Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Darkside DVD: Review By slysnide

Series creator Seth McFarlane, Director Dominic Polcino, and Writer Kirker Butler bring "Family Guy" across the stars into the realm of Empire, and just in time for the Global 30th Anniversary Celebration.

When power once again goes out at the Griffin household, Meg inquires as to whether or not there's another 'Star Wars' tale to tell, and well, "There just might be Meg, there just might be."

The adventure continues when the agitated Han (Peter/McFarlane) & the annoying Leia (Lois/Alex Borstein) fall in love while evading gayer Darth Vader (Stewie/McFarlane) through an asteroid field. Across the stars, the one oblivious to his situation whom we'll call Luke (Chris/Seth Green) learns the ways of the force from exiled and dazed Jedi Master Yoda (Carl/H. Jon Benjamin) who can't tell the difference between intelligence & potential on the swamp planet of Dagobah. Meanwhile, Black & Jewish Lando Calrissian (Mort/John G. Brennan) awaits his friends in his sleazily acquired mining colony on Bespin where he finds more courage than usual, while Stewie tortures prisoners with "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" before making popsicles in the carbonite chamber. "Lando! Lando! Lando! Be careful with the toothpicks."

There were numerous times that they could've taken advantage of the fact that Mort is Jewish, and sells out to the Nazi stormtroopers in Cloud City, for they usually pull this kind of humor all the time on the show, but they opted to stay the course. "Nice work fellas, and you sold the most subscriptions, so you get to invite four friends over for a pizza party." Another reason for opting out at taking quick shots could be because they expressed in the commentary that all the sequels/prequels got worse and worse, hence they could purposely have not tried to write as many jokes, for as good as this spoof was, the first was better.

New characters include Carter Pewtershmidt as Emperor Palpatine, and rather than having turning Luke to the dark side as his primary concern, he's more interested in seeing whether or not Vader wants his CDs. "Richard Mark's: Hold On To The Night?" Originally Death was slated to play the role, but apparently the script for the final outing was tailored for Pewterschmidt.

Cameos include Cookie Monster as the Wampa. "COOKIE!!!" Meg as another creature, Bruce the performance artist as an admiral, James Woods and an Admiral, and elderly deceased comic legends Don Knotts & Rodney Dangerfield. If only if only. "Huh? Last time I was in a Dago-Bar, I was drinking beers in Little Italy."

Unlike the predecessor, they don't make great jokes out of the intelligence of the numerous admirals that Vader kills like they did with the blatant stupidity of the stormtroopers in the prequel. So that was unfortunate. But Ernie the Giant Chicken as Boba Fett is cool enough for us to forget it, as is the quick cameo of a particular bounty hunter you're all sure to recognize. But keep watch, for there's literally no mention of him by any of the characters, and he only appears in two quick shots.

A "Back To The Future" reference pitched in the "Blue Harvest" commentary was axed in this version with no explanation. "YOU can't use that word! Only WE can use that word!" Numerous other jokes that anyone would expect to have seen were axed as well, such as a Giant Chicken fight, dialogue by Boba Fett, and humor by the sparring of 3PO & R2. For while they're separated for much of the spoof, for the time they spend together, they don't get as good of jokes as in the predecessor.

On a better note, it's less noticeable that specific scenes were cut, seeing as only things like Chewie's (Brian/McFarlane) fight with the Ugnaughts were cut. IE: Things that can be easily overlooked. But being 54 minutes long, it managed to squeeze in a fast tracked version of every scene. So it's better that no iconic things were cut, but this was still a little under the bar from the last one. "No Luke, I am--Oh. Hang on. SPOILER ALERT! I am your father."

All of this is packed on one disc, which is preferred, and the blu-ray managed to only squeeze the unwanted Digital Copy out of us. There's a featurette on the Family Guy-ized original poster for Episode V with the actual artist interviewed, a series of pop up trivia throughout the show, some animatics, and a commentary by producers McFarlane & Goodman, the writer Kirker Butler, the director Dominic Polcino, and voice actor Seth Green. There are also animated menus, a table read through the first two acts of the show where many jokes were written, (some better) but unused for runtime issues. And lastly, a sneak peak at the table read of Episode VI at the moment when Han is released from the carbonite.

Quality is great and doesn't call for a big/flat/plasma screen TV. They did such a good job at recreating the Milenium Falcon space flight sequences that it in some cases looks exactly like the film. And no rotoscoping!

Quality is just as good with bits of original music, with additional transitional bits by Walter Murphy, whom also scored the predecessor and TV Series. John Williams' music being permitted to be used is also a gracious treat.

A slipcase featuring the "Family Guy" version of the original poster with Vader's helmet, and the title protruding from the slipcase. The plastic case is the same. The poster by the way is awesome.

Overall, if you're a "Family Guy" & "Star Wars" nut, then you'll love this either way. But it was too evident that there were too many missed chances here. And so I won't spoil the best one liner for you, so here's another until next time: "I got another one. It's called 'Without A Paddle.'" "F&%K you Dad!!!"