Spaceballs Analysis

Did Mel Brooks make "Spaceballs" to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the "Star Wars" saga? Last month we celebrated the first decade of George Lucas 's great entertainment, and now here is Brooks 's satire, complete with Dark Helmet and Pizza the Hutt.

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I enjoyed a lot of the movie, but I kept thinking I was at a revival. The strangest thing about "Spaceballs" is that it should have been made several years ago, before our appetite for "Star Wars" satires had been completely exhausted.

Brooks 's first features, "The Producers" (1968) and "The Twelve Chairs," told original stories. Since then, he has specialized in movie satires; his targets include Frankenstein, Hitchcock, Westerns, silent movies and historical epics. I usually find a few very big laughs and a lot of smaller ones in his movies, but the earlier ones are stronger than the more recent films, and I keep wishing Brooks would satirize something

After a fabulous and increasingly funny opening shot of one of those massive George Lucas space cruisers, he launches into a cheerfully silly story about the planet Spaceball and its attempt to steal the atmosphere of its peaceful neighbor, Druidia.

The heroes and villains are all clones of "Star Wars" regulars. Bill Pullman is Lone Starr, free-lance space jockey. John Candy is Barf, a "mog" (half man, half dog). Rick Moranis is Dark Helmet, always complaining about something. Daphne Zuniga plays Princes Vespa, and so on. Brooks himself gives two of the movie 's best performances: as Skroob, the president of Spaceball, and as Yogurt, the wise old man who keeps saying "May the Schwartz be with you" as if he 's sure it will eventually get a laugh.

The movie 's dialogue is constructed out of funny names, puns and old jokes. Sometimes it 's painfully juvenile. But there are some great visual gags in the movie, and the best is Pizza the Hutt, a creature who roars and cajoles while cheese melts off its forehead and big hunks of pepperoni slide down