking out the Tunes to help save his son from Al-G.
- Control Freak: He's very insistent on things being done his way. with this trope even being the reason why he and Dom get trapped in the Serververse in the first place. Bugs briefly calls him out on this trope at one point.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: He's uninterested in Dom's passions for coding and instead has been pushing him to get into basketball, though it's slightly downplayed in that while he's hard on Dom when on the court, he does at least try to encourage Dom to not give up when his game crashes. He ends up adopting this behavior towards the Tunes, refusing to let them play their way even though they are down a thousand points by halftime.
- Jerkass Realization: At halftime, he calls the Tunes out for apparently not taking the game seriously enough, until Lola and Bugs point out that they're trying but because he won't let them be looney, they've been trying to emulate him the best they can. LeBron is stunned silent as he realizes how harshly he's been treating them (and by extension, his own son), letting them play their way during the second half and properly apologizing to Dom during the game.
- Papa Wolf: He enters the Warner Entertainment 3000 Serververse and grudgingly agrees to play Al-G's game, all to get Dom (and later, his whole family) back.
- Parents as People: The film's conflict starts because he wants his son Dom to follow him into basketball, while Dom would rather develop video games. It takes him a while to accept Dom as he is, but he eventually comes around.
Dominic James
Played by: Cedric Joe
LeBron's son (based on his real-life son Bryce James) who would rather design video games than begin the basketball career his father has planned for him.
- Token Good Teammate: For the Goon Squad. He is genuinely playing for fun, and he doesn't realize what Al-G is planning. When Al starts showing his true colors to Dom, he leaves the Goon Squad and joins the Tune Squad.
- Welcome Back, Traitor: Once Dom defects from the Goon Squad, the Tunes happily welcome him to the team. Justified here since he was being tricked by Al G.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He wants LeBron to accept him as his own person with his own interests. Al-G takes advantage of this to turn him against his father and the Tunes for a while.
Kamiyah James
Played by: Sonequa Martin-Green
LeBron's wife. (Mainly based on his real-life wife, Savannah Brison James.)
- Mama Bear: Drives to the lot after not hearing from her husband and son, on top of Malik not answering her calls."Malik, you have zero seconds to tell me where my husband and my son are."
Other basketball players/The Goon Squad
In general
An all-star team created by Dominic James to take down the Tunes and delete them.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Whereas the Monstars were cartoon aliens under the employ of Swackhammer that took the talents from NBA players, these characters are creations of Dominic James generated with the data of NBA and WNBA players altered with superpowers. While the Monstars took the appearances of the NBA players they stole the talents from, but with monster features, at the end of the day, they're still their own characters as the Nerdlucks. The Goon Squad, meanwhile, can be argued that they are their NBA and WNBA players technically, but mutated and fighting for the enemy side. Another contrast is that while the NBA players in the original had their talent stolen, in this the NBA and WNBA players consent to being part of the game, complete with the aforementioned powers.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: They’re evil and they wear purple uniforms.
- Smug Super: They have superpowers and big egos.
White Mamba
Played by: Diana Taurasi
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: She only wears a The Goon Squad team shirt and no pants. That is justified though, since her serpentine lower half is a tail, so she didn't have much to wear.
- Hartman Hips: Her serpentine lower half gives her some big "hips" where it connects.
- Ms. Fanservice: She is a beautiful Snake Woman, she has big hips and curves and the fact that she only wears a Goon Squad team shirt and no pants, that makes White Mamba look hotter and sexier.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: She is a rather beautiful and mean snake woman who is a member of The Goon Squad basketball team.
- Snakes Are Sexy: She is quite seductive and flirtatious. Especially with her snake-like appearance and this helps too since she is voiced by Diana Taurasi.
- Snakes Are Sinister: She's a Snake Woman very bad.
- Snake People: She's a humanoid snake, based on her nickname the "White Mamba".
- Snake Talk: She hisses on words that involve an s, such as her opening "what's up?"
- Tentacle Rope: She winds Lola up in her serpentine lower half during part of the game.
Wet-Fire
Played by: Klay Thompson
- Fire/Water Juxtaposition: He can switch between watery and fiery forms, a reference to Thompson's status as one of the two "Splash Brothers" (alongside Stephen Curry) and his penchant for having "hot shooting nights"/"catching fire".
- Weaksauce Weakness: Any absorbent material can stop his water form in its tracks. When he literally runs into Gossamer, he ends up trapped in the monster's fur until Foghorn Leghorn wrings him out.
Arachnneka
Played by: Nneka Ogwumike
- Spiders Are Scary: She's a humanoid spider and a member of the Goon Squad.
The Brow
Played by: Anthony Davis
- The Artifact: The Brow's motif is clearly based on Davis' time on the New Orleans Pelicans, even though he was a Laker at the time.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: His namesake brow is huge. This does not go unnoticed by LeBron.
- Winged Humanoid: He's a human with bird wings.
Chronos
Played by: Damian Lillard
- Advertised Extra: He's the least prominent Goon Squad member.
- Bullet Time: He goes into this when he manipulates time to move at Super-Speed.
- Chrome Champion: He's metallic all over, resembling an android more than a man. He's also one of the Goon Squad's most dangerous members; even the Road Runner can't beat his time-warping abilities.
- Clock of Power: He has a large clock on his left shoulder, plus a large-dial watch on his wrist. With the watch, Chronos can alter time around himself, which lets him move much faster than the Road Runner. However, Granny can exploit temporal distortion from The Matrix, which lets her adjust Chronos's watch. The man ages 132 years in a matter of seconds, becoming too feeble to be a threat.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His time powers are triggered by Granny, resulting in him getting aged.
- Leitmotif: "It's About That Time"
, which plays during his Time Stands Still sequence and is primarily rapped by his voice actor - a moderately successful rapper in his own right away from his NBA career. - Pet the Dog: He literally hands the Road Runner to Wil E. Coyote on a silver platter, along with a gift bow and a bottle of wine.
- Super-Speed: He can manipulate time to move even faster than the Road Runner.
- Time Master: He can slow time down to a crawl, based on Lillard's nickname "Dame Time". Not even the Road Runner can outrun it. Granny later turns this ability against him by subjecting him to Rapid Aging.
Looney Tunes
In general
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Bugs considers the other Looney Tunes to be like family to him, even his adversaries like Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and Daffy Duck. He wants them back together again and ultimately risks his life to save them. They in turn are devastated when it looks like he won't survive.
- Enemy Mine: Once again, many of the villainous characters like Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and Sylvester join forces with their enemies to beat the villain at basketball.
Bugs Bunny
Click here to see 3D Bugs.
Voiced by: Jeff Bergman
Click here for his full character page.
The leader of the Looney Tunes — and the only one left when LeBron arrives in Tune World. (well, until Marvin returns from outer space)
- The Aloner: When we first see him, he's the only resident of Tune World, which Al G. Rhythm persuaded all the other Tunes to abandon.
- Character Catchphrase: The traditional "Eh… What's up, Doc?" and "This Means War!"
- Deuteragonist: Once again serves as the second lead to the star athlete.
- Friend to All Children: Despite Dominic playing for the opposing side in the beginning in a game that could get all the Tunes deleted (and being responsible for "upgrading" the Goon Squad), Bugs not only cries when Dominic and LeBron reconcile, he welcomes Dominic to the team with no grudge or resentment in sight. He even makes the "glitch" move himself so Dom won't lose his father in case LeBron can't recover from deletion.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Completes a move that might get him deleted near the end of the movie in order to save LeBron, the James family, the spectators, and the rest of the Looney Tunes. But in the end, he survives due to the fact he is a cartoon character and can't really die, though it's implied even he wasn't sure if this would work.
- Hidden Depths: His character arc throughout the film seems intended to prove to those that haven't seen some of his more dramatic cartoons that Bugs can make audiences cry as well as laugh. Beyond the smooth, streetwise attitude that he's known for lies a lonely rabbit who just wants his family back and, that accomplished, will do anything to keep them safe.
- Only Sane Man: Was the only Tune who saw through Al G. Rhythm's tricks and did not leave Tune World but he (and 'Bron) try to steal Marvin's ship when he arrives.
Daffy Duck
Click here to see 3D Daffy.
Voiced by: Eric Bauza
Click here for his full character page.
As egotistical as ever, but still a good guy beneath it all, Daffy becomes the coach of Tune Squad.
- Authority in Name Only: Despite being the team's self-appointed coach and manager, it's obvious that LeBron is the one really calling the shots.
- Demoted to Extra: Downplayed. While in the original Space Jam he plays a major role as part of MJ's starting five, here he's LeBron's (and the Tune Squad's) coach and general manager, but sits out through most of the action and mostly just comments from the sidelines.
- Destructive Savior: Emphasis on "Destructive". His attempt to be "Super Duck" and save a runaway train wrecks a lot of DC World and earns the ire of Superman, Aquaman, Batgirl, Green Lantern and the Flash.
- It's All About Me: During ESPN's 30 for 30 video ("The Bunny & The GOAT"), Daffy outright states that as coach and general manager for the Tunes, he takes 100% full credit for everything LeBron James.
- Nominal Hero: As Super Duck. He appears on a runaway train, alongside a conductor who he implicitly tied up, and tries to pull the train brake to show off. It breaks, leaving everyone in trouble. When the train stops, he takes all the credit for the rescue...until he comes face-to-face with the irritated Justice League (minus Batman) whereupon he tries to pin the blame for the stunt on Porky.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Wears a suit and tie as part of his manager position.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Compared to his goofier personality in the previous film akin to the characterization first given to him by Bob Clampett, this Daffy is more akin to the Chuck Jones take on the character, being a greedy and self-centered Glory Seeker, though he's nice enough to help out his fellow Tunes and LeBron without much trouble besides trying to take credit for their accomplishments.
Lola Bunny
2D Lola
Click here to see 3D Lola.
Voiced by: Zendaya
Click here for her full character page.
The most prominent female Looney Tune, and Bugs’ best friend. Lola is on an epic quest to prove herself — and the big game gives her plenty of opportunities to do so.
- Action Girl: Even more so than in the first film, to the point that Wonder Woman appoints her an Amazon warrior.
- Adaptational Modesty: Unlike her jersey from the first movie, her new jersey doesn’t show off her midriff.
- Ascended Extra: Unlike her status in the original film where she only has a big role towards the middle end of the film, she's a major character from the get-go here.
- The Lancer: She becomes LeBron's second-in-command in organizing the Tune Squad and getting them to work together. She also helps him to understand that the Tunes should be allowed to "get Looney" to win the game.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Bugs, seeing how this film does not depict them as lovers. Instead, they have a sibling-like friendship.
- Refusal of the Call: Lola initially rejects Bugs' plea to join the Tune Squad, stating that she doesn't play basketball anymore. It's only when she learns that LeBron's son is in danger that she accepts.
- Tamer and Chaster: Her character design here is much less openly sexual than in the first movie, emphasizing her athleticism over her sex appeal.
Porky Pig
Click here to see 3D Porky.
Voiced by: Eric Bauza
- Hidden Depths: Turns out he's a surprisingly skilled rapper, getting a maxed-out score in the Bonus Round of the game.
Granny
Click here to see 3D Granny.
Voiced by: Candi Milo
- Cool Old Lady: Granny as a basketball player. And scoring a point with a kick to the ball. Yes, you heard that right.
- Took a Level in Badass: While she was mainly a cheerleader for the Toons in the the original film, here she's a full-blown player, going as far as to go "old school" and use a kung fu kick on the ball and scoring 30 points in the process, all while turning Chronos' abilities against him.
Wile E. Coyote
Click here to see 3D Wile.
Voiced by: N/A
- Accidental Murder: While serving as a War Boy for Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road, he accidentally kills two buzzards by blowing up their car after he tried to leap onto the Road Runner. While Wile E. Coyote was able to survive due to toon physics, the same can't be said for those two buzzards.
- Butt-Monkey: As usual for his character. Even when he's helping out the Tunes with his basketball-cloning machine, it still backfires on him when HE'S sucked into the machine and fired at the basket as well.
- Gone Horribly Right: Subverted. While he ends up getting cloned through his machine out of pure accident, he does manage to score a bunch of points against the Goon Squad (with him and his clones also counting as points).
Other
Al-G Rhythm
Played by: Don Cheadle
A malicious and deceitful computer algorithm who rules the Serververse, a virtual reality in the cyberspace which houses different worlds based on Warner Bros. properties.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Warner Bros. server algorithm who went rogue after his idea was rejected and later tries to trap everyone in the Serververse.
- Attention Whore: The whole problem starts because he feels insulted and unappreciated, and he's willing to kidnap thousands of civilians to make sure he has a full-time audience.
- Bad Boss: If his attitude towards the Tunes in general isn't enough to cement him as one already. The horrified reactions from the other Serververse residents after announcing the Tunes' deletion if they lose to him, or Kong's visible annoyance after getting insulted make it clear that he doesn't respect any of Warner's IPs and vice-versa.
- Big Bad: The film's major villain.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While Swackhammer was mainly an alien and the ruler of a distant planet (that's failing nonetheless), Al-G Rhythm is a computer algorithm who is the tyrannical ruler of the Warner Entertainment 3000 Server-verse. Also, Swackhammer remains a cartoon alien throughout the entire the original film, whereas Al-G Rhythm on the other hand usually takes the form of a live-action African-American human male (courtesy of his actor, Don Cheadle).
- Digital Abomination: He first presents himself to LeBron James as a giant floating electric-blue head. Al soon resizes himself into a more human form, the better to interact with his prisoner. He keeps this reduced form throughout most of the film, until the last minute of challenge match. It is then Al buffs himself up into a hulking, overpowered brute, the better to thwart LeBron from scoring the winning points.
- Dimension Lord: Controls the multiverse inside the Server.
- Evil Counterpart: Both he and LeBron are overbearing and self-absorbed when in their domain as "king". However, LeBron loves his son and the Tunes (especially Bugs) and legitimately thinks he's helping by stressing a serious playing style. Even his frustration with his team is because he thinks they're not taking their rescue mission seriously. By contrast, Al-G only cares about his own glory and gets frustrated with his team and Dom because they're not giving him what he wants.
- Faux Affably Evil: AL-G Rhythm acts understanding to Dom, sympathizing with his feelings of being pushed into competitive basketball by his father. However, little hints throughout demonstrate he's not interested in anyone's benefit but his own. As the game turns against him, he gets increasingly angry and controlling, and once Dom switches teams, his affability drops and he gets real dangerous.
- Hypocrite: He's been using any opportunity he can to cheat at the climatic game, from using the Calvinball style of Dom Ball to directly sabotaging the Tune Squad to prevent them from scoring when he enters the court. Yet he has the nerve to call out LeBron and Dom for cheating to make the final basket.
- Knight of Cerebus: Unlike Mr. Swackhammer, who only wants to kidnap the Looney Tunes mainly for the benefit of his failing amusement park, Al-G Rhythm wants to delete the Looney Tunes outright. Not only that, but he personally kidnaps and manipulates LeBron's son to turn him against his father and later kidnaps hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians (including the rest of LeBron's family) and threatens to keep them prisoner in the Serververse for eternity should LeBron lose.
- New Media Are Evil: As the embodiment of the internet, he threatens Bugs Bunny and his team, the "old guard" of early cinema.
- Not Good with Rejection:
- He kidnaps Dom to force LeBron to work with him after the latter turned down his idea.
- Later, he forcibly upgrades Lola first, seemingly to hurt Bugs, the only toon not to accept his offer to spread out into the Serververse.
- When Dom sees his father having fun with the Tunes, Al-G yells at Dom for not doing well in the second half (adding that his father was right to be a Fantasy-Forbidding Father and not listen to his son's dreams) and decides to enter the game himself out of vengeance.
- One-Winged Angel: Takes on a much taller, heavily muscled version of his usual form when he decides to enter the game himself.
- Punny Name: A play on algorithm.
- Reality Warper: In cyberspace, he can do almost anything he can imagine.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Thanks to using the code from Dom's game, Al-G keeps adding to the rules of the game as it goes along to try to bend the odds in the Goon Squad's favor. When the Goon Squad starts to falter and Dom abandons him, Al-G decides to directly sabotage the Tune Squad by taking away their points and breaking past LeBron.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: One of the most powerful and dangerous villains the Looney Tunes have ever faced. His wounded pride motivates him to control, corrupt, or destroy everything and everyone around him.
- Villain Has a Point: Even if he's only saying so to get Dom on his side, and is heavily manipulative, Al's not wrong in stating that LeBron isn't really being supportive of his son and his aspirations, while he on the other hand has. This actually does get Dom on his side until after halftime when Al starts acting like his dad toward him.
- Villainous Breakdown: Al-G becomes increasingly irritated at the Tune Squad catching up with the Goon Squad, cursing as he does so (with the swears bleeped out), and he does not take at all kindly to Dom reconciling with his father and abandoning Al-G, who admonishes Dom for not doing as well in the second half, and tries to use the abilities of the Goon Squad to make them unbeatable, even trying to cheat by directly sabotaging the Tune Squad. He is that hellbent on imprisoning everyone and eliminating the Looney Tunes. As LeBron scores the winning point, Al-G, who had tried to physically stop LeBron, helplessly screams, "THAT'S CHEATING!"
- Voice of the Legion: Speaks like this at some points, namely when he gets angry. He adopts this permanently after entering the game himself.
Pete
Al-G's assistant. He serves as the referee for the game.
- Affably Evil: He is quite friendly despite his allegiance.
- Cute Machines: Is an adorable and child-like droid thing.
- Heel–Face Turn: LeBron's reunion with Dom moves Pete to the point of turning against Al-G. He's even the one who destroys the poster that captures his former boss.
- The Unintelligible: With the exception of an "Uh-oh!" in the first trailer, Pete only speaks in beeps with Al-G being the only one to understand him.
Cameos
In general
- Adaptational Heroism: Characters who were villains in their source movies/shows like Pennywise, The Joker, and the Droogs are seen among the spectators and don't cause any trouble, instead excitedly watching the game along with everyone else. However, they really didn't do anything "heroic" whatsoever, so the "heroism" part is subverted.
- Alternate Self:
- Multiple versions of Batman-related characters show up. LeBron and Bugs also show up in the DCU, with Bugs dressed as Batman and LeBron dressed as Robin. Also, many of the characters shown are Played for Laughs with other villains supporting the villain's idea of a basketball game of death, and heroes like Batman, Robin, etc.
- A Season 7 episode of Rick and Morty would confirm the Serververse variants of the duo to be separate from the show version …and dead.
- Batman (1966)
- Batman Film Series
- DC Animated Universe
- The Iron Giant
- King Kong
- It (2017)
- Game of Thrones
- Rick and Morty
- Gremlins
- Animaniacs
- Casablanca
- The Maltese Falcon (1941)
- The Mask
- The Flintstones
- Smallfoot
- The Jetsons
- SCOOB!
- The Matrix
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- A Clockwork Orange
- Space Jam
