After being overlooked by the public for 3 seasons, until its launch and promotion on the Cartoon Network, Seth MacFarlane's bawdy animated parody "Family Guy" found a 2nd, actually 3rd, life in the DVD market (which as a whole is quickly revolutionizing the way we watch TV). So, it's only fitting that the show gets a direct-to-DVD movie release.
But "Stewie Griffen: The Untold Story" (a show's name and reputation "presenting" something as opposed to a person's name is a pet peeve of mine) exists as a product of a network mandate. A movie that must meet a minimum running time for DVD release, and at the same time must be broken down into episodes that Fox television can air at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th season. The result is a cobbling together of 3 episodes, wrapped with pre-parties and after-party sequences involving the characters screening the movie we are watching and plenty of classic "Family Guy" "filler". Where the writers given the chance to make a real movie, things might have gone much smoother.
Given the contortion task handed to them by Fox, MacFarlane, David A. Goodman, Steve Gallighan, Alex Borstein, Chris Sheridan and the rest of the staff set about to make their most complex and cohesive "Family Guy" episode ever. The movie is centered around the show's break-out character, Stewie Griffen - a competition with another baby, a near death experience, a quest to find his real father (which can't be "the fat man") and, believe it or not, time travel that allows us to see all-new versions of the "Guy" characters. On its face, this is a big enough and weird enough story to warrant the movie vehicle.
All 3 episodes are self contained and set-up like the "Road to Rhode Island" episode. Director Pete Michels stitches all 3 productions together in the show's usual slap-dash fashion. The first contains a totally unrelated B-story about Peter becoming a star as a news commentator, but the last 2 give way to the Stewie story entirely which itself contains a very-sitcom vignette where Stewie tries to make-over... well, I can't go further without ruining it. Once again, the movie is a tour de force from MacFarlane who spends long stretches talking to himself as every character in the scene.
The movie exists in a time when "Family Guy" and all of its writers and actors where coming back to the show after being canceled for 3 years. As the worthless first half of the 4th season showed us, the show has not gotten its groove back. It lacks the wit, edge, originality and snappy timing that made it such a cult favorite among the crowd that doesn't watch "Friends" in the first 3 seasons. The show ultimately regains itself in the fall season, but this DVD captures that period of time when the show was rusty. As a result this set isn't the all-out, gut-busting, post-modern "Family Guy" fans have been clamoring for, but has sporadic moments of laughter surrounded by exposition, dud jokes, frequent gags that are more cruel or mean than funny and even gags retold from prior seasons (we see yet another of Stewie's sexy parties).
When they do come, the laughs are good ones. From self-referential jabs at the show's haters (a very deserving Entertainment Weekly gets it) to the Fox programming that got them canceled. "Guy" continues its love affair with 80s sitcoms and obscure cartoon references, as well as a few movie industry jokes that are opened up with this movie format. Don't blink and you'll miss Stewie's stunt double. A "Thundercats" joke played as serious as humanly possible is hysterical. Heck, an Elmer Fudd/Bugs Bunny joke only this show would tell is, alone, worth the price of a rental. The movie also gets a lot of mileage from reliable regular characters Tom Tucker, Diane Simmons and Glenn Quagmire.
The question is, do we look at this release as a collection of episodes or as a movie. The episodes are average by "Family Guy" standards. As a movie, well, there is nothing going on in the film industry that even comes close to this show's daring mix of black comedy, bawdy humor and sharp, acerbic parody even as rusty as it is. With the rare exception of Trey Parker's stuff, the movie industry is far too safe to get their minds around MacFarlane's level of offend-everyone comic insanity.
"Family Guy" is such a distinct work of television that a movie translation doesn't quite work for it. That is because "Guy's" forte is parody, one thing television can do light-years better than movies. A TV show such as "Family Guy" can get away shot-by-shot pop culture recreations because they have the time to produce original work around them. Movies that go for scene-specific parody just feel cheap and lazy. Just as viewers walked out of "Scary Movie" thinking "I already saw The Usual Suspects'", we're left wondering what we are supposed to do when "Untold Story" climaxes with a shot-by-shot parody of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" instead of anything unique. This would work on the show where another episode awaits around the corner, but as a one-shot movie it feels like a waste of time.
This should have been MacFarlene's big comeback blow-out. They should have swung for the fences in a bid to reclaim their place on TV. Instead it feels tired, warmed-over and only works in isolated parts. This DVD was made for - and should probably only be viewed by - "Family Guy" fans and, uncensored or not (it isn't, bleeps abound), they may find it hard to shake the déjà vu and underwhelming feeling that comes with it. Those that sat through the 4th season of the show will find its dullness expected.
* * / 4
