Family Guy: It's A Trap

Three years ago, the creators of animated series Family Guy had a great idea, lifted from Seth Green's (who voices Chris) Robot Chicken: let's parody George Lucas's insanely popular sci-fi flick, Star Wars. Ridiculous, geeky, self-referential and occasionally over-the-line, hour-long effort Blue Harvest (named after the film's working title) was sheer genius. Therefore, it stood to reason that series creator Seth MacFarlane and crew would follow-up that win by giving Star Wars sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi the Family Guy makeover. Unfortunately, while some things are funny, even hilarious, the second time, by the third run around the block it wears incredibly thin. Essentially, while It's A Trap (the Jedi spoof) has its moments, one can tell that this branch of the franchise has lost touch with the Force. Watching Family Guy characters in their requisite roles as a rebellious group of freedom fighters battling the evil Empire is fun, but we're faced with a slew of limp jokes that spend more time mocking the original film than finding unique ways of taking on such a behemoth. Watching Peter Griffin (as Han Solo) flatuate after being released from his carbon freeze is pretty darned funny, but when countered with lame Cat in the Hat jokes, bad puns and gags a toddler would groan at, it feels like Shin's group of writers were not only trying too hard, but desperately struggled to wrap their brains around MacFarlane's inimitable sense of humour, bad as it is. We're all used to Family Guy's modus operandi of beating gags to death, rampant non-sequiturs and overt potty humour, which all appear on It's A Trap, but the flick more closely mirrors Peter Griffin's sex life: it starts out hard and fast, but finishes with a quick whimper, leaving little to remember in the morning. Adding in weak bonus material, such as pointless animatics that are almost as long as the feature, more "How To Draw" yawns, a minute-long outtake from a three-second bit of the finished product and a commentary where even MacFarlane is disinterested shows about as much imagination as the whole affair. Then again, given that Lucas's finale to Star Wars was anaemic at best, maybe It's A Trap is the perfect nail in their cartoon spoof coffin.