FAMILY GUY: IT’S A TRAP
(not rated)
MOVIE: **** (out of 5)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The folks behind “Family Guy” continue their “Star Wars” spoofs (allegedly strong-armed by Fox executives, if you are to believe the opening crawl of this movie) with a knock-off of “Return of the Jedi.” Another power outage leads to Peter Griffin continuing the story of the “Family Guy” characters in the “Star Wars” universe with himself as Han Solo, Chris as Luke and of course Stewie as Darth Vader.
WHAT I LIKED
I am both a “Star Wars” fan and a “Family Guy” fan. Because I grew up with the “Star Wars” films, I have more to love about them than “Family Guy,” but I’ve enjoyed these spoofs quite a bit since the original “Blue Harvest.”
This new installment in this mash-up universe is funny. Not as funny as the other two versions, but there’s still plenty of laughs to go around. Oddly enough, there’s a lot of similar jokes to the original MAD Magazine satire from 1983. I’m not saying there was any stolen material, but I find it wildly entertaining that two spoofs written almost 30 years apart would target the same plot holes and character problems.
Like the previous installments of this series, this is made with a lot of love to the “Star Wars” universe. And it takes a lot of love to enjoy it. Fortunately, there’s a lot of fandom crossover between “Family Guy” and “Star Wars.”
Now, can this be stretched into doing the prequels? I’m not sure about that.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
“Family Guy: It’s a Trap!” is the least of the crossover series, and it’s probably because the joke well is running a little dry. Still enjoyable, but it’s losing its edge. That’s my only real complaint about this knock-off. And, of course, if anyone out there is annoyed with “Family Guy” or “Star Wars,” you’ll detest a movie like this (but why would you even think about watching it if you have those feelings?).
BLU-RAY FEATURES
The Blu-ray comes with a DVD of the film with Digital Copy, which is always nice.
Bonus material includes an audio commentary, a “Making of the Scene” breakdown, a look at how to draw the characters with Peter Shin, a voice mail amalgamation from Darth Stewie, Sock Puppet Outtakes and a look at some of the crew members competing in the “Star Wars” Trivial Pursuit game.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Anyone who likes both “Family Guy” and “Star Wars.”