Spaceballs: The Animated Series

Spaceballs was probably Mel Brooks' last funny movie before his schtick got old and dry.

After having watched six episodes of this poorly animated series based on it, I feel sorry for the guy. I think he's trying to recapture some of the old spark and falling flat.

The show is based on parodies of other movies, most of them not funny, funny stuff having been done on the Cartoon Network without relying on boob jokes, ass jokes, poop jokes and puke jokes.

Daphne Zuniga and Joan Rivers add their voices to this travesty, as does Mel himself, reproducing the dual roles of Skroob and Yogurt.

Isn't worth watching, please skip it.

Typical Mel Brooks. Very funny!

Worth the time to watch if you are a Mel fan. I hope he comes up with something else soon.

The Spaceballs gang returns for an animated series. The good news is that Mel Brooks returns as the creator. Possibly bad news is that Mel Brooks returns and nobody is willing to say no to the legend. Also returning are Daphne Zuniga and Joan Rivers. There are some head scratching unfunny changes like planet Moron. The first episode is a spoof of The Phantom Menace. However, the rest of the series is spoofing other franchises to little success.

The first thing that I notice is that the voices are different. It's understandable that many of the original actors are not returning. It should have been a great opportunity to start anew. The first episode is mostly a flashback back to Dark Helmet's childhood. It hits a couple of times. Boy Dark Helmet having sex with Princess Harley Van Patten is uncomfortably hilarious and is such dark comment on The Phantom Menace. The pilot episode is actually watchable. That's what this series should have been. It should be taking the prequels out to the shed to pound away on Star Wars. In a way, it needs a Star Wars nerd and I'm not sure that Mel Brooks is actually one. Instead, it goes all over the place and ends up nowhere. The Jurassic Park parody works to some extent but it's the best of a bad lot. This show is a muddled scattershot of boob jokes and not that funny.

So, first of all. I know Spaceballs is not the Citizen Kane of comedy movies. It's more like UHF - a campy comedy classic that's somewhat under-appreciated, and yet funny after all these years. Quotable; sort of a loving parody of all those movies it lampoons so well.

The cast made the best of a good script. Rick Moranis was funny while he was on screen, Mel Brooks was OK, and the rest of the group played their part to varying degrees of success. Daphne Zuñiga was a better Princes Leia than Princess Leia ever was, actually.

It's a movie I can still laugh at. Not bad, after all these years.

But... THIS?

What in the world is THIS?

The first two episodes are so bad they are actually painful to watch and make you wonder what in the world compelled Joan Rivers and Daphne Zuñiga to agree to appear here. Basically they retell the original story. Except for the fact that nobody is funny. Not even one voice is worthy of a smile. No single line is funny. There's no comedic timing. They almost ad-lib the entire movie, but you finally understand how funny things were the first time around - every joke falls flat because nobody seems to care. The animation? A kid in his basement with Flash could do something better looking. The characters aren't funny at all. Dark Helmet is moronic. Every woman is reduced to a pair of giant boobs jiggling. Planet Spaceball is now "Planet Moron". I mean. Really? "Moron"? That's the joke?

Basically, the whole series remind me of a 5 year old trying to tell an adult joke. He may know the words, but he doesn't know what he's saying.

And that sums up the entire series. To me, it seems as it as made by people who were told they were doing a remake - continuation of Spaceballs, but never got the joke the first time around.

A complete, utter, total waste of animation.

The Spaceballs movie was full of screwball humor and some fairly cheesy jokes, but it worked, because of good acting, sharp delivery, and solid comedic timing. None of those qualities are present in the series. The first two episodes try to recreate the movie, featuring the same plot, the same jokes, and even some of the same actors, but it's just not funny. The old actors seem to be going through the motions, and the new actors give near-deadpan performances. They don't bring anything new to the table or even try to recreate the performances of their predecessors.

Later episodes devolve into half-hearted parodies of popular films laden with awful writing and terrible jokes. There's a slight chuckle here and there, but it's not worth wading through the corny and often painful one-liners. If there's anything this series does well, it's highlighting how funny the original movie actually was. Save your time and go watch the movie again.