Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Dark Side
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Dominic Polcino
Starring Seth MacFarlane, Seth Green, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Patrick Warburton, Mike Green
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: December 22, 2009

Family Guy is at it again with their second visit to the Star Wars universe in Something Something Something Dark Side. After they successfully spoofed Star Wars: A New Hope in humorous but faithful fashion with Blue Harvest, we could hardly wait for more to come around. Now that we have this cartoon version of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back available to us, the trilogy spoof is almost complete!

The best thing about these movies is that everyone can enjoy them. Not everyone is a Star Wars fanatic, so this is a hilarious way for them to see the world and the characters, even if it’s absurdly different from the way that George Lucas created them to be. For those of you non-Star Wars fans, this second film in the series takes place a few years after the Rebel Alliance blew the hell out of the Emperor and Darth Vader’s precious Death Star. Now the Empire is hot on their tail with plans for revenge. After Luke Skywalker comes into his own as a Jedi with intense training by Jedi Master Yoda, he hurries to a showdown with Vader after the evil Sith springs a trap on Han Solo, Princess Leia, and his other companions.

Head on over to the not-so-dark other side for more and to check out a trailer from this new movie.

Returning for the second adventure is Peter Griffin as Han Solo, Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader, Brian Griffin as Chewbacca, Carter Pewterschmidt as the Emperor, and Glenn Quagmire as C-3PO (all voiced by Seth MacFarlane); Chris Griffin as Luke Skywalker (Seth Green); Lois Griffin as Princess Leia (Alex Bornstein); Cleveland as R2-D2 and Herbert as Obi-Wan Kenobi (both voiced by Mike Henry); and to round it all off: Carl as Yoda (H. Jon Benjamin), Meg as one of those giant worm thingys (Mila Kunis), and of course, the Giant Chicken as Boba Fett!

Something Something Something Dark Side starts off in the traditional fashion: the whole family is sitting around watching TV when the power goes out…yet again. This prompts the next chapter in the exciting Star Wars story, which begins with another hilarious scrolling word opening thingy. As is expected, the pop culture references are featured greatly as well, and they don’t waste any time getting to them. Right away you’ll see a little Elroy Jetson action, Cookie Monster as the snow monster, and Don Knotts as a Tauntaun (Dondon). This continues throughout the hour-long episode with some Drago (Dolph Lundgren; yes, he’s credited) training regiments from Rocky IV, Tom Selleck making a live-action appearance, and a little Paula Cole’s “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” torture methods. Another enjoyable gag from the show is to have random celebrity cameos voiced by the actual actors, but I shant spoil those little gems for you.

As we as reviewers often encounter, this is another one of those movies that doesn’t really necessarily have to be sold to you. The fact of the matter is that you either love Family Guy or you loathe it (as I’ve said before). Or, you may just be one of those who used to love it and decided to consume the lies and follow the evil haters that decided for everyone that the show was not funny anymore. And to you who hate the show or stopped watching, I say good riddance to you all! For me, it’s been a cartoon love affair since the show began; through its battle to become the first ever canceled show to be resurrected, and straight through to present day. As someone who’s been involved in some incredibly low points of life, there was always Family Guy waiting for me on Cartoon Network late at night, and it never mattered how bad it got, those damn episodes could always help me feel better. That comical assistance did things Patch Adams could never dream of, and for that, the show has an eternal fan in I. Don’t get me wrong: I can and will admit that some recent seasons have been slow and that the greatness of earlier seasons wasn’t as evident, but what show doesn’t have this issue? It’s a common ailment among television series, and we all know this. There’s still plenty of genius coming out of the brain of MacFarlane and others, and you saw it in episodes like “Road to the Multiverse,” especially with their brilliant Disney world. I just wish they would stop this Cleveland Show nonsense and get him back on the Family Guy as a supporting character where he belongs.

Another bonus to picking Something Something Something Dark Side up is that there are a few sweet special features to check out. Special features means happy days!

SPECIAL FEATURES

Family Guy Fact-Ups — This is a very cool little special feature. Basically, it allows you to watch the entire movie all over again, but this time, it is accompanied by lots and lots and lots of little Pop Up Video style jokes and fun facts. With the commentary, that means you have three different ways to check the movie out, and that’s pure awesomeness.

The Dark Side of Poster Art — Another entertaining look into one element of a film’s production we rarely get a look at: the design and creation of the poster. They even have the original designer of the poster from The Empire Strikes Back, Roger Kastel, talking about the new Family Guy version of his poster.

Animatic Scene-To-Scene — This feature gives us a look at some of the storyboards created for the movie, and shows them side-by-side to the finished animations. It is said that this will be the last hand-drawn job before moving into more efficient computerized work, though I’m not sure specifically what that will mean.

Family Guy – Something Something Something Dark Side Acts 1 & 2 Table Read — Yet another cool feature. We’ve seen the Family Guy crew do a few table reads before and with this feature, you can watch the whole cast read out the first and second acts in a nice and crowded room.

Family Guy – We Have A Bad Feeling About This Table Read — And even better, there’s a second table read you can watch. This time, it’s for the next and final Family Guy Star Wars chapter, We Have a Bad Feeling About This. It is unknown when this episode will officially be released at the moment, but supposedly it will also feature characters from MacFarlane’s other two shows, American Dad and The Cleveland Show. They were running out of Family Guy faces, so this is no shock and could be pretty entertaining, depending on who plays what, how they handle the Ewoks, and how uncomfortable the Princess Leia/Luke Skywalker thing will be.

Audio Commentary– Feature-length audio commentary with Seth MacFarlane, Mark Hentemann, David A. Goodman, Kirker Butler, Dominic Polcino, and Seth Green. Expect lots of laughs from them and you, as well as some tidbits about the film and nonsensical ramblings.

Digital Copy– There’s also a separate disc that has a digital copy of the movie include, which you can transfer to your computer and also to a portable device, like an iPod.

Trailer