If The Simpsons is the old guard standard of animated television comedy, then Family Guy is its crasser, Maxim magazine-reading offspring. Family Guy treads where few shows dare, led fearlessly by its frat boy creator Seth MacFarlane, who shares not only a voice with his most famous creation, Peter Griffin, but a numb irreverence that at times proves nothing short of stunning. This direct-to-DVD movie piles laughs upon laughs, often in reference to obscure pop culture from the past quarter century, but it’s the structure of this film that may be most surprising in its audaciousness: what begins as a red carpet celebration smoothly transitions into a series of fake coming attractions, followed by a feature narrative involving an extended road trip and time travel, before concluding with a wrap party. Sprinkled throughout are commercials, public service announcements, and even an intermission. Granted, this isn’t Citizen Kane, but I’m impressed that the writers of the film actually made an effort, knowing full well that with the Family Guy marketing juggernaut currently running at full speed, they needed to do little more than paste four episodes together under the ruse of “all new material” to make this DVD sell like hot cakes. For my money, this movie’s worth the price of a rental for the Condoleezza Rice scene alone. The reference to Endo from the original Lethal Weapon was also a very nice, out of nowhere touch.
by Jason Woloski | Source: Fox DVD
03 Oct 2005 1:36 AM | Submit Comment