Directed by Dominic Polcino
May 23, 2010
FOX
Voice Cast
- Peter Griffin (Han Solo) / Brian Griffin (Chewbacca) /Stewie Griffin (Darth Vader) / Glenn Quagmire (C-3PO) / Carter Pewterschmidt (Emperor Palpatine)-Seth MacFarlane
- Lois Griffin (Princess Leia)-Alex Borstein
- Chris Griffin (Luke Skywalker)-Seth Green
- Meg Griffin (the Exogorth)-Mila Kunis
- Cleveland Brown (R2-D2) / Herbert (Obi-Wan Kenobi) / Bruce (Captain Piett)-Mike Henry
- Joe Swanson (Imperial Probe Droid)-Patrick Warburton
- Mort Goldman (Lando Calrissian)-Johnny Brennan
- Carl (Yoda)-H. Jon Benjamin
- Ernie the Giant Chicken (Boba Fett)-Danny Smith
Guest Voice Cast
- Himself / General Veers-James Woods
- Western Union worker from Back to the Future Part II-Joe Flaherty
The power once again goes out in the Griffin household and after beginning the story of Black Snake Moan, Peter eventually tells the story of The Empire Strikes Back.
I unapologetically love these Family Guy Star Wars parodies. They are just silly fun that lovingly take jabs at the original films using the Family Guy style humor. The Star Wars films are great movies, but even longtime fans know that there is plenty to joke about in them. From my experience creepy Yoda jokes are common among my friends but strangely they skip those in all of them. Yoda just is weird in them.
“Something, Something, Something, Dark Side” is a loving and humorous homage to Empire. And once again they have scenes in this that feel as if they are straight out of the movie. At around an hour, they manage to tell the complete story of Empire without missing anything. The viewer’s familiarity with the story helps but you do realize how much extra there was in Empire that the bulk of the runtime is stripped away and the story is unchanged.
The characters from Family Guy take up their spots from the first one here. Some characters take on new roles though. Meg, in keeping with the running gag of the show, is barely in this. Joe becomes the Imperial probe droid. Mort Goldman, who was a Jawa in “Blue Harvest”, becomes Lando Calrissian here and honestly that is hilarious. The character is as far from Billy Dee Williams as one can possibly get.
There does not seem to be as many pop culture references in this one as there was previously. The focus is largely on the Star Wars universe. Particularly enjoyable for me was the Hoth ion cannon. I knew in my heart of hearts I was not the only kid that thought it looked like a boob and their joke calling it a “booby nipple gun” vindicated that kid! I also love how they highlight Lando at the end wearing Han’s clothing. That was always really weird to me and obviously other fans. Even before the Internet existed to point oddities out, it was one of those things you could not miss!
This was written by Kirker Butler, under the guidance of MacFarlane, before he went to work on The Cleveland Show. The title is derived from a cutaway gag in an episode they wrote where the Emperor is figuring out great dialogue. The jokes come fast and steady in this with the usual punch and hilarity you expect from Family Guy.
I love more traditional animation. It feels like moving art and in my opinion looks better longer than anything done on a computer. The tradition look of this episode the series it is a part of is just great. And for me it really helps to sell the story here.
With great animation and hilarious jokes “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side” is another great entry in the Family GuyStar Wars trilogy. Watch it!
Warren Watched A Movie 