Spaceballs Animated Series in Production

Keith Russell writes "CNN is reporting that production has started on Spaceballs: The Animated Series, which will start a 13-episode run on G4 next year. Brooks himself will provide the voices of 'two characters', although they don't mention Yogurt or President Skroob by name." From the article: "Like the 1987 movie, which parodied well-known science-fiction movies, 'Spaceballs: The Animated Series' will spoof current blockbusters as well as every genre of entertainment from movies and reality TV to culture and politics. It is set to debut on cable network G4 in fall 2007. Production has already started on an initial batch of 13 episodes."

KEWL!

Now maybe we'll finally get to see "Jews in Outer Space".

Further detail.

This version [comingsoon.net] does specify Yogurt and Skroob.

recursion

'Spaceballs: The Animated Series' will spoof current blockbusters as well as every genre of entertainment from movies and reality TV to culture and politics.

But will it spoof the spoof genre? Or is that like crossing the streams?

Re:recursion

Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.

Re:recursion

But will it spoof the spoof genre? Or is that like crossing the streams?

I would say it's more like jumping the shark.

Memorabilia?

I really want my Spaceballs, the flamethrower. Wonder if they'll make it for the series....

Finally a sequel...

The search for more money?

Animated series....

That sucks... no wait, now it blows.

Poor Mel Brooks

His career must really be in the hole for him to even talk to G4.

Re:Poor Mel Brooks

Yeah, that whole multiple-award-winning, multi-bazillion-dollar-earning "The Producers" musical must have really ruined the guy. He must be crying himself to sleep in his money bin.

Re:Poor Mel Brooks The Producers LOST MONEY

The problem with the producers movie: What works in theatre *DOES NOT* work on film. Repeat it with me, WHAT WORKS IN THEATRE DOES NOT WORK ON FILM!!! The producers movie was a fairly accurate recreation of the producers brodway production. Matthew Broderick's sniveling character just did't work on film.

You are forgetting that the Broadway Play was simply an accurate recreation of the 1968 ORIGINAL Movie (starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder). And, Gene Wilder's sniveling character did work on film.

For the record, I thought the 2005 version of the movie was pretty good. Mel had to update some of the jokes for 2005, (but he kept the 'blonde bombshell'). Very funny. He also wrote a couple of pretty good new songs.

I liked it better when...

It was called Futurama!

ObQuote

SPACEBALLS??!?

Oh, shit! There goes the planet.

only if his schwartz is as big a smine.

Thats a classic, figured it woudl ony be a matter a time given the star treck prequels. Think of all the bad acting that they can make fun of.

Hmmm...

Production has already started on an initial batch of 13 episodes.

I'm thinking it's highly unlikely that this will stay on for 13 weeks. I suppose they need to at least have enough for a DVD set.

Has Mel Brooks done anything worthwhile since -- I can't even remember a recent Mel Brooks movie -- Young Frankenstein?

All I can say is...

All Hail President Skroob!

Hollywood needs to close for a few years

Till they can come up with a new idea.

Merchandising!

Any news on Spaceballs: The Flamethrower?

Whatever happened to Spaceballs sequel?

What ever happened to the Spaceballs sequel [comingsoon.net] that was announced a couple years ago?

Mel Brooks Writing Spaceballs Sequel
Source: Ain't-It-Cool-News
September 28, 2004


In a Q&A with Playbill magazine, Mel Brooks says that he's currently working on a Spaceballs sequel. Here's the clip from the interview which starts off by talking about the big screen adaptation of The Producers.

Playbill: Will you have a role in it?

MB: It's doubtful, but I'm writing myself back into the Spaceballs sequel that I'm now writing, so you haven't seen the last of my face. Why another Spaceballs? It wouldn't feel right have anyone else play Yoghurt and the first one was the best experience I've had making a movie since Blazing Saddles.

Playbill: When can we expect that?

MB: Best case scenario: a week before the new Star Wars opens. Worst Case Scenario: a year after the new star wars opens.

Development

Brooks has said for years he wanted to do a Spaceballs sequel, and incorporate the prequels. Studios have been pushing for a TV show so they could spoof other fandoms and pull in more people. Specifically they kept demanding a LotR spoof, which I'm not sure how well that fits in the Spaceballs universe. But LotR makes huge money, and Lords of the G-Strings is a very weak parody (and porn for that matter). So someone has to do it.

Given budget limitations and Brook's age, a cartoon seems like the best way to cut back on the costs of all the new locations, space sequences, etc.

Packaging for the DVDs

This is wonderful news. I have long held that Spaceballs is one of mankind's greatest comedic achievements. Finally, there will be new material! This fanboy is excited.

...

And when they release the DVD box set, it better come in Spaceballs: The Lunchbox!

A quote from Spaceballs comes to mind.....

.... As I read this:

Barf: I know we need the money, but...

Lone Starr: Listen! We're not just doing this for money... We're doing it for a SHIT LOAD of money!

Barf: Oh, you're right. And when you're right, you're right. And you - you're always right.

What about the long-lost sequels?

I'm still waiting for the first sequel, "Spaceballs 3: In search of Spaceballs 2" to hit theaters! ...seriously, I heard rumors about this way back in 93, and I'm _still_ waiting for it!!

What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz?

Chicken?

If you look closely at the horizon...

...you can just see the tops of the helmets of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse coming into view.

She's gone from suck to blow

Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!

Is the sequel dead?

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/29/141723 1 [slashdot.org] I take it this is dead then?

Finally

For all this time, you slashdot users have mocked me.

But HA! Look! Now I have a legitimate use for my nickname on here!

And since I'm on Slashdot, let me reword one of my more famous quotes:

Windows will always win because Linux is dumb!

bogus

Barfolemew? no john candy no spaceballs..
and the last thing brooks did that was alright was show up on curb your enthusiasm

Voice talent?

Has anyone heard Mel's voice lately? He's 80 YEARS OLD for chrissake. His voice makes a showing in the broadway version of "the producers" for a scant 4 seconds - when he was less than 80 years old - and it's a raspy squeek.

Don't get me wrong - I think it's fantastic that he's staying involved in projects in his twilight years, but "voice talent"? There's plenty of professional voice-actors out there who could nail his voice back when it was in it's prime.

For him to be a voice actor - it might help for him to have a voice in the first place.

tag: merchandising

merchandising! merchandising!

Spaceballs THE FLAMETHROWER!

Spaceballs Quote

What's the matter Col. Sanderz?...CHICKEN!?!?

No! No! No!

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

THEY DID NOT!

Ugh! G4 will show just about anything!

WTF?

Someone went over my helmet!

still waiting

mel brooks promised "jews in space"! when the heck will he do that?

Had enough quotes yet?

Ludicrus speed!

When?
Now.
Now-Now?

Comb the desert...

It's gone from suck to blow...

Mog...Half man, half dog. I'm my own best friend.

Yohgurt

Like the man, er ...yohgurt said, "It's all about the moychandizing!"

Portal too please?

Maybe they'll revive Portal [wikipedia.org] too? *crossing fingers* I can't live on Webisodes [sirdavesforums.com] alone!

Merchandising question

It's a little known bit of trivia, but when Mel Brooks went to George Lucas asking permission to make the parody (not required but all the cool guys [weirdal.com] do it) George said sure, on one condition: You can't make any Spaceballs merchandise. Why? Because as pointed out in the movie, "Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made." George didn't want to lose out on a Star Wars lightsaber sale for a Spaceballs-the lightsaber sale.

That's why it's so heavily referenced in the movie; Spaceballs-the T-shirt, Spaceballs-the Coloring Book, Spaceballs-the flame thrower, Spaceballs-the towel, Spaceballs-the etc. Because they can't (couldn't) actually make a single item.

So does that same limitation exist? Could "Spaceballs-the animated series" be considered merchandising? Or did they get a new deal for parodying "Star Wars, the animated series" without limitations?

Hooray for my second favorite jew!

Next to the Jesus of course. But seriously, we really need History of the World part II!

Obligatory

I for one welcome our Spaceball overloards.

Am I alone in hating this movie?

I was in college when it first came out, saw it in the theaters with a bunch of friends. They liked it, I thought it was stupid. I've seen it on cable a couple of times in the intervening years...I still think it's stupid. My current friends (in their 30's and 40's) think it's great. I think I'm alone in hating this movie...not just hate, but loathe. It's one of the worst movies ever...right up there with "Mad Dog and Glory". I like other movies by Mel Brooks...Blazing Saddles is hilarious, but Spaceballs, no.

too bad it's going to be on g4

too bad it's going to be on g4. otherwise, people might see it.

Sci Fi looking backwards - again

I've posted a couple/few times in the past about my opinion that sci-fi is sick, out of ideas (more like "head up its ass, eating its own shit and declaring how delicious it is") and we are forced to look to the past for fantasy about the future - and so it seems to be the same even with sci-fi parody.

Here's an open letter from me:

Dear anybody/everybody involved with creating sci-fi entertainment product.

Can we have new ideas please?

Thanks.

What's the deal with Mel Brooks?

What's the deal with Mell Brooks anyway? He is like god or something. I don't know. All I know is every time I see a one of his movies, my friends and I are quoting it for the next month or so. Also...it makes my life just seem better and such. Seriously...I dunno. Yeah... He's like the funniest dude alive. Except for maybe Leslie Neilson..

Like StarWars they should have made a prequel

To be in line with what Lucas did with StarWars, they should have made a Spaceballs prequel.

Perhaps they could have called it something like:

Spaceballs Episode 0: Attack of the Clone of the Phantom Prequel

It could have featured how Scroub met Dark Helmet.

Perhaps Dark Helmet being a student of Yoghurt and turning on him to join Scroub. :-P

Animated. . ? Ugh.

Mel Brooks' brand of dumb humor only works with live action. Humor in animation relies much more on charisma and human reactions to impossible things. Rick Moranis in a big helmet is funny. An animated Rick Moranis in a big helmet is not. --95% of animated characters are mis-proportioned, so where's the joke?

Humor in animation stems from entirely different sources, and a team of writers trying to ape Mel Brooks isn't one of those sources.

The only value I can see in this project is in that it further solidifies a valuable cultural mythology by lampooning it. (You don't lampoon that which is not deeply rooted in society). Star Wars and the messages explored within are good; things our culture needs. It's too bad the last three films were wounded, but the idea of Jedi is still here.

My current favorite find were a series of books by Scholasitc; the Jedi Apprentice series. --The edges are rounded down for young readers, but the books are otherwise very insightfully written.

-FL

Tripping The Rift

Sounds like a less funny version of Tripping The Rift.

-M

Step up

Actually compared to what is on G4, this may be a step up in quality.

Re:I was looking for a joke...

"Use the fork(s)" is from the Simpsons episode where Mark Hamill guest starred. Spaceballs had "use the Schwartz."

You're obviously lost

The "googling for ATM passwords" article is further down the page [slashdot.org].

Re:I was looking for a joke...

Actually, the Blue Rajah [imdb.com] used to say "May the forks be with us".

Re:boo on a cartoon

I live action sequel would be better, yes. But who would they get to play Barf? The loss of John Candy was really a tragedy. At least now, all they have to do is just somebody to replace his voice -- but it still won't be the same,...