New Legacy, New Lola: Why Space Jam wanted to do better by one Tune
No more Bunny Babes!
https://ew.com/movies/space-jam-new-legacy-lola-bunny/
When Space Jam: A New Legacy director Malcolm D. Lee finally watched Space Jam for the first time in 2019, one Tune left him flummoxed.
"Lola [Bunny] was very sexualized, like Betty Boop mixed with Jessica Rabbit," he says of the character who is called "hot" (by Tweety, of all Tunes!) and "the heartthrob of the hoops" in the original movie. "Lola was not politically correct.... This is a kids' movie, why is she in a crop top? It just felt unnecessary, but at the same time there's a long history of that in cartoons."
"This is 2021. It's important to reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters," says Lee. "She probably has the most human characteristics of the Tunes; she doesn't have a thing like a carrot or a lisp or a stutter. So we reworked a lot of things, not only her look, like making sure she had an appropriate length on her shorts and was feminine without being objectified, but gave her a real voice. For us, it was, let's ground her athletic prowess, her leadership skills, and make her as full a character as the others."