10 Fun Facts about SPACEBALLS
All the hype about Star Wars: The Force Awakens inspired to rewatch Spaceballs. More specifically, I was inspired by a great mashup trailer that we posted about a month ago. It had been a few years since I last saw the movie, but it was just as hilarious as I remembered. There are so many great things in that movie that I had completely forgotten about. I’m glad that I watched it again. If you haven’t seen it in awhile yourself, I suggest you throw it on for some good laughs. I thought this would be just as good a time as any to do a fun facts list for the movie, and below you’ll find ten interesting things that you may or may not already know about it. One thing is for sure, I seriously miss seeing Rick Moranis in movies. That guy was hilarious. I wish he was still acting.
- The scene where Dark Helmet, played by Moranis, is playing with his dolls was not in the script. Director Mel Brooks came up with the idea on the set, and Moranis ended up improvising the entire scene.
- The Millennium Falcon from Star Wars: A New Hope appears in the film during a shot of the Space Diner. It’s parked with several other space vehicles.
- Brooks said that Moranis had the idea of Dark Helmet's voice changing whenever his face was covered.
- According to Brooks, Michael Winslow saved the production $1000 by doing all the sound effects that he made during his extremely funny scene in the film.
- Brooks personally obtained George Lucas' full permission to make the parody with any and all things Star Wars related. It came with one condition, though: “That absolutely no merchandise of any kind be produced from the film. This is the reason why all Yogurt and the dinks do is merchandising (it's also why none of the merchandise seen is the film was ever mass produced or publicly sold in any way).”
- A full bulldog facemask was originally made for the character of Barf, who was played by John Candy. Brooks didn’t like it and quipped that “if they were going to hide John Candy behind a mask, he might as well hire someone else for half the price.” The next thing they tried was a nose and upper lip piece, which Candy approved of, but again, Brooks didn’t. They finally settled on the look that we saw in the film, which made so much more sense than a full mask. It included animatronic ears that were connected to a hairpiece, a small nose application, and a patch over one eye just like the dog from the 'Our Gang' shorts. It was controlled by three people. Candy worked the tail and two assistants controlled the ears.
- The original title for the film was Planet Moon. The replaced it with Spaceballs when they heard about a British science fiction spoof called Morons from Outer Space. They wanted “Space” in the title and while they were trying to figure out a word to go with “Space” Brooks spilled a drink and shouted "Balls!" Thus Spaceballs was born. After they had the title down, they came up with the idea that the Spaceballs villains would wear ball shaped helmets.
- The novelization of Spaceballs was written by Goosebumps author R.L. Stine.
- Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks were also considered for the role of Captain Lone Starr.
- John Hurt parodies his own role in the 1979 classic sci-fi horror film Alien in the space diner scene. The alien that pops out of his chest and starts dancing and singing “Hello, My Baby” with the hat and cane is a parody of the animated Michigan J, Frog Looney Tunes skit. Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic constructed the alien puppet.
Info found on IMDB