Family Guy Takes Another Shot at Lucas and Star Wars with New DVD

Not too long ago Seth MacFarlane and the rest of the "Family Guy" crew did a parody of the first "Star Wars" movie (if you don't count the prequels, and who does?). It was called "Blue Harvest" and it has since become a "Family Guy" classic. It managed to honor and respect the movie while, at the same time, making fun of it brutally and brilliantly.

The movie was such a success that it was only a matter of time before the crew returned to make fun of "Empire Strikes Back." That movie has now come to pass with the release of the DVD "Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side."

All of the same characters are here. The same people behind "Blue Harvest" are behind the voices, and a few new characters from the show turn up. For example, the guy who was Chris Griffin's boss at the convenience store turns up at Yoda, for some reason. Since they made Cleveland, the only African-American character on the show, R2D2, they have to turn to the only other ethnic character to play Lando. So, Mort, the Jewish pharmacy owner, turns up with his trademark buck teeth and dark skin and curly dark hair.

If you have watched Empire, you know the story. However, the Family Guy crew is back to make fun of the strange things that happen in that movie, but may have escaped your notice. For example, have you ever wondered why on the ice planet, Hoth, they have electrical wires bolted into walls made of ice? Isn't that just a little bit hazardous? You probably never even noticed it before, but here it is in "Something, Something..."

The jokes, when they hit their mark, will make you laugh out loud, just like in the first one. The problem this time around, though, is that too many of the jokes seem to miss just right or left of center. Far too many jokes make you chuckle or, even, just break out in a smile. The first one had enough hardcore, laugh-out-loud jokes that when it was edited and pared down for television, it was still funny. I have a hard time believing that when this happens to "Something, something..." it will be as funny without the swearing.

It is well known that when the first parody was done, George Lucas gave it his endorsement. He found it funny. Well, anyone could and should find that one funny. This is why the crew can use the Star Wars music and reproduce scenes from the movie almost exactly. However, this time around, the people making the parody seem to treasure and love the original so much that they don't really know when to take shots. There are far too many scenes of the huge star destroyers and space fighters floating through space as if the creators are so amazed that they recreated such amazing scenes to close to the original. There is a sense of people standing back and admiring their work. That is annoying in baseball, when a slugger pauses at home to admire his home run sail over the fence, and it slows the movie down here.

In the end, however, the Family Guy movies and parodies are still much better than most of the other movies and parodies out there. They are certainly better than those dreadful movies like "Epic Movie" and their ilk. You do have to sort of love the thing you are parodying in order to do it well. Making a joke just for the sake of it, and not putting it into the proper context within the parody, is a bad joke that just makes you groan. When the jokes hit home here, they still manage to accomplish that feat and make you laugh.

The problem is, the laughs are much further apart this time around. This time around there are a few too many fart jokes or resorting to curse words for a laugh. There seems to me that there is still more within Empire that can be made fun of, if you get past the fact it still stands as probably the best in the entire series.

The DVD comes with a table reading of the third parody, already underway. So, the crew will be back, to make fun of Ewoks and other things from "Jedi." I am just hoping that this time they stop admiring their technical skills, take off the gloves, and really sock it to Lucas and the whole Star Wars mythos. It's prime for parody guys, don't be afraid to keep punching away at it.