Blu-ray Review: Spaceballs – 25th Anniversary Edition

Mel Brooks is a legend.  Anyone that loves movies knows his films whether they realize it or not.  One such movie is Spaceballs, the classic sci-fi spoof that still manages to capture the hearts and laughs of people everywhere and, thanks to MGM and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, we now have access to the 25^th Anniversary edition of the film on a glorious blu-ray disc.

If you’ve never seen the film, Spaceballs is a love story with a damsel in distress at the focal point.  In the movie, planet Spaceball is running low on oxygen so its president, President Skroob (Mel Brooks), sends Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) on a mission to take all of the air from planet Druida.  To do so, he kidnaps Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) as she bails on her wedding.  While flying around in their Winnebago, Lone Star (Bill Pullman), the Han Solo-like character, and his sidekick Barf (John Candy), make a deal with King Roland, Vespa’s father, that they’ll rescue his daughter in exchange for $1,000,000 space bucks so they can pay off their debt.  The rest of the film chronicles the adventures of Lone Star, Barf, Princess Vespa and Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers) as they try to evade being captured by Dark Helmet and his crew full of Assholes.

As you might expect, Spaceballs spoofs some of the classic sci-fi movies and shows of yesteryear, namely Star Wars, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Alien and a few other popular ones.  It easily succeeds on paying appropriate homage to them while also turning their iconic images upside down for our amusement and to poke fun of the Hollywood machine and industry as a whole.  Spaceballs is essentially all of these movies but made more Jewish, in the comedic sense as Brooks puts it.

Spaceballs is one of my favorite spoofs and it’s one that needs to be in every guy and movie girl’s collection.  I’d say that it is good clean fun but because of all the sexual innuendos and decent amount of cursing I’d be lying through my teeth, yet somehow this is rated PG (the good old MPAA never fails to amaze me).

In the special features, Mel Brooks discusses how if you want to spoof something you have to love the films you’re spoofing.  It’s clear after watching Spaceballs that his philosophy holds true.  Everything in the movie has to look like the original or better, which is why the effects are so good for a movie that’s spoofing some of the most iconic and technologically sophisticated sci-fi features.

With some great satirical acting, especially from Rick Moranis who always draws laughs from me no matter how many time I see this film, and a pitch perfect script for the type of film it is, Spaceballs is rightfully the king of sci-fi spoofs and will no doubt hold that crown for another 25 years.

The Disc:

As for the disc, the movie comes with over five hours of special features and looks really nice on blu-ray. Much of it has seen the light of day before but the first one is something new for this release.  The features are really enjoyable to watch.  It’s fun to hear the different stories, see the different goofs and find out what was improvised and what wasn’t.

• NEW!! Farce Yourself! Spaceballs and the Skroobing of Sci-Fi featurette (16:30) – This featurette is basically Mel Brooks briefly discussing different parts of the filmmaking process and sharing a few different stories about the people he worked with.  He talks about asking George Lucas to use Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) to do the special effects, reaching out to John Hurt to do the alien reenactment at the end of the film, sharing how he came up with the Pizza the Hut idea and how the suit was set on fire from the inside with an actor in it and how Daphne Zuniga can sing deeper than he can.
• Commentary by Mel Brooks
• Additional Commentary Tracks:
  • Mawgese
  • Dinkese
• Spaceballs: The Documentary featurette
• In Conversation: Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan featurette
• John Candy: Comic Spirit featurette
• Watch the Movie in Ludicrous Speed featurette
• Still Galleries:
  • Spaceballs: The Behind-the-Movie Photos
  • Spaceballs: The Costume Gallery
  • Spaceballs: The Art Gallery
• Trailers
  • Exhibitor Trailer with Mel Brooks Introduction
  • Theatrical Trailer
• Film Flubs:
  • Edge of the Mirror
  • Grabs Himself Early
  • The Magic Reappearing Ring
  • More Than His Head
  • No End in Sight
  • Track Behind Dot
• Storyboards-to-Film Comparison

Movie Rating: You will most definitely feel the power of Brooks’ Schwartz when the credits begin to roll (8/10)

Disc Rating: 7/10