Spaceballs

[Finch]

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless 2.0 stereo audio
Original 70mm 6-track mix in DTS-HD MA 4.1 surround
Optional remixed 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by writer/producer/director/actor Mel Brooks
Spaceballs: The Documentary, an in-depth look at the making of the film
Farce Yourself! Spaceballs and the Skroobing of Sci-fi, a featurette in which Mel Brooks looks back on the making of the film
In Conversation: Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan, a conversation between the two writers about the film’s genesis
John Candy: Comic Spirit, a retrospective look at the life and career of the late comedian
Archival behind-the-scenes featurette
Storyboard-to-film comparison
Film Flubs, a humorous look at the film’s goofs and continuity errors
Watch Spaceballs in Ludicrous Speed
Mawgese and Dinkese alien soundtrack extracts
Exhibitor trailer, with introduction by Mel Brooks
Theatrical and teaser trailer
Spaceballs: The Behind-the-Movie Photos
Spaceballs: The Costume Gallery
Spaceballs: The Art Gallery
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring two choices of original artwork
Double-sided foldout poster
Four postcard-sized artcards

[domino harvey]

Who is the licensor for this? I thought it was with Fox/Disney

[Finch]

It's with MGM in the UK. You can see the logo on the spine.

[domino harvey]

Ah, thanks! Here’s my write up from the 80s list

Spaceballs (Mel Brooks 1987) Well, here's another film I had a vague recollection of from childhood, but like the other Brooks film I watched above [History of the World Part 1], this too failed to elicit a single laugh, though I would say it fares the better of the two. The real problem with this film (and it happens a lot in his work) is Brooks' utterly inept comic timing, with every pause between jokes and extended double-takes and the annoying mugging for the camera during several of John Candy's over-sold lines ("Funny, she doesn't look Druish" -- HOLD HEAD ANGLE FOR CAMERA SEVERAL SECONDS AFTERWARDS TO MAKE WAY FOR ALL THOSE LAFFS). Nothing about what's presented is funny (Okay, there's one amusing moment after lots of flailing to gently mock the Star Wars merchandising where a Spaceballs-emblazoned bedsheet has the words "SPACEBALLS: THE SHEET" printed on it, but that's the fortieth best joke in a better film and it still didn't elicit a chuckle). Even the clumsy and persistent fourth-wall breaking jokes regarding Rick Moranis come off as little more than bad cartoon-aping. The biggest problems here are a basic lack of comedic vision, purpose, and intent: You've got all this rich, popular material to mock and you go for… dick jokes? Really?

[andyli]

Spaceballs The UHD...

[ChunkyLover]

Is this the first Arrow LE without an accompanying booklet?

[JamesF]

Is this the first Arrow LE without an accompanying booklet?

Sadly we weren't allowed to produce a booklet or any new extras for this specific title due to it being part of an ongoing franchise. Perhaps if we'd been able to source a copy of Spaceballs: The Press Kit to reprint the original text, we could have done that, but alas, a copy could not be found in time...

[flyonthewall2983]

My non-interest in all things Star Wars must have taken root among repeated viewings of this as a child.

[captveg]

It's with MGM in the UK. You can see the logo on the spine.

It's with MGM in the US, too, but currently licensed to Kino. MGM titles do shift around, and the Kino UHD came out in 2021, so maybe when that license is up Arrow will get it for the US, too.

[hearthesilence]

Looking at the camera to deliver a punchline is rarely a good choice, but there's at least one time in History of the World Part 1 where it pretty much makes the joke (if you found it funny), and it's when Brooks himself says:

Spoiler

I'm really sorry to hear that.

EDIT: Forgot about the famous recurring line in the French Revolution chapter.

[Lowry_Sam]

History Of The World Part 1 has its moments, particularly the tribute to Esther Williams and Hollywood musicals.

I put Spaceballs on par with High Anxiety, both great ideas that should have been funnier than they were in large part because they try too hard. Maybe if they were skits from The Carol Burnett Show, SCTV, or French & Saunders they would have been funnier.

[beamish14]

History Of The World Part 1 has its moments, particularly the tribute to Esther Williams and Hollywood musicals.

I put Spaceballs on par with High Anxiety, both great ideas that should have been funnier than they were in large part because they try too hard. Maybe if they were skits from The Carol Burnett Show, SCTV, or French & Saunders they would have been funnier.

History of the World seems like the most profound and brilliant film ever when you’re about 12. I do love the “live” chess game (“Everybody jump queen!”). Visually, it really is an impressive work

[The Curious Sofa]

One thing that made Mel Brook's early comedies so funny for me was the cast, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn and Cloris Leachman in particular. The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein are comedy classics and High Anxiety and History of the World Part 1 are still pretty good, but I could never get into the rest, including Spaceballs. I remember finding his pilot for The Nutt House, starring Cloris Leachman quite funny, a spoof of the then popular prime time soap Hotel. I seem to be the only one though, as the show tanked.

[colinr0380]

I am interested in revisiting it but it did feel that the edginess and energetic impetus motivating the humour tailed off a bit after the first few films that Brooks directed. I like High Anxiety but that was not really threatening to destroy Hitchcock (or have the nerve to push Hitchcock to the absurd/operatic heights that De Palma did) in the way that The Producers exploded the musical (and musical theatre in general) and Blazing Saddles destroyed the Western genre (and Hollywood in general!). I seem to remember Spaceballs being similar in that it was jumping on the Star Wars bandwagon to some extent rather than satirically torching it! Which was a path that would eventually, inexorably lead to Robin Hood: Men In Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (which for all that criticism themselves seem like classics if compared to the Epic/Date Movie etc run of 'reference comedies' in the 2000s).

Even at the time Spaceballs felt as if it was coming a bit late to the Star Wars bandwagon, given all of the other films inspired by and providing their own twists on the formula, often already with a bit of a comedic edge to them: The Last Starfighter, The Adventures of Bukaroo Banzai, The Ice Pirates, Battle Beyond The Stars and everything else produced by Roger Corman that the spaceship effects went on to appear in as stock footage, etc (and of course nothing ever could have come close at the time to parodying Star Wars better than The Star Wars Holiday Special itself already had!). Also, 1983-5 may have been about the right time for a specific Star Wars parody to have been relevant; 1987 less so.

And of course Spaceballs arguably looks even tamer in its barbs now that we have the Star Wars sequel trilogy that nuked the franchise from orbit and can probably only really be appreciated (without incurring psychic damage) as a kind of (unintentional?) Chris Morris-style scathing scorched earth satire that feels as if it was made by a group of people with a variety of conflicting axes to grind!

[hearthesilence]

I imagine much of Brooks's early success was due to the shock value of seeing so many taboos breaking in an ostensibly mainstream comedy - he didn't do it just for the sake of pushing boundaries, he just wanted to go where he wanted to go, and once he got there, that was pretty much it. By the time he got to Spaceballs, he clearly had comfort zone that was solidly within the conventions of the day, albeit one he had a big hand in re-calibrating.

[thirtyframesasecond]

I have no real.affinity for Star Wars. I love Brooks' early films and have a fondness for dumb comedy (ZAZ, the new Naked Gun), but this didn't do much for me at all.