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Why Family Guy's Empire spoof made Lucas squeamish
Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side is the latest Star Wars spoof video that places the animated show's characters into George Lucas' Star Wars movies—in this case, The Empire Strikes Back—but director Dominic Polcino revealed that it took a bit of persuasion to get Lucas to sign off on some of the satire's racier elements.
Dark Side drops a few F-bombs, as when Peter and Chris argue over the Family Guy-vs.-Robot Chicken spoofs of Star Wars. (Seth Green, voice of Chris, produces Robot Chicken.) Still, Family Guy got away with it.
"[Lucasfilm] were leery about some of the humor that went dark," Polcino revealed. "Saying, 'F--k you, dad' and stuff like that."
In the new DVD movie, Peter Griffin returns as Han Solo, Chris as Luke Skywalker, Lois as Princess Leia and Stewie as Darth Vader. Creator Seth MacFarlane also cast neighbor Mort Goldman as Lando Calrissian. ("We were running out of characters," MacFarlane said at his Los Angeles home on Dec. 12. "We figured hey, how about Mort?")
There's other racy bits, as when the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi reappears to guide Luke to Dagobah. Since Herbert the pedophile is Obi-Wan, he tries to take advantage of a prone Skywalker. "If you're familiar with Empire, when Luke is passed out in the snow, about to die, Obi-Wan appears and tells him to go study with Yoda," said Mike Henry, voice of Herbert and Cleveland, in a separate interview. "Basically, in the real movie it's like, 'Luke,' and he wakes up. In this movie, it's 'Chris. Take your pants off.' Actually, I think exactly what it said was, 'Luke, pull your pants down.' So we're just going right at it."
The spoof is faithful, more or less, to the original version of Empire and not the 1997 special edition, which changed a few things, including dubbing a girlie scream over Luke's fall down the shaft in Cloud City.
"I actually wanted to make sure that our crew never saw the redone versions, because I wanted to be faithful to the original original, where he does not scream," Polcino said. "In ours, I think he doesn't scream, but he does find his hand."
Not all of Family Guy's changes were controversial. Some were just practical. Since baby Stewie plays Darth Vader, the climactic lightsaber battle had to be modified. A Stewie-sized Vader had to be more acrobatic to fend off a Chris-sized Luke. "Yeah, we have to jump up in the air almost like Yoda did in the other movies," Polcino said.
For all that was changed, you might also be surprised how many lines remain exactly as spoken in the 1980 original film. Even though Chris has a squeaky voice, Green tried to sound as much like Mark Hamill's Luke as he could. "There are some moments in this that are verbatim from the movie," Green said. "So when a really specific performance is something that you remember from the movie, we try and replicate it."
Empire Strikes Back isn't the only movie spoofed in Something, Something, Something Dark Side. As you might expect in a Family Guy production, there are other references to pop culture: American Idol, The Real World, even Rocky IV (Luke's training with Yoda features Rocky-style workouts, intercut with the live-action footage of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) working out). "I wasn't in the writer's room for that, but that's a good moment," Polcino said.
Something, Something, Something Dark Side is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
By Bluesman at 3:43 PM ON 12/23/09
Saw it, loved it, laughed my @$$ off!! I can hardly wait for the Ewoks!
By IamALegend at 4:00 PM ON 12/23/09
Maybe that was what was needed for the "First" three films. Phantom would have been so much better if some of the cast had said "F--- You!!" a couple of times.
By Bluesman at 4:20 PM ON 12/23/09
They did. Remember Jar Jar? Looked like a pretty big one to me...
By Celesto at 4:27 PM ON 12/23/09
ja well, the first time i saw the first family guy star wars ep, i was not very amused about it, but i live star wars and sometimes laughting about it is not bad.
By Justo at 4:41 PM ON 12/23/09
What the hells so wrong about the special edition? You see more of Cloud City, there are more shots of the wampa and Luke screams, that's about it. And the DVD version took out the scream. It's not like it's a different movie. Fanboys are weird. They hate Lucas yet they can't live without Star Wars. I think most nerds are that way, they either love something or hate it and spend hours bashing it online.
By demoncat at 6:34 PM ON 12/23/09
if all Lucas films got upset about was some swearing in the parody plus seth and crew stayed true to empire as possible then family guy should consider themselves lucky for Lucas could have pulled the plug on the thing. and wonder how Lucas film will react when family guy does return of the jedie
By hermy at 6:38 PM ON 12/23/09
I love star wars.but i also love to laugh my ass off.and seth and the gang did it again.
By Jules Winnfield at 7:53 PM ON 12/23/09
Mike Henry: "Basically, in the real movie it's like, 'Luke,' and he wakes up. In this movie, it's 'Chris. Take your pants off.' Actually, I think exactly what it said was, 'Luke, pull your pants down.' So we're just going right at it."
As someone who was once molested on multiple occasions during a blizzard, I found that very offensive.
By Jason B. at 9:40 PM ON 12/23/09
@demoncat - Actually, I think they could've done it anyway without the "blessing" of Lucas. It should easily fall under the usage of parody.
By maughanster at 10:01 PM ON 12/23/09
I dig it
By Des_Shinta at 1:15 AM ON 12/24/09
Needed fewer non-sequitors (or whatever you call the cut-across-es to unrelated items), but overall not a bad film. The problem was that this was supposed to air months ago, and kept getting pushed back. Lets hope the finale has less misfortunes.
Oh, and the cast needs to stop ragging on Meg. Either kill her off or send her somewhere else, the gag stopped being funny two show cancellations ago.
By thunderstud at 2:46 AM ON 12/24/09
Honestly, I saw the first one on TV and thought it could've been better. As a half hour show FG works fine, but stretched out it had too many awkward pauses and lame-ass jokes. Also some missed opportunities too. As a result, I'm skipping this one (no offense intended to those who did like it though).
By Aldo Raine at 3:19 AM ON 12/24/09
Des_Shinta: "Oh, and the cast needs to stop ragging on Meg. Either kill her off or send her somewhere else, the gag stopped being funny two show cancellations ago."
Hits a little too close to home, huh?
By Carpe at 10:38 AM ON 12/24/09
@Jason B.
I beleive they needed Lucas to sign off because they were not involved in fair use. They were making and selling a parody for profit. For that they would legally need the proper rights from Lucas.
By rtavi at 12:00 PM ON 12/24/09
Saw the other one it was ok but Robot Chicken's version was far better -particularly the emperors phone call from darth vader after he lost the Death Sta-r that was priceless!
By muadib at 2:19 PM ON 12/24/09
rented it last night .FUNNY AS HELL! GOOD FUNNY POINT TO LOOK FOR .when luke slides down the tube after getting his hand cut off and he comes to a stop, look closelyat the guy working there that he ask's "did you find a hand "? Look at the guys crotch>IT happens fast ,i hade to rewind and look again.it's fucking funny.And look for dog the b.h. in a scene on the super star destroyer.
By boadster at 12:44 PM ON 12/28/09
Watched it last night..Didnt like it as much as the first one. I have 10 and 11 year old sons who could handle the first one- the spontaneous swearing by Cleveland when he gets shot in the trench- an OCCASIONAL expletive- but this one was gratuitous and more mean spirited. The only funny part - that they could have carried out a hair longer- was the training montage w/ Rocky 4 footage. Disappointed...Thumbs down...
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boadster:
Watched it last night..Didnt like it as much as the first one. I have 10 and 11 year old sons who could handle the ...More »