Blu-ray Box Set Review: 'Laugh It Up, Fuzzball!'

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Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy

Directed by Dominic Polcino and Peter Shin

Written by Alec Sulkin, Kirker Butler, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and David A. Goodman
Based on the Star Wars Trilogy created by George Lucas

Reviewer’s Note: This article is a review of the box set and its features.

Peter Griffin (as Han Solo) Look, we got four or five of the main characters on this ship. I think we'll be fine.

The Trilogy

Seth McFarlane’s long-running (and twice canceled) Fox animated series Family Guy  has lampooned the Star Wars franchise many times since its 1999 premiere. In most cases, McFarlane and his writing staff have added many quick Star Wars-related gags to the satirical misadventures of the Griffin family (voiced by McFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, and Seth Green) and the cast of supporting characters.

In addition to visual references and adaptations of Star Wars quotes such as “Lois, if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine,”  Family Guy’s creative team produced three double-length episodes which spoof the original Star Wars Trilogy.


The resulting Family Guy Trilogy consists of:

  • Blue Harvest (2007), a 48-minute-long parody of Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
  • Something, Something, Something Dark Side (2009), a 44-minute-long parody of Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  • It’s a Trap! (2010), a 56-minute-long parody of Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)



[as Han is about to be frozen in carbonite]
Leia: I love you.
Han: F--k off.

McFarlane’s Fuzzy Doors Productions made two versions of each episode. The DVD/Blu-ray version has adult language and sexual innuendos; the version shown on Fox Television retains most of the ribald humor but omits the profanity and racier content.

The Box Set

In December 2010, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy, a four-disc box set available in Blu-ray and DVD formats.  (The box set’s title is derived from a line of dialogue  in The Empire Strikes Back.)

The design for the slipcover packaging is a tongue-in-cheek parody of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s original DVD box set of The Star Wars Trilogy (2004).

The layout of the Laugh It Up, Fuzzball set’s cover closely resembles that of Lucasfilm’s first DVD release of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. The front cover shows Luke Skywalker (Chris Griffin), Princess Leia (Lois Griffin), Han Solo (Peter Griffin), Chewbacca (Brian Griffin), R2-D2 (Cleveland), and C-3PO (Quagmire), as well as three X-Wing fighters and the Death Star.

The back cover depicts Stewie Griffin as the evil Lord Darth Vader, arms akimbo and glowering as menacingly as a Family Guy character can glower.

The Blu-ray jewel boxes which contain the individual episodes come in the package’s inner box. This box has a full color drawing of the Family Guy versions of Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and the Look, we got four or five of the main characters on this ship. I think we'll be fine quote.

The cases for Blue Harvest, Something, Something, Something Dark Side, and It’s a Trap! feature cover art based on the original movie posters by artists Tom Jung and Roger Kastel. Though the artwork is tweaked in Family Guy style, it also replicates the classic Star Wars posters’ designs and fonts.

Though Blue Harvest and Something, Something, Something Dark Side are one-disc sets, It’s a Trap!  comes with a DVD/digital copy disc. It’s a Trap! also differs from the earlier releases because its Blu-ray disc is region-specific, while Blue Harvest and Something, Something, Something Dark Side are on region-free discs.

My Take

Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader: Give yourself to the dark side, Luke.
Chris Griffin as Luke Skywalker: I will not fight you.
Stewie Griffin as Darth Vader: Well, all right. I guess that's no problem. I can always get Seth Green to fight me. He'll do anything for money. I mean, did you see Sex Drive? Oh, of course you didn't. You're a person

Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy is a nice box set to own if you are:

  • a Family Guy fan
  • a Star Wars fan with a sense of humor
  • a Family Guy and Star Wars fan with a sense of humor
  • an adult viewer who can watch animated programs that contain profanity and off-color jokes

McFarlane and his writers love Star Wars, but they fearlessly poke fun at the characters, situations, and  the movies’ inevitable off-moments.

Peter (Han Solo): We'll be safe enough once we make the jump to hyperspace. Besides, I know a few maneuvers. We'll lose'em.
[the Falcon starts listing lazily to the left]
Chris (Luke Skywalker): Uh, that was your maneuver? Moving slightly to the left?
Peter (Han Solo): Well, I mean we're not in the same place we were, huh? That ought to confuse 'em.
Chris (Luke Skywalker): Yeah, but you hardly did anything. You just started listing lazily to the left. I'm pretty sure they can keep up.
Imperial Officer 1: Where did they go?
Imperial Officer 2: There they are! They're listing lazily to the left. Go left, left!
Imperial Officer 1: Boy, this guy knows some maneuvers.
As is usually the case with movie parodies, the humor is hit-or-miss in The Family Guy trilogy. Some of the gags are wickedly funny, especially the ones that poke fun at the movies’ plot holes and contradictions.

Other sequences, such as the “couch joke” in Blue Harvest and the repetitive “exchange of glances at the Pit of Carkoon” bit in It’s a Trap! don’t work as well.

Overall, Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy  is a good set for fans of Seth McFarlane’s  often ribald riffs on American pop culture.  It’s also intended to please those Star Wars fans who can take the parodies’ jokes about the Original Trilogy without feeling insulted.

Blu-ray Specifications


Video
  • Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
  • Resolution: 1080p
  • Aspect ratio: see individual releases
  • Original aspect ratio: see individual releases

Audio
  • English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
  • French: DTS 5.1
  • German: DTS 5.1
  • Italian: DTS 5.1
  • Catalan: DTS 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish
English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish
English SDH, French, Spanish
Discs
  • 50GB Blu-ray Disc
  • Six-disc set (3 BDs, 3 DVDs)
  • Digital copy (on disc)
  • DVD copy
  • BD-Live

Packaging
Slipcover in original pressing

Playback
Region A
Miscellaneous
  • Number of discs: 3
  • Rated: NR (Not Rated)
  • Studio: 20th Century Fox
  • DVD Release Date: December 21, 2010
  • Run Time: 143 minutes

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