Family Guy Presents: It’s A Trap Blu-ray review

How much you liked the previous Family Guy Star Wars specials will be a good indicator of whether or not you’ll enjoy It’s A Trap. If you found the previous two instalments hilarious parodies of the Star Wars saga, then you’ll love this. If you found Blue Harvest and Something Something Dark Side a bit hit and miss, then it’s more of the same again.

As Seth MacFarlane recently reportedly dead-panned at Comic-Con, “It’s more of exactly the same kind of jokes you’ve seen in the other two. So, if you like those, this is the same and you’ll enjoy it just as much.”

To be fair, Family Guy has always been a bit hit and miss. For every great joke the show produces, one falls flat. The fact that the opening crawl says, “Okay, you know what, we don’t care. We were thinking of not even doing this one. Fox made us do it …” simultaneously makes you laugh, yet keeps your expectations in check, even though you know MacFarlane is kidding. You think.

That’s not to say the special isn’t funny. It is. It’s laugh out loud funny, but like many episodes of Family Guy for UK viewers, there are too many jokes that are US-specific, such as Peter asking Jabba to “do the 7-Up man’s voice” and the Rancor being radio talk show and TV host, Rush Limbaugh. However, that’s our problem, and not the makers of the show.

As usual, it is when the show is close to the knuckle and puerile that it is at its most hilarious. For example, ‘The Emperor’ electrocuting kids in a pool with his Force Lightning or Herbet/Obi-Wan Kenobi asking to ‘test out’ Luke’s new hand. And then there’s the aftermath of the Battle of Endor. Not to give anything away, but it does answer the question of what happened to any Imperial wounded.

However, the highlights of the special are the constant digs at Seth Green’s career, which the Emperor and Vader constantly spout in order to try and turn Luke/Chris to the Dark Side. It’s hilarious stuff and kudos to Seth Green for being a good sport about his frankly shocking filmography. “Did you see Sex Drive? Of course you didn’t. You’re a human being.”

In conclusion, if you enjoyed the last two, it is essentially more of the same. No more, no less. It’s just a shame it is the end of their Star Wars saga. It is doubtful they’ll parody the prequels, as those films are jokes already.

I will say this about It’s A Trap, though. It is stunning to watch, basically because the Family Guy team has animated over the actual film footage, so it looks exactly as it does in the movie. It looks even better on Blu-ray, which comes with the BD disc, a standard DVD and digital copy.

Feature-wise, it’s a standard package of outtakes, brief ‘making of’, an amusing commentary and a “special message from Darth Stewie”. But it’s general filler and the chances are slim you’ll really be drawn to watch any of it.

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Family Guy Presents: It’s A Trap is out now on Blu-ray and available from the Den Of Geek Store.

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