Title: Family Guy - It’s A Trap
Directed by Peter Shin
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein and Seth Green
Duration: 60 minutes
Certificate: 15
Release: 27th December 2010
It's a Trap! is the third and final part of the ‘Laugh It Up Fuzzball’ Trilogy of Family Guy Star Wars parodies, this time loosely following the story of Return of the Jedi. Notably it has been released on DVD and Blu-ray before being shown on TV.
It’s packed full of up to date TV and cultural references as well as many references to 80s TV and films such as Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Caddyshack, Pee-wee Herman’s Big Adventure, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Star Trek. Some work, some don’t, but there is also a good array of voice talent, such as minor cameos from Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Carrie Fisher as Angela/Mon Mothma, Bruce McGill as John Williams and Anne Hathaway as ‘Hot Blonde’.
It begins in the same way as the previous instalments when the power goes off in the Griffin household and Peter tells a story to entertain everyone. Of course this is his unique take on the story of Return of the Jedi. It’s clear that the family are less enthusiastic to hear the story than the previous two times and the writers make clear that there is a running joke that they are less keen to tell it and are only doing it for contractual reasons… allowing their support staff to write it. It’s funny, but you kind of wonder if it might be true, but as Seth MacFarlane is a self-confessed Star Wars fan, I guess it’s unlikely! And as the action kicks off it’s clear that the writing is still up to a high standard – despite a few lame jokes and a few jokes that seem to go on forever – most of the just under an hour running time is laugh-a-minute stuff.
Once again Stewie Griffin is a very humorous Darth Vader. C-3PO is played by Glenn Quagmire with R2-D2 by Cleveland Brown while Han Solo is course is Peter Griffin and Leia Organa is Lois Griffin which naturally leaves Chewbacca being played by Brian Griffin the dog! Luke Skywalker is the ever-dozy Chris Griffin (played by the ever-up-for-poking-fun-at-himself and game-for-a-laugh Seth Green) and Roger Smith (the alien from the still superior American Dad) is Moff Jerjerrod… why is Roger here?... simple… because there isn’t enough characters in the Family Guy series to portray all of the Star Wars cast.
So will The Cleveland Show handle spoofing the prequels? And do we really care? Was Cleveland the best person to get his own spin off series or should Seth MacFarlane and his team have stuck to just the two biggest hit cartoon series? I’ll let you make your own mind up, but I think you can guess what I think.
But all in all here we have another fun instalment of Star Wars spoofing by the Griffin family. It’s well written, and well directed and as always, especially on Blu-ray, beautifully animated – check out the extras feature on how to draw some of your favourite characters. Super-fans of the show will be excited to get hold of a copy of this episode before it hits TV sometime in 2011 but for casual fans is it worth the extra outlay for what is effectively a single episode with a few extra features thrown in? Might it be better to wait to buy this episode as part of the full season when that becomes available?
EXTRAS
• Digital copy
• Audio commentary featuring Seth MacFarlane, David A. Goodman, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Kara Vallow and Peter Shin
• Star Wars Trivial Pursuit: The Ultimate Championship
• Drawing with Peter Shin
• Sock Puppet Outtakes
• Animatic
• Making the Scene
• A Very Special Message from Darth Stewie
