Spaceballs: The Animated Series

Within 3 minutes of the first episode I was so horrified I had to immediately switch it off and delete it. Far from a continuation of the beloved cult classic, this abomination is nothing more than a platform for big boobs and masturbation jokes. They managed to pack more misogyny into 3 minutes than most cartoons do in a season. There is a reason I hadn't heard of this show until now - it deserves to be forgotten. How the late Joan Rivers could put her name to this is beyond me. How Mel Brooks thought this train wreck would be a good follow up to the Spaceballs legacy is equally baffling. An atrocity in every sense of the word. Even though I got it for free, I feel like I should be entitled to a refund.

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.

In a time where ChalkZone, Will & DeWitt, Tak and The Power of Juju, World of Quest, The Mighty B and Igor were terrorizing and traumatizing us w/ are presents, this was one of the few saving graces of 2008 (which was a terrible year for comedy).

This is the best way G4 made it up to us after airing that overrated Beast Wars crap back in 2006.

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.

I used to watch shows like Beetlejuice, Real Ghostbusters, and even that lousy Mummy show. Sure none of them used the movie's actors, recycled some jokes, and were pale imitations of the movies they were based on.That least they did not try to literally recreate its source. They expanded on, and sometimes alluded to, the movie. And at least those shows were meant for children.

This show, however, is by far worse. I don't know who this one's meant for. It's too adult for kids and too stupid for adults.

I had high hopes too. Great movie. Mel Brooks coming back. Plenty to draw on thanks to Star Wars Clone Wars.

The most noticeable problem is the voice acting. Sure you got three actors returning from the film. However, none of them seem all that interested and their acting falls flat. The rest are just lousy. Those other shows at least got voice actors who sounded like the movie's but weren't just imitating, these are just trying to be the movie characters.

Why is Rino Romano even getting lead roles in series? Didn't anybody watch Spider-Man Unlimited or The Batman before hiring him? This man has no range. He's so blah.

It started off with a whimper by simply trying to quickly recreate the movie. Turning classic gags into such brief moments that no one can care about. Why not just start off after the movie like those other series? And none of the jokes were funny. I can still watch the movie and laugh out loud. With this show I was wincing as they said the same exact thing. No one seems to have good comedic timing. Lorenzo Music may not have been Bill Murray but at least he had comedic timing.

The animation looks like some flash video that some kid posted on some website. They really couldn't get anything better in this day and age?

Fans of the movie, skip this show. Haven't seen the movie, skip this show and watch the movie. Unless they undergo some drastic changes this show is going to disappear quickly and quietly. Not that I'll be missing it.