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While “Spaceballs” isn’t prime Mel Brooks, it’s better
than the toothless and badly thought out satires that we’ve
been getting over the past decade. Brooks has retired happy
with staging the occasional Broadway adaptation of an old
movie (“Young Frankenstein” being the latest after the success
of “The Producers”). Where “Spaceballs” succeeds is in the
absurd variations on “Star Wars” the film that it takes
aim at. “Spaceballs” largely hits its mark whether it be
because of the deft comedic performances of the cast (Bill
Pullman, the late John Candy, Brooks himself and Rick Moranis
improbably but brilliantly cast as Darth Vader here called
“Dark Helmet”) or the gags themselves. Sure, “Spaceballs”
doesn’t quite equal the insanity of “Young Frankenstein”
or “Blazing Saddles” but it finds comfortably berth between
these classics and the inane “High Anxiety” where Brooks
parodied Hitchcock. Unlike most film parodies (I’m thinking
of the “Scary Movie” parodies among others), Brooks understands
that a parody must not only lampoon the genre it’s taking
aim at but hang together well as a story. Brooks recognizes
that the best satire works well only when it works independently
of the films it is satirizing. Sure having a complete understanding
of the “Star Wars” films makes “Spaceballs” funny but even
if you aren’t familiar with it, the absurd story and comedy
bits work well independently of the very film it satirizes
because the story and characters are well realized. Most
movie parodies just lampoon a series of films and don’t
hang together well because they are dependent on knowing
the other film(s) and the comedic bits that make fun of
them. Brooks’ films have always worked well because the
comedy may take aim at those well known scenes but also
grows organically from character and story. It’s the difference
between telling a knock-knock joke and a full comedy routine.
***
When President Skroob (Brooks) decides to steal the
atmosphere from Druidia a planet with clean air, he finds
himself at odds with Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and
her Droid Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers) who discover the plot
when they are taken captive by the evil Dark Helmet (Moranis).
She’s rescued by Lone Starr (Pullman) and his half dog half
human companion Barf (Candy) who are tempted to turn her
over to her father (Dick Van Patten) for the reward money
after she runs out on her groom Prince Valium (Jim J. Bullock)
prior to their marriage because they owe money to the evil
Pizza the Hut (Brooks again). Suddenly the unlikely quartet
are on the run from the evil Spaceballs commanded by Dark
Helmet. Brooks also satirizes the runaway marketing of “Star
Wars” that Fox and George Lucas let get in the way of their
“sagas” making them little more than tie-in’s to their marketing
campaign and diminishing those films as a result. ---
Image & Sound:
“Spaceballs” arrives with a nice looking Blu-ray transfer.
If the transfer has a single flaw it is the fact that the
contrast is a bit too dark at times. Colors pop throughout
the film and detail remains strong. It also puts the detail
of Brooks’ satire up front allowing us to see things that
we missed on DVD but were apparent in the theatrical presentation.
For example, there is a deliberate effort to satirize both
“Star Wars” and cheaper knock offs of that film evident
in some of the sloppy work on the sets (it’s quite deliberate
I might add-for example, you’ll notice that some areas of
Dark Helmet’s ship look…like a movie set demonstrating that
Brooks’ attention to detail is astonishingly sharp). The
presentation never loses its film-like look. The flaws in
the film are most evident in the visual effects scenes which
isn’t a surprise given that this was the tail end of the
period when miniatures dominated visual effects and the
use of optical printers for multiple exposures/matte paintings,
etc also dominated most movies that were visual effects
driven. ***
The audio sounds terrific. The DTS lossless sound sports
a 5.1 mix that entices the ear whether it be in little details
like the sound of the Spaceballs flame thrower that Yogurt
(Brooks again) plans to market to the sound of Spaceball
One traveling across space. ---
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