Review - Family Guy: The Star Wars Trilogy (2007-2010)

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Back in the pre-Disney days of Lucasfilm, spoofs and parodies of Star Wars were far more plentiful, with many fans producing their own Star Wars parodies online and elsewhere. One of those fans was none other than Seth MacFarlane, whose creative team at Family Guy had been producing cutaway gags for the show that satirized Star Wars. However, after years of such cutaway gags, the creative team decided to do an entire trio of episodes of Family Guy that essentially re-created the plots of the original Star Wars trilogy. 

         Airing on television, as well as being released on both DVD and Blu-ray, the Family Guy trilogy went under the following three titles: Blue Harvest (which satirized A New Hope), Something, Something, Something Dark Side (which satirized The Empire Strikes Back), and It's a Trap! (which satirized Return of the Jedi). 

         What made this trilogy what it was is that the characters of Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show were filling in the roles of the Star Wars characters. For example, Peter Griffin is Han Solo, Chris Griffin is Luke Skywalker, Brian Griffin is Chewbacca, Lois Griffin is Princess Leia, Stewie Griffin is Darth Vader, Cleveland Brown is R2-D2, Glenn Quagmire is C-3PO, Carl is Yoda, Carter Pewterschmidt is both Uncle Owen and Emperor Palpatine, Mort Goldman is both a Jawa and Lando Calrissian, Ernie the Giant Chicken is Boba Fett, Joe Swanson is Biggs, the Probe Droid, and Jabba the Hutt, Meg Griffin is the Dianoga, the Exogorth, and the Sarlacc, Rush Limbaugh is the Rancor, Adam West is Grand Moff Tarkin, James Woods is General Viers, you get the idea. And, that's just from Family Guy, as Roger and Klaus from American Dad take on the roles of Moff Jerjerrod and Admiral Ackbar, while Rallo from The Cleveland Show takes on the role of Nien Nubb. 

        Of course, the trilogy is also filled with in-jokes and pop culture references. For instance, when Luke crashes in the swamp on Dagobah, Dennis Haysbert shows up essentially advertising Allstate Insurance, Han Solo does some skiing in a recreation of an old commercial for Juicy Fruit gum, Dog the Bounty Hunter and Raggedy Andy is among the gathering of bounty hunters, Elroy Jetson shows up among the multiple Imperial probe droids released in the Hoth system, and so on and so forth. Also, there are a few live-action clips from other titles that are used, such as when the Ivan Drago training sequence from Rocky IV is mixed in with Luke's training on Dagobah, or when the "Well? We're waiting!" clip from Caddyshack shows up in the Pit of Carkoon sequence. 

        And, one recurring gag with this trilogy is when they reference the fact that Robot Chicken, a show that Chris Griffin's voice actor Seth Green created, also had a series of Star Wars parodies, which themselves were compiled into a series of DVD releases called Robot Chicken: Star Wars. But, probably the funniest stuff is in the opening crawls. For instance, the opening crawl for Something, Something, Something Dark Side jokes about how 20th Century Fox let George Lucas keep the merchandise rights to Star Wars and a purple CGI elephant dances across the screen for no reason, but the crawl points out that it cost $58,000 to animate said elephant, and the It's a Trap! opening crawl references how Fox "made" the Family Guy team produce it, or else Seth MacFarlane couldn't go off and film his movie Ted. Whether that was true or just a joke isn't clear, but it's still funny to think about. 

       Overall, I definitely find the Family Guy "Star Wars" trilogy to be hilarious, and definitely worth the watch whether you're a fan of Star Wars, Family Guy, or both. I pretty much laughed my ass off when Peter as Han was frozen in carbonite while mooning, and lets out a long, massive fart when being released from the carbonite. What can I say? I enjoy the simple jokes. Definitely give these specials a chance. They can be found streaming with the rest of the Family Guy episodes, or you can collect the entire trilogy in a box set titled Laugh It Up, Fuzzball!: The Family Guy "Star Wars" Trilogy. 

       Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you in the next review: Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars.

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