Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

Show:		2.0
Picture:		4.0
Sound:		3.0
Extras:		1.0
Score:		2.0

Director(s):	David Dulac • Blake Leibel • Michael Montaine • Jason Raines
Writer(s):	Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan
Starring:	Daphne Zuniga • Dee Bradley Baker • Joan Rivers • Mel Brooks • Tino Insana • Rino Romano
Genre:	Animation • Comedy • Sci-Fi
Website:	http://g4tv.com/spaceballs/index.html
Release Date:	December 29, 2009

List Price:	DVD - $17.49
Amazon:

Congratulations, Eden Log. You’re no longer the least pleasant thing that I have reviewed for this site.

For those of you who were clamoring for an animated revamp (Sequel? Reimagining? I’m not really sure) of the 1987 cult hit Spaceballs, I can only say that you’ve gotten what you deserve. I doubt that I’m offending anybody by saying that, because I’ve never even heard anyone request so much as the promised Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money. Don’t get me wrong; I love Spaceballs, but saying that what I just watched is Spaceballs is like saying that Batman and Robin is Batman.

Taking place some time after the events of the film, this show reunites most of the characters from the film, being Dark Helmet (Dee Bradley Baker), President Skroob (Mel Brooks), Lone Star (Rino Romano), Barf (Tino Insana), Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers), and Yogurt (Mel Brooks), all of them still obviously paralleling their counterparts in Star Wars, with significantly larger emphasis given to the characters whose voice actors are returning from the original film (there’s a whole lot more Skroob going on here than you would normally think there would be). In a typical episode, Skroob and Dark Helmet (recast as a bumbling sidekick) will hatch some evil scheme which somehow incorporates a major fact of an already popular franchise (Disaster Movie much?), and Lone Star and Barf are forced to stop them somehow. Sound anything like the movie that you probably have at least some affinity for? I didn’t think so.

The moment when I knew that this was going into rarely trod ground of awful was when a new female character came on screen, and her breasts were so large that they spontaneously moved back and forth (the whole thing looks like it was animated in Flash, so that was creepy enough). My first response wasn’t ‘that’s unnecessary’ or ‘this is typical of G4’, but ‘wow, that’s inappropriate for children’. Up until that point, I had been entirely convinced that I was watching something intended for kids middle school age and under, so flat were the jokes and so juvenile was the tone of pretty much every scene. The addition of three large-breasted blond women who seem to hang on Skroob’s every word confirmed this for me, but it was still kind of a shocking moment nonetheless, where I realized that this show had no idea what it was doing.

You know those comic books (and occasionally cartoon series) that used to come out in the wake of a major hit release in the 80s and early 90s? They were kind of silly, but in no way offensive or caustic. Back To The Future had one, and I’m pretty sure a number of others did too. They would always incorporate the major characters from the films, but then neuter them of any personality (gone is the affability of Lone Star and the impotent rage of Dark Helmet) and have them in situations that don’t really go anywhere (one of the major plotlines of an episode involves Barf having to lose weight). Imagine that, if you can, and then have it invaded by the most grotesque, pornographic image of sexuality that you can muster (there’s so much here that I can only assume it’s meant to titillate), and put Mel Brooks in there for good measure. While reactions this strong are truly subjective, I hope that puts it in perspective. The fact that it’s choice of medium openly invites theft from other shows (their Titanic parody strongly resembles in plot and tone an episode of Futurama) doesn’t help either.

In the end, you just can’t help but feel disappointed with Mel. I maintain that Blazing Saddles is just about the funniest movie ever made, and even his weaker films had an underlying sweetness that you couldn’t help but like them. So whether my reaction is based on an authentic dislike or displeasure at the skewing of something I genuinely like is really impossible to say. But I will say that I can’t really recommend this to anyone who was a fan of the original film, or to any newcomers for that matter. Come to think of it, I’m not sure who would enjoy the sight of an aroused Lone Star drawing Barf in the nude. I’ll think about it.

DVD Bonus Features

None.