DVD Reviews

Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Dark Side – DVD Review

By June L. Dec 29, 2009, 12:41 GMT

If you are old enough to remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back in a theater during its first release, you will be at the very best age to really enjoy Family Guy’s take on the movie.  That is not to say that older and younger audiences won’t enjoy it, but those who made the original Star Wars trilogy a hit are likely to be the biggest fans of Something, Something, Something Dark Side.

As the episode opens, the Griffin family is watching Aaron Sorkin’s latest television show “The Kitchen” when the power goes off.  They talk about what to do, and then reminisce with great fondness Peter’s telling of Star Wars (as “Blue Harvest.”) The question is asked if Peter knows a story equal to Star Wars. 

Peter makes a false start with the story of movie Black Snake Moan, but is soon back on track with Empire Strikes Back starring all the Family Guy show characters.  Sometimes goofy, sometimes crude, the story does stick to the familiar plot lines of Empire.  The story is embellished for modern audiences with timely cultural references and punched up with wickedly funny moments in both action and dialog. 

Overall it is the type of episode that Family Guy fans will want to view repeatedly, and will most likely be taken up by Empire fans as well.

Of course a big part of the entertainment is to see who is playing which character.  Peter is Han Solo, Chris is Luke Skywalker, Lois is Princess Leia, and poor Meg only is seen as the gigantic space slug.  She is disappointed that she never gets any lines in the parodies.  Mort is Lando Calrissian, and you just have to see it to believe the actor chosen to play Boba Fett. 

Viewers will find much humor in the production, alternately laughing and groaning at sight gags and speeches.  The look of the animation is amazing.  The background has an absolute appearance of Empire’s locations…the Millennium Falcon is so detailed it almost looks 3 dimensional on the screen.  The cloud city scenes are incredible in both color and textures, again creating a sense of reality rather than drawn scenery. 

Something, Something, Something Dark Side is presented on single disc with a running time of 54 minutes.  It is available in English audio, and has subtitles in Spanish and French.  There are some very interesting special features on the disc to add to the viewer’s enjoyment. 

First of all is an audio commentary by Executive Producers Seth MacFarlane, Mark Hentemann and David A. Goodman, Writer Kirker Butler, Director Dominic Polcina and Actor Seth Green.  There is a selection of Family Guy Fact-Ups that have facts popping up throughout the episode, such as naming every character voiced by Seth MacFarlane, or science facts such as the majority of asteroids in our solar system appear between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. 

The Dark Side of Poster Art Featurette takes a look at the creative force behind the feature poster.  There is a read through filmed for acts 1 and 2, and a sneak peek at the read through for the production’s sequel.