SPACEBALLS begins with an opening crawl stolen from STAR WARS (1977) which George Lucas stole from the FLASH GORDON (1930's) serials. It ends with, "If you can read this, you don't need glasses" in tiny letters.
On Planet Druidia, Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) is about to marry Prince Valium (JM J. Bullock). He is insufferably boring, but is the last known prince in the galaxy so she has no choice. Vespa suddenly gets cold feet at the altar and escapes with her robot Dot Matrix (Lorene Yarnell/Joan Rivers) into outer space.
On neighbouring planet Spaceball there is a shortage of air. President Skroob (Mel Brooks) and his top military leader Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) plan to steal Druidia's air by kidnapping and ransoming Princess Vespa. If Druidia does not cooperate, Spaceball will reverse Vespa's nose job.
Vespa's father King Roland (Dick Van Patten) hires Captain Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) from the Ford Galaxy and Barfolomew (John Candy) to rescue the princess. Barfolomew or Barf is a "mawg", half dog and half man. He and Lone Starr are desperate for money to pay back a debt to Pizza the Hutt (Dom DeLuise), a large pizza lifeform and mafia boss.
Barfolomew: "I know we need the money, but..."
Lone Starr: "Listen. We're not just doing this for money. We're doing it for a s**t load of money."
Barfolomew: "Oh, you're right. And when you're right, you're right. And you - you're always right."
Lone Starr: "Barf! Barf! Barf!"
Barfolomew: "Always when I'm eating"
Lone Starr and Barf are helped by the wise alien Yoghurt (Mel Brooks) and his awesome power "The Schwartz". Dark Helmet and Lone Starr have a duel with energy beams emanating from their Schwartz rings. In the movie "Schwartz" has phallic connotations, and during the duel the Schwartz beams are clearly phallic images. Dark Helmet says, "You have the ring, and I see your Schwartz is as big as mine...now let's see how well you handle it."
Zircon: "Shall I have Snotty beam you down, sir?"
Skroob: "I don't know about this beaming stuff? Is it safe?"
Zircon: "Oh yes, sir. Snotty beamed me twice last night. It was wonderful."
Eventually Lone Starr and Barf rescue Vespa, destroy Spaceball's spaceship, and restore Druidia's air supply. And it turns out that Lone Starr is actually a prince so he marries Princess Vespa. Pizza the Hutt gets trapped in his car and eats himself to death. Dark Helmet and his crew survive a crash-landing on "Planet of the Apes".
SPACEBALLS is the best spoof and parody of STAR WARS ever, and it also has references to STAR TREK, ALIEN, WIZARD OF OZ, and PLANET OF THE APES. The movie is a sci-fi comedy classic, one of Mel Brooks' best. It is cheerfully funny and withstands repeated viewings fairly well. John Morris' musical score is also an excellent spoof of the genre.
However, the movie is crude, crass, obvious, tame, tentative, somewhat disappointing, and the actors are more amused by their own antics than the audience. Basically it's a collection of verbal and visual jokes and one-liners. There are enough funny moments to make it enjoyable, but some of the attempts at humour don't work very well. STAR WARS has been lampooned to death, and this film is most suitable for fans of sci-fi and Mel Brooks.
Others in the cast include: George Wyner (Colnel Sandurz), John Hurt (Kane), Leslie Bevis (Commanderette Zircon), Jim Jackman (Major Asshole), Mike Pniewski (Laser Gunner), Sandy Helberg (Dr. Schlotkin), Denise Gallup (Charlene), Dian Gallup (Marlene), Rudy De Luca (Vinnie), Ed Gale (Dink), Brenda Strong (Gretchen), and many others. The script was written by Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan, and Ronny Graham. Music was composed by John Morris. Mel Brooks directed.
