This week at the wonderful Garden Theatre in Winter Garden, there will be a screening of Mel Brooks 1987 Space movie spoof Spaceballs. While it's not my favorite of Brooks' movies (that would most definitely be Young Frankenstein, which I would call a comedy masterpiece), Spaceballs is a lot of fun, and worth a watch. It's also worth talking about in this week's Movie Trivia Tuesday.
- President Skroob's name is an anagram of Mel Brooks, who plays him.
- John Candy ad-libbed the line, "Oh, that's gonna leave a mark," after standing up without undoing his seat belt.
- Dark Helmet's voice changing whenever his face was covered was Rick Moranis's idea.
- One of a handful of movies (Caddyshack II, Big, and Beetlejuice) to contain the F-word and still get a PG rating in the PG-13 era.
- It took Mel Brooks six months to write the script.
- The license plate on Princess Vespa's Mercedes reads, "Spoil'd Rott'n I."
- Mel Brooks sent the script to George Lucas and was concerned that he would be offended, but Lucas called Brooks and gave him his trust after seeing Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
- According to Mel Brooks, this is one of the most expensive movies he has ever made: $25 million, with Dracula: Dead and Loving It a close second at $22 million. By contrast,The Producers cost less than $1 million to produce.
A full face mask resembling a wrinkled bulldog was originally constructed for the character of Barf, but Mel Brooks quipped that 'if they were going to hide John Candy behind a mask, he might as well hire someone else for half the price'. A nose and upper lip piece was tried next, which Candy approved but again Brooks did not. They finally settled on animatronic ears connected to a hairpiece, a small nose application and a patch over one eye just like the dog from the 'Our Gang' shorts.
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