Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side Blu-ray review

In 2007’s Blue Harvest, the Family Guy crew famously parodied Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, using their trademark cheeky and sometimes over the top humor. Now they’re back with Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side, which pokes fun at what many consider the Holy Grail of the Star Wars saga… The Empire Strikes Back.

The story begins with a parody of the Star Wars franchise opening crawl, finding Darth Vader (filled in by show-regular Stewie) hunting rebel Luke Skywalker (Chris Griffin) and his troops relentlessly across the galaxy. On the ice planet Hoth, Luke – after being dragged to Cookie Monster’s icy lair before hacking off the creature’s arm – has a vision of his late mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert), telling him to go to the Dagobah system to learn the ways of the Force under Jedi Master Yoda (Carl).

Young Skywalker is rescued by Han Solo (Peter Griffin), who’s riding on a Don-Don, an animal with Don Knott’s head, and they soon must fight against the Empire’s invading force of AT-ATs – or robot camels. Solo and Princess Leia (Lois) – who are beginning to like each other – along with Chewbacca (Brian the Dog), escape Hoth in The Millennium Falcon and hide out in an asteroid field, while Luke sets course for the Dagobah system to meet Yoda and embark on the training sequence from hell, as the rest of the crew reach Cloud City and Han’s old smuggling friend Lando Calrissian (Mort Goldman). Lando soon lands the group in the hands of the Empire, before Solo moons us while being frozen in a vat of carbonite, and Luke faces a micro-size Darth Vader.

If you’re a fan of Family Guy and a fan of Star Wars, then Something, Something, Something, Dark Side is not to be missed. If you’re unfamiliar with Seth MacFarlane’s brand of humor, this might not be the best introduction to the crazy world of the Griffin family. Diehards will certainly get excited by the show’s high definition home video debut: the animation looks crisp and clear, and John Williams’ Star Wars theme in stunning audio, makes this a worthy purchase.

Bonus Material

• The Audio Commentary features producers Seth MacFarlane, Mark Hentemann and David Goodman, director Dom Polcino, actor Seth Green, and writer Kirker Butler, who all go off on some hilarious tangents. This is definitely a commentary that adds to the humor solidly.
• The Darkside of Poster Art is a behind-the-scenes featurette that takes us through the creation of Something, Something, Something, Dark Side’s packaging art, which imitates Roger Kastel’s poster originally created for The Empire Strikes Back. The artist also discusses his work.
• An Animatic Commentary features director Dominic Polcino discussing how the pencil drawn cels for the production compare to the final color compositions.
• Pop-Up Video Fact-Ups offers actual Family Guy and Star Wars trivia, along with some added humor.
• There’s also a sneak peek at the final chapter of Family Guy’s Star Wars parody, titled Family Guy – We Have a Bad Feeling About This.
• The Blu-ray edition also includes a portable digital copy of the film from the iTunes Store.

The Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side Blu-ray is presented in full screen 4×3 aspect ratio featuring English 5.1 Dolby Surround, Line 21, English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, English, Spanish, and French stereo and subtitles.

Film

Extras