Family Guy: Stewie Griffin the Untold Story
I’d watch it, but then the evil monkey in my room might kill me…
Tags: Family Guy: Stewie Griffin the Untold Story Categories: PSP Reviews, Reviews, Tech Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Nov 9th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Guy: Stewie Griffin the Untold Story (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Other | No | ||
In the two weeks or so between the release of this direct-to-video movie and this review, Family Guy: Stewie Griffin The Untold Story has sold in the neighborhood of about $42 million in counter sales. That’s over two million copies sold at about $20 a pop. But yeah, Fox was right to cancel the show three years ago. So right, they brought it back! Can you say, “Most egg on your face since NBC canceled the original Star Trek?” I knew you could!
Although arguably ahead of its time when it first debuted in 1999 or so, Family Guy was originally seen as a rip-off cross between The Simpsons and South Park. While that description may still be somewhat viable, the “rip-off” portion of it has proven to be unfair. Creator Seth McFarlane created a cartoon family that possessed a far meaner sense of humor than The Simpsons has in a decade, and while dancing on the edge of working “blue” quite a lot, Family Guy manages to stay just clean enough to stay on network television, unlike South Park.
An example, from the TV show: After a joke by Peter Griffin falls a bit flat, Brian the dog says, “That last joke was lamer than FDR’s legs!” There’s a long, silent beat while the family just blinks at him in shock. Brian retorts, “What? Too soon?” That kind of nastiness just isn’t found in The Simpsons anymore, but it’s a lot cleaner than the sex-oriented humor of South Park. Smarter than either, too. All of which is what makes Family Guy the hit it is.
Family Guy: Stewie Griffin the Untold Story, as the included commentary track reveals, started its life in the wake of the show’s cancellation shortly after the 2002 season ended. Wanting to keep the property alive in some form, McFarlane pitched a Family Guy movie. The studio was mildly interested, but never full-bore-ahead. Then Family Guy hit Cartoon Network’s adult swim and began pulling record ratings. Then the full-season DVDs were released and sales went through the roof. By late 2004, Fox realized the error of its ways and reopened negotiations with McFarlane to bring back Family Guy to Fox, along with his newest creation, American Dad. The rest is history. Except, of course, that Fox still wanted something they could release as a movie, even if it was direct-to-video.
The result is Family Guy: Stewie Griffen the Untold Story, which the commentary track reveals is actually three episodes scheduled to air late this season. That blunts just a little of the enjoyment, since you begin to realize that you’re spoiling three episodes that will air sometime in Spring 2006. What salvages the disappointment, however, is that the DVD/PSP-UMD release is something you won’t get on Fox Sundays: unedited Family Guy humor. This is how the three episodes play before being cut down to broadcast length and before all the really raw stuff is cut by – err – Fox censors? Yeah, I guess they do have ‘em. Anyway, if you have young ears around the house, the default audio track sticks with the broadcast-standard-style audio in which the nasty words and bleeped out. But if you have an 18 and over audience, you can select the “unedited audio” track and hear a couple F-bombs being dropped over the course of the 90 minute or so movie.
On PSP UMD, Family Guy: Stewie Griffen the Untold Story is a real treat because its one of the few that features all the same bonus features as its DVD counterpart. In addition to the edited and unedited audio, as well as the commentary track, both versions boast a feature that shows the animatic (a rough animation sent to animators to communicate the basics of a scene) and compares it to the final animation. Beyond that, there may not be a lot more in the way of bonus features, but at least UMD users get the exact same version as DVD users. It’s a step in the right direction for PSP fans. Sure to appeal to PSP’s core audience, Family Guy: Stewie Griffen the Untold Story is a great addition to anyone’s library, as long a mean – sometimes a bit dirty, even – humor is your thing. The jokes come machine-gun fast and, like all episodes of Family Guy, this movie stands up to repeated viewings.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ One of a growing number of second-wave UMDs to include the same bonus features as the DVD version. + Great, hilarious, typical Family Guy antics. + The unedited soundtrack, containing all the cuss-words, is a guilty pleasure. + Commentary by creator Seth McFarlane and key actors is quite good. |
9.2 |
| What Doesn't | |
| — Revelation that the movie is actually three episodes of the upcoming season. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Family Guy: Stewie Griffen The Untold Story makes you glad to be alive in 2005. | |
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Tags: Family Guy: Stewie Griffin the Untold Story
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Nov 9th, 2005 and is filed under PSP Reviews, Reviews, Tech Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
