DVD Reviews

Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Dark Side – Blu-ray Review

By Dana Rae Dec 28, 2009, 14:23 GMT

The second installment of the hilariously funny Family Guy/Star Wars parody earns its Blu-ray colors.

Ok, so if you are a Family Guy and Star Wars fan and were born somewhere between the years 1972 and 1977, this straight to DVD and Blu-ray release will make you spit your coffee or coke or whatever you are drinking out of your nose (hot coffee doesn’t feel so good, but I was watching it at 4:30 in the a.m. trying to wake up). Normal people will enjoy, too.

Keep up, there are multiple roles within roles here. The electricity goes out as happened in the first one (Blue Harvest), and Peter starts to tell the family The Empire Strikes Back, continuing the saga.

Seth MacFarlane does his split personality thing: he voices Peter Griffin, who plays Han, Stewie who plays a very short Vader, Brian who plays Chewbacca, and Quagmire who plays C-3PO. H. Jon Benjamin voices Carl as Yoda, Seth Green voices Chris Griffin as Luke Skywalker, John Brennan voices Mort as Lando, Mike Henry voices Cleveland as R2-D2 with a small afro a top his shiny blue and white doom, Danny Smith voices the Giant Chicken as Boba Fett the bounty hunter, and Alex Borstein voices Lois as Princess Leia.

Whew. Stewie as Vader is hilarity within itself as he deals with the Death Star cleaning lady (lots of windows on the Death Star to clean), has to kneel on the kneepad to the Emperor who is giving away all his CDs, and generally gives grief to all his storm troopers and Death Star employees (plenty of gay overtones here!) while chasing the Rebels.

We know the story, and Something follows the Empire script very closely but also allows plenty of room for the characters of Family Guy to shine through. One example I could give is the voices.

Of course Stewie speaks likes Stewie and not Darth (a little bit of Rex Harrison with a lot of Henry Higgins throw in), and R2-D2 gets to talk through the character of Cleveland not just with his usual squeaks and whistles, and glory to The Force, Chewbacca can talk! The family’s dog Brian fills the furry shoes of Han’s best and lovable space buddy.

Filled with great pop cultural comic moments of animation and some live footage (Tom Selleck relaxing in bed and Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV), Luke cuts Cookie Monster’s arm off and one of the camel stomping things wear pink crocs shoes, but we get what we really expect from Family Guy: the ‘I can’t believe they just said/did that!’ feeling.

Which is great for laughs and if you are offended, well, Family Guy has done its job once again. Nerf herder becomes the intergalactic ‘N’ word, and if you are easily affronted by off-color gay humor, don’t watch. The opening scrolling credits clue you in right away with an ‘in your face’ gay remark. Also, I think I counted the ‘F’ bombed dropped six times. 

But if you don’t watch, you are missing out. True comic genius here. Star Wars fans rejoice: even the musical score stays original.

Other generations that have come after might roll their eyes at the parody and not get the internal jokes of the 70s/80s era, but The Star War Generation wants more. Lois playing Leia in a metal bikini…yes, we are drooling for the next episode. The ending shamelessly plugs Seth Green’s Robot Chicken, but we like that, too.

And they tease us! The special features include a table reading of the third installment. We eagerly await what goodies both Seths have in store….
 
Plenty of special features to keep fans so happy, and there is the digital copy on disc 2 for portable media players. 

Highly recommended, never short on the laughs. Just a warning: don’t drink hot coffee while watching this. It tends to burn going up the nostrils. Still, I ended up with a warm, fuzzy feeling in my insides for having laughed so much. 5 stars for many minutes of pure, undiluted joy. 

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