Spaceballs: The DVD
Spaceballs was released on DVD on April 25, 2000. The DVD contains both a wide screen and pan and scan version of the film. There is a movie long audio commentary by Mel Brooks. In addition, the DVD has a behind the scenes featurette which runs about 9 minutes and an animated Spaceball-themed menu.
Menus
The DVD has a menu theme based upon a Mr. DVD.
The DVD menu process begins with us focusing on the Mr. DVD screen with the Spaceball theme playing in the background. The Spaceballs logo comes toward the screen before crashing into it and cracking the glass. There are all sorts of little funny saying and labels on the buttons and lights. A nice hidden feature, when the cow or the spaceman float by the crosshairs.....hit play and warp into ludicrous speed.
This is the main menu screen. It is divided up into Play, Special Features, Movie Selections and Languages.
The special features page includes among other things Spaceballs: The Drapes. But it also links to Mel Brooks' Audio Commentary the Behind the scenes featurette and the theatrical trailer. The featurette is short but very cool since I've never seen any behind the scene footage. It includes interviews with all the actors except Moranis and a lot of Mel promoting the movie and himself. It runs about 9 minutes. The theatrical trailer looks very dated but it is entertaining. The audio commentary as many internet DVD review sites have said is somewhat rambling. He does skip off in random directions frequently but I really like a lot of his movies so I still found him pretty interesting.
Liner Notes
The liner notes had some cool production info. Such as Mel's allergic reactions to his gold make-up, his dog Pongo, and a freak heat wave in Yuma when they were filming the desert scenes.
MGM has split Spaceballs into 32 chapters. I'll post the actual chapter screen when I get the chance but here is the back cover of the liner notes.
The chapters are as follows:
1. Logo/Main Title
2. Over His Helmet
3. Runaway Bride
4. Pizza wants Dough
5. Presidential Headache
6. Family of Expletives
7. Making a Deal
8. Jammed
9. Getting Princess Vespa
10. Ludicrous Speed
11. Sandy Stop
12. The Bare Necessities
13. Instant Replay
14. Living without Love
15. L'il Red Desert Hoods
16. Keeper of the Schwartz
17. Combing the Desert
18. Schwartz Training
19. The Lure
20. Yogurt's Gift
21. Dolls, A Love Story
22. A Devious Plan
23. Trouble She's Seen
24. Mega Maid!
25. The Ear of The Storm
26. I'll Show you Mine
27. How Self-Destructive
28. Last Call for Pizza
29. 'He Had the Special'
30. 'A Certified Prince'
31. Stop the Wedding
32. End Credits
All in all I found the DVD top notch I was very pleased because the clarity is amazing. Much better than the video. I found the menus a nice touch although a little childish. But I would give the DVD 4.5 out of 5.
Here are some thumbnails of some scans of the DVD inserts. They are large jpg files...big enough to read the liner notes....enjoy
