 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Family Guy: Blue Harvest
- Review Date: May 31, 2009
- NR
- Genre: Comedy
- 2007
Common Sense Media says
Ribald but often hilarious satire of fantasy favorite.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this cartoon satire of a fantasy favorite has some very adult-oriented humor (tending to be much more verbal than visual), with references to lesbianism, pedophilia, and drug use. The spoof of an opening LucasFilm prologue includes a hearty recommendation of a lesser-known Angelina Jolie movie for its graphic sex content. A few borderline swear words are uttered. Violence, at about the level of that in the live-action Star Wars (except it's all-cartoon) includes spaceship and planet explosions, blaster-shootings, and a few light-saber decapitations. Newcomers to the Family Guy universe might not "get" a lot of insider references and characters.
What's the story?
FAMILY GUY: BLUE HARVEST is an episode of the nothing-off-limits Fox Network cartoon comedy Family Guy, and takes a full hour instead of the usual half-hour to retell the story of the 1977 blockbuster hit Star Wars movie. A sudden power outage ends a session of slack-jawed TV viewing in the household of rotund, loudmouthed Rhode Islander Peter Griffin, but the family guy rises to the occasion by telling his brood a tale of "fathers and sons" -- the storyline of the first Star Wars feature released. In this version the Griffins, their friends, neighbors, Adam West, and recurring gag characters from the cartoon take on the roles of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, and a disquietingly dirty-old-man-like Obi Wan-Kenobi.
Is it any good?
Fans (and even non-fans) may be a bit surprised by this extended Very-Special-Episode of the animated sitcom that sometimes seems so full of pop-culture references and mini-parodies that the plotlines barely hold together. One well expects that series creator Seth MacFarlane and the vocal cast have so much fun with the Force and deliver big laughs at light-speed; too bad they end the thing on a rather somewhat sour note, with young Chris Griffin/Luke Skywalker calling his storyteller father "a big jerk" and leaving (this is an inside-inside joke about Peter/Seth MacFarlane belittling a cable TV satire Robot Chicken, done by Chris' voiceover actor Seth Green).
That aside, what's unexpected are some sequences that don't have gags at all, but are just dead-on recreations of classic LucasFilm moments as the gag script follows the original storyline faithfully. Revelation: the Family Guy guys actually love and respect George Lucas' history-making debut of the Luke Skyalker saga, and this spoof is as much a tribute as it is puns and non-sequitur references to Sanford and Son and Deal or No Deal. Among the DVD extras is a sit-down dialogue between Seth MacFarlane and George Lucas, who says his staff got a kick out of Blue Harvest.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the humor on display here. Sometimes Family Guy exhibits a pretty mean spirit when it spoofs popular culture, but the tone here is generally affectionate, maybe even...respectful. Ask kids about satires like Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein or Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog; can you sense the gagster's genuine fondness for the original material? With a bit of a video search, you can put together a home mini-festival of Jedi parodies -- many created brilliantly outside the Hollywood system by low-budget amateurs, some of which gained the approval of George Lucas himself (Hardware Wars, TROOPS, George Lucas in Love, etc.)
- Show:
- All members
- Parents
- Teens & kids
AGE
tweens
more mild only 1 F bomb and some suggestive comments
and one reference of drug use. The robots R2D2 and C3P0 smoke what seems to be a bag of marijuana.
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AGE
Why make a gay movie?your show already sucks
CRAP
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AGE
Funny, but...
Very funny, but don't show it to the wrong kids.
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AGE
IFFY 15+
LANGUAGE: Frequent bad language, occasionally graphic ("F-ck you, you son of a b-tch!") ("Holy sh-t!")
SEX: Well, Herbert is a pedophile. His lightsaber represents his penis becoming "excited" at one point during the movie. And one Stormtrooper keeps talking about "boning" his girlfriend.
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AGE
A little bad for kids but good for teens and adoults
Love it a little bad language and other things but it's awesome!!!!!!!!!!
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AGE
Hilarious
This movie was really funny. I love family guy and this is probably the best special. I would rate it PG-13 for crude and sexual humor throughout, language and comic violence.
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AGE
IT'S NOT GAY!!! In fact they make fun of gays (also bad) but funny
I thought, since it spoofed, it would suck, but it was hilarious characters sometimes drink the language is occasionally graphic "F--k you, you son of a b---h" or "holy s--t" but VERY FRIG-IN FUNNY!!! But iffy for 13+ My Rating: PG-13 for some strong language
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Kid, 12 years old
January 22, 2010
AGE
good sad ...but i give it 12
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AGE
Better than the show.
My rating: PG-13 for suggestive innuendo throughout, frequent language, and for cartoon violence.
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AGE
hilarious, but not for kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The words "b--ch" (once preceded by "son of a"), "a-s", and "s--t" are tossed around comically, which sends a bad message, but some of the comedy comes from the bad language and euphemisms (i.e.: baby Stewie says something like, "I have one big problem, which is that I Sithed my pants"). In addition, there is one use of the word "f--k" ("f--k you, b--ch!"). There is a lot of innuendo here and there, such as when R2D2 says his sister is a "lesbot", when C3PO says he "just had sex with his 90s printer girlfriend", and when a Stormtrooper says he "boned his wife". At the beginning, C3PO asks R2D2 to hold his bag of cocaine.
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| Studio: | Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment |
| Director: | Dominic Polcino |
| Cast: | Adam West, Alex Borstein, Patrick Warburton, Seth Green, Seth MacFarlane |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Run time: | 50 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | September 9, 2007 |
| DVD release date: | January 28, 2008 |
| MPAA rating: | NR |
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