Family Guy: Blue Harvest

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

It’s no secret that Star Wars is not just a mere movie franchise, but a pop culture phenomenon that continues to endure with every generation of movie fans. That’s why it seemed almost too perfect for the usually very license-protective creator George Lucas to allow the cartoon sitcom Family Guy to parody it.

Family Guy’s success comes from not only its incredibly absurd and envelope-pushing crude humor, but from its hilarious non-sequitur gags that have become the show’s defining trademark. After Star Wars references in particular having been peppered on the show constantly throughout the years, creator Seth Macfarlane now lives the ultimate fanboy’s dream with the special all-Star-Wars parody episode, Blue Harvest, now available on DVD.

After the TV goes out one night, patriarch Peter Griffin decides to pass the time by telling the story of the movie Star Wars to the family. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, civil war is brewing between the Rebellion, led by Princess Leia (Lois Griffin), and the evil Galactic Empire, led by the tyrannical and mysterious lord Darth Vader (Stewie Griffin).

When Leia is taken prisoner by Vader, two droids C3PO (Glenn Quagmire) and R2D2 (Cleveland Brown) are dispatched to the desert planet Tatooine, where then encounter a moisture farm boy named Luke Skywalker (Chris Griffin).

With the help of his friend, the wise Ben “Obi-Wan” Kenobi (Herbert The Pervert), mercenary smuggler Han Solo (Peter Griffin), and his first mate Chewbacca (Brian Griffin), Luke travels to the Empire’s new deadly fortress, the dreaded, planet-destroying Death Star, to rescue Leia. However, it would seem that Luke has a much bigger role to play than expected in the Rebellion’s fight against the Empire.

After the fanboy pop culture parody show Robot Chicken scoring a major coup with an all-Star Wars special episode, it seemed almost a no-brainer that the pop culture skewing Family Guy was to be bestowed a similar destiny.

While it runs the risk of creating an environment that is a tad too familiar with a predominantly virtual re-enactment of the legendary and well-known Star Wars plot, the show’s rather absurd humor in its non-sequitur gag scenes is on full tilt in this episode. It doesn’t happen nearly as often as one would expect for a Family Guy episode, but MacFarlane and his writers do come through and deliver some fairly inspired gags, the best including a rather absurd right-wing radio pundit on Tatooine played by Rush Limbaugh and an even more absurd performance of Dirty Dancing’s “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” by Herbert The Pervert that must be seen to be believed.

The DVD’s