While many of the characters haven’t changed much, due to having pretty consistent designs since their original appearance, Lola Bunny, a female counterpart to Bugs Bunny, has undergone some slight changes in appearance since she was introduced in the first Space Jam film.
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The differences are subtle but noticeable. In the original Space Jam, Lola Bunny was introduced as a love interest for Bugs Bunny, sporting a crop top outfit and shorts. In Space Jam: A New Legacy, her outfit has been slightly tweaked: she now wears a more standard basketball jersey that covers her midsection, an arm sleeve, and has had a noticeable reduction to her chest size.
These changes were somewhat controversial online, with some accusing the film of censoring the character and changing her design unnecessarily. The director of Space Jam: A New Legacy, Malcolm D. Lee, discussed the changes during an interview with Entertainment Weekly and noted how they hoped to make the character less sexualized and more kid-friendly: “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.”
It’s also worth noting that this redesign of Lola Bunny brings her closer in line with how the character has appeared in media since the first Space Jam, where she tends to wear full dresses and has anatomy more similar to Bugs Bunny, perhaps most notably in the animated sitcom titled The Looney Tunes Show, in which she is voiced by Bridesmaids star Kristen Wiig. The director also talked about focusing the design around the character’s sports skills and personality: “For us, it was, let’s ground her athletic prowess, her leadership skills, and make her as full a character as the others.”
Space Jam: A New Legacy releases on July 16th, 2021.
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Source: Entertainment Weekly
