FAMILY GUY: SOMETHING, SOMETHING, SOMETHING DARK SIDE - REVIEW


After the success of Blue Harvest, the Family Guy gang soon went to work on a second installment and the result was Something, Something, Something Dark Side, a spoof of the second Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back.

Once again, the power goes out and the Griffins are denied television so Peter (Seth MacFarlane) starts telling the story of Episode V, although he starts off describing the movie Black Snake Moan. Early jokes include Sesame Street's Cookie Monster as a wampa, an impromptu George Takei cameo, a tauntaun with the head of Don Knotts, a Rodney Dangerfield reference and a Juicy Fruit commercial in the middle of the action. The movie and TV references keep coming fast with everything from Iron Man to Flash Gordon, Back To The Future Part II and Rocky IV getting their dues. Expect cameo appearances by Tom Selleck, James Caan and James Woods.

Characters-wise, the main additions here are Yoda (voiced by Jon Benjamin) and Lando Calrissian (Mort, bizarrely) though having the giant chicken quietly portray Boba Fett, a genius move, is also significant. Stewie's Darth Vader gets a much bigger role this time and while the end lightsaber battle is obviously far sillier than in the original movie, it's still entertaining as well as humorous. Han getting frozen in carbonite isn't so much a dark, dramatic twist here as Peter is left stuck in a mooning position after telling Leia to f*** off. The episode ends with Peter and Chris amusingly having an argument about Robot Chicken.

Once again, Seth MacFarlane and his team knock it out of the park in terms of attention to detail and visuals: the animation in this special episode looks great throughout and you can tell a lot of work went into it. The jokes feel more even in this one as well and although not all of them hit the mark, they're more consistently funny than in Blue Harvest.

To be concluded!

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