Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story

Well it has arrived, the second instalment in the Family Guy Star Wars project. Now that I have finally seen it after months of anticiaption I have to say it was good, but it was definitely not what Empire was to New Hope. First and foremost, this second installment was not going to be a surprise like the first one was. Something 3X Darkside was based on the exact same map as Blue Harvest Macfarlane and company stuck true to the origional film using their infamous humor and pop culture references. I will say there were some moments that caused me to laugh a lot so that was a plus. Another plus was the new characters introduced to play the rolls of the new Star Wars characters...yes even Meg makes her triumphant return. Still, there are some flaws here. I think that this new installment could have been a little different. An example would be how Peter tells the story, it didnt have to be another blackout. Also, the end of the episode ends up in another battle between Chris and Peter about Robot Chicken which makes no sense what so ever because Seth MacFarlane has plenty of Roles on Robot Chicken so Ihave no idea why he takes shots at it. Most importantly as a Family Guy fan I am not a fan of the fact that Stewie is an ambiguously gay character. If you want to use that comedy in the show its one thing, but dont bring that persona to Darth Vader. This is a movie that is suppose to be dark and it is really hard to lighten up a chapter such as this. Though all in all I think it was a well done piece of work and I am looking forward to Family Guy: We Have A Bad Feeling About This, I sure hope that thre will be a total of six episode, because I think they will rip Episode 1 to know end which will be pee in your pants hillarious!

This is perhaps my happiest, self-indulgent, guilty pleasure. I named my cat, Stewie. If you get as much out of this show as I have, whatever your circumstance is, I empathize with you. Of all the animated shows, this one stands out if only for the live orchestra; the animation is only good enough for the writer to scrape by. That might be to protect the health of the viewer when the story stretches credulity. The characters and setting of this show remind me somehow of, Golden Girls, and I mean that in the kindest sense; the voice-talent is the best, and they had terrific writing. How can you animate an ad-lib? I still get excited when I come across an episode I hadnt already seen.

As someone posted here, this set contains 28 episodes (entire first and second season by air dates) and the unaired episode When You Wish Upon a Weinstein (which wouldve been part of the 2nd season by production number). Despite no pages having this information yet, if you check the front cover you can clearly see it states Seasons 1 & 2. These are the seasons according to air dates. Eight episodes total will have commentaries, and word has it there are other features. These features dont count towards the running time of the set. All in all an excellent series. Family Guy packed as much humor as it could in every episode without ever overdoing it. Its comedic style is very different from the Simpsons and South Park (more pop-culture oriented), but i personally find it superior and more clever. The production quality is excellent and constant from the very first season (unlike the Simpsons). Probably best of all is Seth Macfarlanes outstanding job giving the voices of Peter, Brian and Stewie. Excellent story lines with a remarkable and memorable cast of characters. Definitely my favorite animated TV show of all time. This set is the first part of a two volume collection. Unfortunately Family Guy was only three seasons long when it got canned by Fox.

I had already owned the first two movies on DVD. But when i saw this set for only 22.99 here on Amazon on Blu Ray, I thought that the deal was too good too pass up. Based on the Amazon description, I wasnt expecting much. Just the BDs and the Bonus features listed which were for the new film. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised when i got this today! Every film includes a digital copy, something not listed by Amazon in the description. In addition, it looks like all the bonus features from the past releases are still there, something that was also not listed by Amazon when I purchased. All this, 3 great BD titles plus digital copies plus tons of bonus stuff..... all for under 8 dollars per title. Cant beat that. Here is a full rundown of the bonus features listed for each title: Blue Harvest: *Audio Commentary from Seth Macfarlane and director, producers, writers, and editors *A Conversation with George Lucas *The Making Of Blue Harvest *Animatic Version of Blue Harvest *Family Guy Star Wars Clip Show( my favorite bonus feature from the past releases) *Uncensored audio track Something Something Something Darkside: *Audio Commentary *Fact Up Version of the feature( kinda like those old VH1 pop-up videos, with fun facts popping up throughout the movie) *Poster Art Featurette *Sneak Peak at the next feature with Table read Its a Trap! *Audio Commentary *A very Special message from Dart Stewie *Star Wars Trivial Pursuit: The ultimate Challenge *Drawing with Peter Shin *Sock Puppet Outtakes *Animatic *Making The Scene featurette That oughta keep you busy for a while, eh? And then there is the feature itself. Well, Im not gonna review that in depth, simply because I think since this hasnt been broadcast yet, many people who buy this will be seeing it for the first time and I dont want to give anything away. But I will say I thought it was just as good as the first two. Really enjoyable. Family Guy fans will not be disappointed with this set. It is a little sad to see it end, since from what i understand there are no plans for making Episode I, II, and III parodies. Hopefully they do something similar, maybe with Back to the Future or Indian Jones, two franchises they are constantly referencing. Cant you just picture Peter and Francis tied up to the chair in The Last Crusade! EDIT: The Its A Trap Digital Copy Disc also features a DVD of the movie. I did not notice it at first.

Mindless silliness that has no redeeming value but being mindless, silly, entertainment. No wait, one would have to have a mind, and the knowledge and/or the experience of pop culture, and pop world history to get most of the jokes in the show. The title alludes that it is a show for the family but it is certainly not. And guys, your chick, your wife or any female around when you turn this thing on will not like it. They will find something better to do while you watch it alone or with your guy friends. Now is that what you want? Oh. You say youre a collector and know the value of such things in the future market? Perhaps Fox saw the writing on the wall when the Family Guy writers took the path they took. Its Peter, Peter, Peter. The Simpsons is a slightly better show because it sometimes has stories focused on Marge, Lisa, Maggie and not only Homer or Bart. Maybe the Family Guy guys should consider writing more for Meg and Lois--the poor things always lose. (I dont think The Simpsons draw a big female audience either--gals dont care for animated shows as much as guys do.) The rolling commentary given by whoever worked on the show was disappointing because they go silent when some of the shows grossly odd scenes show up, begging to be explained. It made me cry What were they thinking of here? A final thing: weve all gotten used to the way this show puts its humor across: the out of control cut-to vignette that has nothing to do with the main story line and usually summoned when one of the characters says just like the time when Peter, celebritys name, historical figure, or pop culture name did something. Youd think it would get tired after the run of this show but weve have gotten used to it to our detriment. On a recent viewing of the current broadcast run Stewie summons up a vignette and pauses. After a good 10 seconds he looks up at the ceiling, rolls his eyes and says, Oh, I thought we had something to come in here. Tag this DVD a guilty pleasure that you can watch now on reruns in major markets instead of purchasing.

I liked the first Star Wars movie the best. The originality of the film made it my favorite. I liked subsequent episodes too, but they lacked the originality of the first. I tend to feel that way about most sequels. The same goes for the Family Guy Star Wars series. I liked the first episode the best. The other two seemed somewhat repetitive.

The episode starts with - you guessed it - another power outage. Peter and the rest of the Griffins are once again left sitting in their living room, with nothing to do. Chris then suggests the retelling of another Star Wars story; and thus the 2nd spoof begins. I felt the writers could have mixed things up this time around. Did the exact same series of events have to lead to the story being retold? It just seemed lazy not to change things, even a little here. We see a similar occurance at the very end of the episode, when Peter once again insults Robot Chicken. However, on the upside, this time he takes a dig at Seth Greens Without a Paddle too. The story essentially picks up where the first one left off; the death star has been destroyed; Darth Vader (Stewie) chases Luke Skywalker (Chris) on the planet Hoth; Luke has a vision of his dead mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert), who tells him to go to the planet Dagobah and learn the ways of the Force from Jedi Master Yoda (Carl). Luke then has a vision of the Empire capturing his friends. Believing this to be true, Luke forgoes his Jedi training in order to save his friends and confront Vader. Meanwhile, Princess Leia (Lois) somehow manages to fall for Falcon pilot Han Solo (Peter). Basically, the galaxy is at war and were along for the ride. The writers seem to utilise the Family Guy characters extremely well in these specials, and here is no different. The casting of Mort Goldman in the role of Lando was inspired; he adds something special to the character, and Im not just talking about the fact that here, hes a black jew. What youll actually notice is that this time around, the writers have been forced to re-cast some characters into different roles; in the opening scenes, Joe is seen as one of Darth Vaders probe droids, while further into the episode, Meg plays the role of a space-slug, which is perhaps even uglier a creature than what we saw her play in Blue Harvest. She does however get to speak this time around, which is an improvement of sorts. Still, I cant complain about these changes, as they certainly do work. Consuelas scenes in the episode will remind viewers of her recent appearance in the season 8 episode Dog Gone; she is just as stubborn and ignorant as ever, and not even Darth Vadar can get her to do what he wants. My only gripe I have with her however is that her scenes would have felt far fresher if we hadnt seen it all already so recently. As for actual guest star appearances, we also see the first appearance of James Woods since Back to the Woods in season 6; but those looking forward to his cameo may be disappointed to learn that he features in just a single blink-and-youll-miss-it scene. While James Woods is the only visible guest star to appear, we do see Ryan Seacrest (albeit with a different voice-artist) during a short American Idol gag involving Darth Vader cutting him to pieces, among others. While all of this is going on, Peter also puts his own unique spin on Han Solos relationship with Princess Leia. His constant attempts at winning her over are presented in true Family Guy fashion, but while some of the jokes surrounding this work, others simply fall flat on the ground. These scenes are probably some of the episodes weakest. Like Blue Harvest, this episode is packed to the brim with Star Wars references, which fans are sure to love. For me, these gags always seem to work. However, probably out-weighing these are references to gags from previously aired episodes of the show. All of these call-backs to old episodes, while they do utilise the Star Wars universe well (Peters injured knee scene is redone using an AT-AT, for example), make the episode seem less fresh; perhaps the inclusion of more original jokes would have made more sense. Fans will either be intrigued or irritated to discover that Stewies homosexuality is in full reincarnation in this episode; Darth shows questionable interest in a revealingly-dressed Storm Trooper; even (and quite disturbingly) showing interest in being more than friends with Luke Skywalker, his son. I personally loved these scenes. While Stewies sexual confusions are a common annoyance for many, many fans, here, were given the best of both worlds. In this episode, old Stewie and new Stewie co-exist perfectly. The evil Stewie from earlier seasons of the show is reformed under the guise of Darth Vader, while the sexually confused Stewie that is the Stewie of today is still fully represented underneath. The epic closing battle between Luke and Darth is handled brilliantly, especially Lukes line I would give my right hand for this day to just end. The episode closes with a Back to the Future reference, which, if Im honest, feels quite unnecessary, and out of place. All in all, this episode achieves what it sets out to do - parody a Star Wars movie, and poke fun at it at every possible opportunity in the process. While a lot of the non-Star Wars related gags are recycled from previous episodes, the episode will once again please most avid Star Wars fans; the fact that it manages to stick to the original movies plot so well means that even non-fans of the original movie series shouldnt become too lost along the way. Still, as aforementioned, the gags make this episode seem less fresh than Blue Harvest did, and with that, of lower quality. While the novelty has definitely worn off, the episode is still entertaining, and the vast majority will be pleased with this adaptation of a classic science fiction movie. Review originally posted on Family Guy fan site Freakin Sweet News [...]

Ill preface this by saying Im NOT a fan of the Family Guy; by which I mean Ive never seen the show, not that I have anything against the show. Just never got around to getting into it, yknow? I am, however, a lifelong, diehard (insert more hyperbole here) fan of Star Wars. Im hoping that anyone whos a fan of both has already purchased this or has seen it, so this review is geared sort of toward my fellow noobs to Family Guy. So, for 20-something bucks, this seemed like a good buy. Some cheap entertainment on Blu-Ray, no less! Well, the picture quality, as many others have said, was not something that justifies a blu-ray treatment. I mean, were not talking Pixar here, guys. Its a cartoon. I got the regular DVD of Archer and it was frankly kinda gorgeous. I was more impressed by the quality of the Archer DVD than I was by the Family Guy Blu-Ray. As far as the box sets treatment of Star Wars, I honestly cant remember a Star Wars scene that was left out of this! It literally tells the whole story of the original Star Wars trilogy in like an hour and a half. With lots of parody, of course. A lot of it is funny. A couple parts made me LOL Out Loud (tip of the hat to Monk... miss ya, man). But a few of the jokes were taken too far (by that, I mean they went on too long). Im told this is kind of common with Family Guy, and maybe its Seth MacFarlanes sense of humor, but some of the jokes went on WAY too long. Like the Obi-Wan character singing the majority of Ive Had the Time of my Life with dancing stormtroopers in the background (gobbling up precious minutes). Without wanting to get into spoilers, there are a few other gags that just drag on and on. If youre a fan of this, then youve got it made. I just found it irksome. One of them was actually really funny, but my smile fell after the gag passed the 45 second mark, or what seemed like it. All in all, though, I WAS entertained by this. The opening crawls were hilarious. I may have peed a little. There is strong language, but my 7 year old (DONT JUDGE ME!! IVE NEVER SEEN THE FAMILY GUY!) barely noticed and enjoyed watching the shows (though I feel so dirty). Thankfully the sexual innuendoes flew RIGHT over her head. But there are those, too. So thats something. :) I also think I would have gotten MORE out of this set if I had any familiarity with the Family Guy characters. Never having seen the show, and seeing as how the Star Wars characters are portrayed by these characters, I think I missed a very important (and presumed) aspect that may have really entertained or charmed someone else. Im emotionally and socially hobbled by my lack of Family Guy familiarity. So theres the disclaimer in long form. :) Bottom line is, hey, its like 20 bucks. If youre a Star Wars fan, itll be very nostalgic and probably asks some of the questions youve been asking for 30 years. Often I said to myself Yeah.. why IS that?? when a character pointed out a glaring inconsistency or error in George Lucas writing/science/sense of reality. It was fun. And it was 20 bucksish. Do consider the DVD version, though. I dont know the price difference, but if its significant, know that the quality difference is not. May the Schwartz be with you all. And no, the Schwartz is not involved in the plot of this film.

This is my second copy of Vol. 1. The box was slightly damaged on the first copy and it bothered me so much I had to get a new one. I remember when Family Guy first debuted on TV thinking that the idea of a talking baby was ridiculous so I never bothered to watch the program. Then one day I was on YouTube looking at videos and saw a hilarious clip of Family Guy featuring Stewie. I started watching the program after that and was completely hooked after a couple of episodes. I own all the volumes of this show and look at them often laughing hysterically. I would love to choose my favorite characters but that would be impossible since they are all so funny. If you havent watched this program, you are cheating yourself out of an extremely funny and witty show.

Theres nothing really you can say except these are funny AF!