Family Guy: Blue Harvest Movie Poster Image

Family Guy: Blue Harvest

age 15+
(i)

 

Racy but often hilarious Star Wars satire.
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  • Review Date: May 31, 2009
  • Rated: NR
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Release Year: 2007
  • Running Time: 50 minutes

What parents need to know

Positive messages

While the story technically has some of the same heroic messages as Star Wars, they're secondary to the crass, spoofy humor.

Positive role models

Main characters are the spectacularly dysfunctional Griffin family. Here, as they and their neighbors take the key roles in a spoof of Star Wars, some of their unsavory traits are muted or left out. But others are retained, so we get the whole family (except the family dog, Brian, who has some good sense and manners) laughing at the notion of literacy and the neighbors having promiscuous sex and smoking marijuana. And Obi-Wan Kenobi appears to be a child molester.

Violence

"Cartoon violence" in the purest form, with spaceship explosions, shootings of characters (mostly bloodless), and a light-saber decapitation gag.

Sex

Heavy verbal innuendo. A light saber springing into action is metaphorical for an erection. The opening prologue digresses into a discussion of sibling incest, ultimately recommending a particular movie for its extensive nudity and sex scenes. Declaration that C3PO has had sex with a dot-matrix printer. R2D2 says his droid sister is a "lez-bot." Sportscasters speculate about a spectator's erotic skills. An Imperial stormtrooper talks repeatedly about "boning" his girlfriend.

Language

"Holy crap," "hell," "bitch," "penis," "God" (as an exclamation), and, in a DVD extra, George Lucas says "bulls--t." Stewie/Darth Vader does a series of borderline-swear-word excrement puns ("I Sithed in my pants").

Consumerism

Natural tie-ins to Star Wars, as well as Family Guy merchandise. References to Doctor Who, Airplane, and other, more adult-oriented movies, including the R-rated Lethal Weapon and HUGE plugs for the explicit cable-TV biopic Gia and the Cartoon Network comedy series Robot Chicken.

Drinking, drugs, & smoking

Social drinking, smoking in the cantina. R2D2 and C3P0 smoke what seems to be a bag of marijuana, and C3P0 complains about "freaking out."

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this cartoon satire of Star Wars has some very adult-oriented humor (more verbal than visual), with references to sex, pedophilia, and drug use. The spoof of Star Wars' opening text prologue includes a recommendation of a lesser-known movie for its graphic sexual content. A few borderline swear words are used. 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's-off-limits cartoon comedy Family Guy, taking a full hour to retell the story of the 1977 blockbuster Star Wars. 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 Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. 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?

QUALITY

Viewers may be surprised by this extended episode of the animated sitcom that sometimes seems so full of pop-culture references and mini-parodies that the stories barely hold together. Not surprisingly, series creator Seth MacFarlane and the vocal cast seem to be having tons of fun with the Force, delivering big laughs at light speed; too bad they end the thing on a 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 cable TV satire Robot Chicken, done by Chris' voiceover actor Seth Green).

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 gang actually loves and respects George Lucas' history-making 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.

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. What accounts for the difference?

  • 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.)

Movie details

Theatrical release date:September 9, 2007
DVD release date:January 28, 2008
Cast:Adam West, Alex Borstein, Patrick Warburton, Seth Green, Seth MacFarlane
Director:Dominic Polcino
Studio:Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Genre:Comedy
Run time:50 minutes
MPAA rating:NR

This review of Family Guy: Blue Harvest was written by

Charles Cassady Jr.
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are conducted by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

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Adult Written byteenreviews(17yrs) October 29, 2011
age 13+

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
What other families should know
Too much swearing
Too much consumerism
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
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Teen, 15 years old Written byFamily guy lover March 19, 2011
age 10+

A little bad for kids but good for teens and adoults

Love it a little bad language and other things but it's awesome!!!!!!!!!!
What other families should know
Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
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Teen, 13 years old Written bystan101 April 29, 2012
age 8+

awesome

awesome
What other families should know
Too much violence
Too much swearing
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