The new season of Family Guy kicked off on Sunday with a double-length special parody of Star Wars episode 4.
I've got to admit that I had some concerns as to how well this would work, but they have managed to tread that fine line between parody and homage without going too far into either.
The animation is excellent (and that is something that you can't usually say about Family Guy) as were the music and sound effects. In fact you can see the amount of effort that has gone into getting this episode to be just right rather simply presenting a selection of Star Wars jokes.
Leia: Aren't you a little fat to be a storm trooper?
Luke: Then stay here and rot, you stuck up bitch!
That isn't to say that every joke is comedy gold (do we really need another Herbert musical number?) but overall it is certainly well worth watching - if only to see Darth Stewie.
The plot follows the original very closely with plenty of shot-for-shot remakes and some excellent casting, such as Adam West as Grand Moff Tarkin, Cleveland and Quagmire as R2D2 and C3PO, Stewie as Darth Vader. On the other hand some characters, like Joe Swanson and Meg are under-used (in fact I don't think Joe even appears).
There are plenty of cameo appearances and digs at other sci-fi series which gives the episode some replay value (especially in the Cantana scene). The musican cues are well used, and the scene with the crew sneaking out of the Millenium Falcon to the sounds of Minnie the Moocher was simply inspired, as was the elevator music version of the Empire theme.
Lets hope that the rest of the series keeps up the high standard set by this one.
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