Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story
The excellent Family Guy, the cult animated TV show, gets it's first movie outing in a feature length tale about Stewie, the megalomaniacal and matricidal baby genius of the family.
When Stewie has a near-death experience, while trying to off a rival at the local swimming pool, his plans for world domination and killing Lois are set aside and he embarks on a new life dedicated to doing go....
The excellent Family Guy, the cult animated TV show, gets it's first movie outing in a feature length tale about Stewie, the megalomaniacal and matricidal baby genius of the family.
When Stewie has a near-death experience, while trying to off a rival at the local swimming pool, his plans for world domination and killing Lois are set aside and he embarks on a new life dedicated to doing good. This isn't easy for our foul-mouthed little maniac but he is ably assisted by Brian, the alcoholic family dog and all round bon-viveur.
When he sees a man on television who looks exactly like him, logic tells him that he can't possibly be genetically related to a buffoon like Peter and that this devilishly handsome fellow (rugby-ball shaped head and all) must be his real father. So Stewie and Brian, assisted by Quagmire, set of on a cross-country road trip from Quahog to San Francisco to find the man from the TV. However, what he discovers is way more outrageous than even his vast intellect would have imagined…
Review
After the cancellation of the show by Fox after season three, we were left in a Griffin free world for a time, at least until this gem of a show came along before the series was saved and brought back for a new season. Given the content matter of some of those season three episodes, it probably came at no surprise to some that the show was cancelled. I mean Brian gets a coke habit and directs a porno movie, Peter is the boss of a company marketing cigarettes to kids, Stewie impersonates the baby Jesus and Peter is arrested for drunk driving. No question, it's all brilliant stuff and really funny but some Americans that aren't very tolerant of such liberal behaviour. Still, seriously high DVD sales of the first three seasons convinced Fox to re-instate it. Money talks!
All that aside, here we have a much needed injection of Griffin humour where the focus is on the megalomaniacal Stewie, easily the star of the show anyway. Basically what we get seems to be three episodes, originally shot for season four, wrapped in a sort of Family Guy movie package. For example, at the start, we see everyone arriving for the premiere of The Family Guy Movie. The episodes Stewie B. Goode, Bango Was His Name Oh and Stu & Stewies's Excellent Adventure are the ones involved and they are listed on Planet Family Guy as an un-aired three-parter.
For anyone not "in the know", Family Guy is an animated, adult series about the Griffin family who live in Quahog, Rhode Island. Father Peter is an obese, foul-mouthed, farting, selfish imbecile who somehow managed to marry way above himself to the gorgeous Lois. They have a couple of teenagers, Chris the son is set to follow in his fathers footsteps (he's overweight and pretty thick) while daughter Meg is the plain girl desperate to be part of the "in" crowd. They also have a family dog called Brian. Brian is an anomaly, he stands on his hind legs, talks very politely and almost always has a martini in hand, but the real star of the show is infant Stewie, a genius with desires for world domination and who's constantly trying to kill Lois. Add in a few crazy and perverted neighbours and the resultant mix is hilariously funny.
The picture is presented in standard TV format, i.e. 4:3 fullscreen, which is exactly the same as in the series DVD sets and that makes sense given that this is essentially a set of standard series episodes. Anyway, the picture is a reasonably good transfer although it does suffer from a little edge and aliasing artifact, especially on thick, dark lines. It probably wouldn't be that noticeable on a live action film but with animations where there are lots of areas of flat colour and edge lines, it shows. There's also a little wobble around about the 45 minute mark where we get a split-second blur out and the layer swap isn't responsible as that comes slightly later on. Anyway, the colours are also as you'd expect for such material and given that the show doesn't really demand high quality visuals, it passes muster.
The sound comes in a decent Dolby Digital 5.1 English track and it's reasonably good throughout. Vocals and music are clear enough but there's nothing really demanding here and the surround system never gets used to anywhere near its potential. Again, the material doesn't demand high quality surround sound so the track is adequate enough.
As for this movie version, it's definitely a hit! It follows the usual irreverent mix of profanity and suggestive sexuality, cranked up a gear or two for the movie audience, and along with the main story line involving Stewie's search for his "biological" father, there are enough side-stories with Peter, Lois, Chris and Meg and all the usual associated fart gags, risqué jokes, double-entendres and one-liners to keep the fans happy. On top of this there are loads of visual gags and homàges and spoofs-takes on absolutely loads of other movies.
Extras
Commentary with Seth MacFarlane, Cast and Writers - Seth MacFarlane (creator, writer and voice of Stewie, Peter, Brian and Quagmire) leads the commentary and he's accompanied by executive producers David Goodman and Chris Sheridan and director Pete Michels. On top of that we also get some input from various members of the cast and crew such as Alex Borstein (writer and voice of Lois), Seth Green (Chris), writer Steve Callaghan and Mila Kunis (Meg). This is a pretty good and entertaining commentary with a fair amount of humour throughout with MacFarlane occasionally slipping into character. On top of the expected information about the movie production itself, we also get some details on the series cancellation and it's subsequent return.
Animatic Comparison - This shows two scenes in both storyboard animatics format and final filmed sequence or both side by side, using the Angle button the remote to flip between the modes. The scenes used are the red Carpet Ceremony at the start of the movie (4:40) and Road Trip/Dating Education (4:53). Definitely a feature for animation buffs as I can't see a lot of value in it for us run-of-the-mill viewers.
American Dad Preview - A short, 50 second, trailer for American Dad, Seth MacFarlane's other animated series. This one is about Stan Smith, a CIA operative who will go to any extremes to protect his beloved America from harm. Of course all of this spills over into the family home, which also houses Roger, the sarcastic space alien who rescued Stan from Area 51, and Klaus, a lascivious German-speaking goldfish.
Coming soon - There's also about seven minutes of trailers for 24 - Season Three, Angel, That Seventies Show, The Simpsons and Family Guy.
Overall
Family Guy fans, starved of material since the show was cut after season three will no doubt have to have this. However, the fact that the series has been given a second chance by the studios, this is basically some episodes, probably originally intended for season four, albeit uncut for television and with some extra wrapping and a pretty good commentary track, but some may want to wait until that box set hits the streets.
Personally, I think it's worth getting for that extra wrapping and the stuff you just know will never make it to the TV screen. Certainly if you've never seen Family Guy, before now, it's an excellent introduction to the series.
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