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What’s the Story?

Reviewed by Charles Cassady Jr.

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?

3

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.

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