Following in the estimable tradition of his previous parodies, Mel Brooks' send-up of Star Wars resonates almost as deeply today as it did in 1987 upon its initial release, not the least of which because George Lucas continues to tinker with his own unironic space saga. Brooks, working with writers Thomas Meehan and Ronny Graham, assembles a surprisingly effective compendium of sight gags and in-jokes to properly lampoon '70s and '80s science fiction, and throws in much of his trademark Jewish humor as well for good measure.

The recently released collector's-edition DVD provides much more background information about the production than any Spaceballs fan could possibly ask for, including commentary tracks, featurettes, deleted scenes and even an exhibitor trailer introduced by Brooks himself ("Where's the balls?" he asks angrily when the word "SPACE" looms large on screen). All of the extras are interesting, but perhaps less necessary than, say, the bonus features on Blazing Saddles, which had more significant cultural and ethnic underpinnings than this literal flight of fancy. That said, however, Spaceballs: The Documentary provides an insightful look at the production of the film and recruits almost all of the film's major players (except for the late John Candy and the mysteriously absent Rick Moranis) to wax poetic about their experiences.

Spaceballs is a movie I loved as a kid, as much for its genuine SF elements as its efforts to make fun of its predecessors, and it holds up about two-thirds as well as I would have expected. This DVD adds a lot of extras that previous versions of the home video release didn't—including deleted scenes, gaffes and some interesting promotional materials—but unless you're a die-hard fan of the film, there's probably not much need to run out and replace your older copy. Nevertheless, I appreciated the attention to detail, including stealing the template for the Star Wars DVD menus.