When a parody's biggest laugh rolls out in the first two minutes, it's usually a bad sign. But when that gag is followed by ceaselessly affectionate mocking of a geek classic like Star Wars, the send-up should survive.
That's what you get in Something, Something, Something Dark Side, the new Family Guy spoof of The Empire Strikes Back. The straight-to-DVD animated movie from Seth MacFarlane and crew hits stores Tuesday.
The hour-long story unfolds after a hilarious opening-title crawl that blasts 20th Century Fox. Then it's off to find Luke Skywalker (Chris Griffin), Han Solo (Peter Griffin) and their friends as they hide out on the remote ice world of Hoth.
The Imperial Fleet and Darth Vader (Stewie Griffin) are in hot pursuit until they land their robot camels and drive the rebels out into space.
Anyone who can't follow the plot from there has lived in a Wampa's cave for the last 30 years.
Building on the success of Blue Harvest, the Family Guy spoof of the original Star Wars movie, Dark Side follows Empire's plot almost beat for beat – editing only sporadically along the way. The production even reproduces many of the original movie's visual effects accurately.
As the jokes tumble by like rocks in an asteroid field, it becomes clear that MacFarlane and his writers are legit Star Wars fans. The best bits grow organically out of the movie's elements, including an appearance of Meg Griffin as the enormous space slug and Han Solo's choice of ham-pressing posture as he's frozen in carbonite.
Family Guy's standard voice cast settles into the familiar Star Wars characters. But Dark Side enjoys a guest appearance by H. Jon Benjamin (Dr. Katz and Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil) as Yoda, the Jedi master who coaches young Luke Skywalker on the finer points of the force – and nude chicks.
Dark Side falls short of the mark only when the writing turns back to the lazy, random pop culture references that Family Guy often uses in place of more-motivated, situational gags. When the special episode points out that Lando Calrissian is wearing Han's clothes in Empire's closing moments, it's funny. When it's inserting Han Solo into a Juicy Fruit ad, it's not.
If you like Family Guy and Star Wars, you'll easily turn to the Dark Side and eagerly await the unavoidable Return of the Jedi spoof MacFarlane has already confirmed for 2010.
WIRED Highly tuned, observant sarcasm finds humor in even the best of the Star Wars movies.
TIRED Not even a galaxy far away can escape the lazy Family Guy milieu of smug, random references.
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Image courtesy Fox
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