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Spaceballs: The Animated SeriesMel Brooks Movie Becomes Cartoon Television Show
New details about Mel Brooks' new cartoon, Spaceballs: The Animated Series, which will come to the G4 Network in the fall of 2007.
Not just content with making his classic comedies The Producers and Young Frankenstein into Broadway musicals, Mel Brooks is now turning his 1987 Star Wars spoof Spaceballs into an animated series. Spaceballs: The Animated Series started production in January of 2005, and is scheduled to air on the G4 Network in August of 2007. Brooks’ company Brooksfilms Limited, MGM, G4 and Berliner Film Compane GmbH are all backing the project. “As the go-to network for men 18-34, irreverent humor is one of the benchmarks of our programming philosophy, as is animation," said Neil Tiles, president of G4. "Mel Brooks’ classic movies Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles are just as relevant to our young male audience today as they were when they were first released. His brand of humor will resonate well with our viewers.” Spaceballs: The Animated Series follows the heroic Lone Starr who, along with his sidekick Barf, the lovely Princess Vespa and her robo-maid Dot Matrix, must protect the planet Druidia from the evil Spaceballs, led by Dark Helmet and President Skroob. Brooks and longtime collaborator Thomas Meehan are writing the first 13 scripts for the series, which will lampoon most science fiction shows of the last 20 years, as well as pop culture in general. Brooks will voice two roles in the new Spaceballs: the hapless villain President Skroob (an anagram of Brooks), and Yogurt, the wizened master of the Schwartz and inveterate merchandiser. He played both roles in the 1987 live-action movie. Daphne Zuniga will also return to voice Princess Vespa. It’s not known whether Bill Pullman (who played Lone Starr), Rick Moranis (Dark Helmet), Joan Rivers (Dot Matrix) or George Wyner (Col. Sandurz) will reprise their respective roles, but obviously John Candy’s Barf character will have to be recast, since the Canadian comedian died in 1994. Brooks had a mixed career as a filmmaker. Both silver screen incarnations of The Producers bombed in theatres but became a multiple Tony award-winning musical on Broadway. His two 1974 films, Blazing Saddles (co-written with Richard Pryor) and Young Frankenstein (written with star Gene Wilder), are two of the greatest comedies of the Twentieth Century. Spaceballs was a return to form for Brooks: it didn’t rank with his best movies, but the vast majority of the jokes worked. The same couldn't be said for his subsequent films Robin Hood: Men in Tights (despite featuring Dave Chapelle as Ahchoo) and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Fun Fact: Mel Brooks produced David Lynch’s 1982 bio-pic The Elephant Man as well as David Cronenberg’s 1987 horror remake of The Fly. He created the Brooksfilms production company in order to promote the movies, since he knew the line “Mel Brooks presents” would lead people to think that both films were comedies.
The copyright of the article Spaceballs: The Animated Series in Animated Films is owned by Dominic von Riedemann. Permission to republish Spaceballs: The Animated Series in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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