Genre Weekend 17: Spaceballs
By Angela Roberts
August 29th, 2011
I’ve been a bit sick this week (hence the delay in getting articles out) and when I’m sick, I find the only thing I have any concentration for is stuff that doesn’t require too much concentration. I like to laugh (even if it hurts). I crave easy mental stimulation. And sci-fi comedy (most often sci-fi parody), like comfort food, nourishes my geeky soul. What is it about science fiction and fantasy that it lends itself so well to parody? We see it over and over; Red Dwarf, Galaxy Quest, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Robot Chicken… You can go on and on. Is it because SF takes itself so seriously? Yeah, probably. And certainly the best spoofers of science fiction are the people who love it most. Look at YouTube if you need any proof. Sci-fi comedy is fun. And it never seems to run out of material. One TV series that caught my attention recently as I browsed through Netflix was Spaceballs the Animated Series. It was a surreal experience because I love the movie so much. But it sort of commands attention.
Did you know there was an animated version of Spaceballs? I didn’t until recently. In 2008, Mel Brooks adapted his cult classic Spaceballs into an animated series, with the apparent intention of continuing the characters’ adventures and spoofing modern pop culture. After numerous delays, the show finally ran briefly on Super Channel in Canada and G4 in the US. No wonder no one knew about it. It didn’t make it to Comedy Central or Cartoon Network, or for that matter, a network in Canada carried by most major cable networks. It is bad; I won’t claim it isn’t. Only three actors including Mel Brooks actually showed up. The animation is kind of weak. And the two-episode pilot is a rehash of the movie but with only some of the jokes and a rewrite of the ending.
Yeah. So why watch? Well, it is a bit like watching a train wreck. You just can’t look away. But it is amusing. Just start from the third episode. I mean, I love Spaceballs. I’ve seen the movie dozens of times. Bill Pullman as Lone Star still makes women swoon. (Sadly, like Cary Elwes, Pullman hasn’t aged well – see recent episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day for comparison. But he was such a hottie back then.) So the nostalgia is there. I believe Mel Brooks is still funny and relevant. The problem lies in the medium. Of course, some of the best parody out there is animated – Robot Chicken, Futurama – but it’s not Brooks’ medium. He’s at his best when he’s messing with the fourth wall, and that becomes way more complicated with animation. His comedy is all about timing. The animation and the voice actors just don’t have it. And one hates to say it, but too many of Brooks’ great collaborators are dead or inactive. I don’t think the Brooks parody film works quite the way it used to. Or to be clear, a current Brooks film doesn’t quite work. The backlist stands the test of time.
He’s not out of ideas. I think it’s rather that the men and women he inspired have out-stripped him. He could have chosen better. He could have at least gone for something new rather than coasting on past glories like Spaceballs. Because the show just doesn’t inspire that warm feeling of nostalgia it was meant to. And it doesn’t attract new viewers either. But it’s true that you just can’t look away. I can’t. I’ve seen ten episodes already. Sometimes things are so bad they’re good. Sometimes they’re just bad, and you cling on because of a love for what it was or what it’s trying to be. Spaceballs the Animated Series is somewhere in this middle of those sentiments.
For more info, check out Spaceballs the Animated Series on Wikipedia.
Fave Podcast of the week: I think I'm running out of ideas for podcasts to recommend. If you know any good ones, drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter.