| Monstars
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Gender |
Male |
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First Appearance |
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Voice Actors |
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Personality |
Short-tempered, stingy, arrogant, self-centered, cruel, desperate, abusive, manipulative, evil, mean, roguish, philosophical, strict, whimsical, accountable, conscientious, kooky, hard-working, aspiring, menacing, mysterious, emotionless, rational |
The Nerdlucks are the central antagonists of the 1996 Warner Bros. hybrid film Space Jam, and minor characters in it’s 2021 sequel Space Jam: A New Legacy.
They start out as a group of tiny and weak aliens known as the Nerdlucks that work for galactic worker Mr. Swackhammer.
Background[]
History[]
Personality[]
The Nerdlucks[]
They are loyal but they're scared of Swackhammer who abuses them. They are easily persuadable around the Looney Tunes. Yet they are gullible when Bugs tricks them. Its later revealed that they are kind hearted aliens.
The Monstars[]
They are cocky, dangerous, and intimidating, They act like bullies around Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes, like in their Nerdluck forms they're scared of Swackhammer and they're still loyal to him. However after they lost the game, they realize after becoming bigger than Mr. Swackhammer, they should get rid of him earlier because of his mistreatment towards them and immediately stuffing him in a rocket. Then they had a change of heart. They are childish when they're reluctant to give the NBA players talent back.
Physical Appearances[]
The Nerdlucks[]
The Nerdlucks are small insectoid aliens with different colored skins, three fingers, pale colored bellies, lizard-like noses and different colored bowties.
Pound is an orange and overweight leader of the nerdlucks, who wears a green bowtie. He speaks in a high raspy voice. As a monstar, he looks like Charles Barkley, has small floppy ears, he is overweight and muscular. He speaks in a very deep voice. He is bossy, demanding, mean spirited and takes pleasure in bullying Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes. Position: Shooting Guard
Blanko is a blue nerdluck who is dumb and laid back, unlike his pals, he is also friendly who wears a pink bowtie and speaks in a thick Californian accent. As a monstar, he looks like Shawn Bradley (and Frankenstein's monster), he is tall, muscular and has dark blue hair, pointy ears, and a buck tooth. He speaks in a thick Californian accent and he is friendly to Michael Jordan and Tweety. Position: Center
Bang is a green nerdluck and second-in-command who wears an orange bowtie. He speaks in a high timid voice. He is nervous and concerned and as a monstar, he looks like Patrick Ewing, but is tough and aggressive. He speaks in a deep growling voice. He is muscular and has a large chin, small dragon-like ears, spikes on his back and a red orange flat top. He enjoys insulting Michael Jordan and picking on the Looney Tunes. Position: Power Forward
Bupkus is a purple nerdluck who is cheerful. He speaks in a high cheerful voice and who wears a yellow bowtie. As a monstar, he looks like Larry Johnson, he is emotional and cocky and has dark purple hair and pointy ears that are slightly floppy. He speaks in a deep suave voice and is very muscular. He enjoys mocking Michael Jordan and hurting the Looney Tunes. Position: Small Forward
Nawt is a small, red nerdluck, who speaks in a high squeaky voice. He is smart and who wears a light orange yellow spotted bowtie. As a monstar, he looks like Muggsy Bogues, he has big floppy rabbit-like ears, he is muscular and shorter. Position: Point Guard
The Monstars[]
As the Monstars they are cocky of their gigantic size and strength and use it to intimidate others who gets in their way. They act like bullies around Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes. However after they lost the game and getting rid of Swackhammer they had a change of heart. They are childish when they're reluctant to give the NBA player's talent back. When they becomes monstars they become from small aliens to gigantic muscular humanoid mutants, they wear navy blue basketball uniforms with gold trim lines, white zeroes on the front and on the back, white socks and navy blue sneakers. They have five fingers and pointy claw-like fingernails. After loosing the game against Tunes Squad, when Bupkus thought Mr. Swackhammer is bigger than him, it makes them realize that since they are now bigger than Mr. Swackhammer himself, they should get rid of him in the first place.
Role in the film[]
They first appear when Swackhammer is trying to attract more customers to his theme park on Moron Mountain because he's losing money. During his rant, he suggests something funny, wacky, and nutty when he suddenly sits on his remote in which a library of Looney Tunes shorts start playing on his TV screens, Bupkus and Nawt point them out and he agrees with them so he sends them to Looney Tune Land where the Looney Tunes reside. They encounter Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd accidentally landing on Elmer in the process. They interrogate Bugs and ask him the whereabouts of Bugs Bunny because they have no idea what he looks like. He describes himself to them in one of his classic routines and they agree with the descriptions and he tells them that he never heard of him which disappoints them. Bugs remarks to himself "you know maybe there really isn't any intelligent life out there in the universe!". At this point they figure out he really is the Bugs Bunny who they're looking for and they shoot him with their laser guns and tell him to come with them.
That night, Bugs holds a town meeting with the other Looney Tunes and tells them that they will be enslaved by the Nerdlucks. They laugh when they hear the Nerdlucks talk because they look and sound small and weak so they send Yosemite Sam after them. They shoot him with their laser guns frying him and knocking him unconscious. Now terrified they raise their hands in surrender. Bugs decides to negotiate with them telling them "The rules of kidnapping a cartoon character". He then holds a meeting with Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Sylvester after much discussion. They decide to have a basketball game to decide their fates because they think they have the advantage because the Nerdlucks are too small. Little do they know the Nerdlucks have the ability to melt themselves and shoot into a person's brain to steal their abilities. Using this, they steal the talent from Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Muggsy Bogues, and Shawn Bradley and place the stolen talents into a basketball. Later as they prepare to train. Daffy sarcastically tells them since they are performing poorly "they need to practice growing taller".
They then take out the basketball and transform into gigantic monsters now calling themselves "The Monstars". After trashing the court, Bugs decides that they may need a little help, so they abduct Michael Jordan while he's golfing. After some coaching and training, he decides to help them in the game. At first the Tune Squad does poorly against them and are off by many points until Bugs pretends to take steroids which is actually water in order to improve their skills. After the Monstars start trailing Swackhammer tells them to play more aggressively which they do sending most of the Looney Tunes to the hospital, the only remaining players are Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Lola Bunny, and Michael Jordan, Bill Murray eventually comes as a replacement and through the power of cartoon logic. Michael Jordan is able to stretch his arm long enough to score the winning points. Swackhammer tells them that they are a bunch of losers and will never amount to anything Bugs and Michael ask why they take that from him they reply "He's bigger than...we used to be!". After stating their comment, they realize that they are bigger than Swackhammer and having enough of their abusive boss, they turn on Swackhammer, and strap him to one of Wile E. Coyote's rockets sending him to the moon. Afterwards with some hesitation, they agree to give back the basketball player's talents and revert back to their Nerdluck forms. They then reform and decide to live with the Looney Tunes.
Space Jam: A New Legacy[]
The Nerdlucks most likely left the Tune World like the other Tunes when Al-G Rhythm convinced them to explore the ServerVerse. Their basketball game against Michael and the Tubes gets mentioned two times during the movie.
They appear at the end of the movie as spectators during the game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad. After the game it's unknown what happens to them as they're not seen again but they most likely came to live to the Tune World again.
Other appearances[]
Pinky and the Brain[]
Their only other appearance to date has been a cameo in the Pinky and the Brain special "Star Warners" as the patrons at the cantina bar.
Teen Titans Go![]
The Nerdlucks appeared in Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam.
Space Jam: A New Legacy[]
The Nerdlucks appear in 2 shots during the big game, but reusing animation from the first Space Jam.
Video games[]
Printed Media[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- They were not referred to as Nerdlucks in the movie.
- When the Nerdlucks turned into the Monstars, they became giant monsters of the basketball players who talent they stole, resembling them in the process.
- The Monstars' basketball uniforms appear when they transform but when they transform back to the Nerdlucks, their uniforms never disappear.
- None of Monstars' stolen talents originating from a single actual Shooting Guard. Because Charles Barkley being smaller than Larry Johnson, despite both positions are Forwards only, Pound's position is a Shooting Guard.