Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Blu-ray Review: Family Guy: Something Something Something Dark SIde.

A long time ago, when the gays weren’t all in your face about it….
Something Something Something Dark Side is Family Guy’s The Empire Strikes Back follow up to their Blue Harvest parody of Star Wars, Episode IV- A New Hope .  Did that sentence make any sense?  Well, continuing on right now.  For whatever reason Fox chose to make this direct to video rather than air it first as they did with Blue Harvest.
This is Family Guy at it’s best.  Since they have a defined plot (it is a parody of a well known movie, after all) to follow there are very few of their signature (some say crutch) cutaway jokes.  The funny is mostly kept to the plot.  But if you’re not a fan of the Star Wars movies, much of the jokes may go over your head.
I won’t give too much away, but some of the better moments were:
  • Pointing out that that an officer in the underground Hoth bunker had a Purina logo on his uniform.  From the first time I saw Empire I was distracted by that logo.
  • The sore leg gag done by an AT-AT.
  • Meg’s Appearance
  • Racialist Brian
  • Han’s pose frozen in carbonite.
  • Stormtroopers lamenting that they never seem to hit anything.
These Family Guy Star Wars parodies have done a masterful job of matching their characters to the Star Wars universe – Stewie as Darth Vader is brilliant.  But they dipped deep into the Family Guy dramatis personae to find their Yoda.  Who they came up with, Carl the Video Store Manager, barely made sense.
Other than that, this is a very nice Star Wars parody that, despite being in the Fox family, bares no punches at either Fox or Star Wars finest episode.
I do have to ask, why was this on Blu-ray?  It may have been marginally in HD but it was in standard 4:3 format.  However, as is mentioned in the commentary, many of the exquisitely re-enacted scenes are better rendered than the original 1980 versions.
And if you’re wonder where the name came from: (sorry Facebookers)


  • 0 breasts
  • Many beasts
  • Yoda-fu
  • Snowmonster-fu
  • Meg-fu
  • Academy Award Nomination for Seth McFarlane for officially being the most prolific TV animator since Hanna Barbera.  And their legacy is tarnished with the dreadful Magilla Gorilla and Grape Ape.

A  If you’re both a Family Guy and Star Wars fan
B If you’re either a Family Guy or Star wars fan
D If you’ve never seen either.

King Wally says check it out.

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