Search Movie Review Archives

Seth MacFarlane, Seth Green, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis

After three seasons of maudlin ratings one of the best TV satires was cancelled with little fanfare. “The Family Guy” finally returned to the delight of fans when the reruns scored high in ratings on Comedy Central blowing away the competition (that would be Leno and Letterman). I’m happy to report that unlike some shows that return from the dead, “The Family Guy” hasn’t been zombiefied. Instead, it’s better than ever with better jokes, some truly outrageous episodes that push things to the boundary and beyond.

Overall the image quality looks very good and while there’s some jagged edges if you slow down or still the image the overall quality is quite good. Colors pop and the overall image quality is quite sharp. The sound is presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and that’s a first for this set since the previous two sets were presented in 2.0.

We get a couple of solid featurettes. “World Domination: The Family Guy Phenomenon” is nearly a half hour of clips and production crew discussing the reaction to the show when they found out they were brought back. Creator Seth MacFarlane, writer/cast member Alex Borstein and others provide a lot of interesting insight into the success of the show. With the clips of the rehearsals included, it’s kind of a neat opportunity to see the different elements of the show come together. ***

”Score! The Music of Family Guy” lasts about eight minutes and focuses on the songs and music created for the show. MacFarlane talks about the show’s composers Ron Jones and Walter Murphy. There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes footage of the recording sessions. We also get a deleted scene of Brian singing a song illustrated with both the finished animation and animatics. “Multi-Angle Table Read” allows us to see a rehearsal for a couple of episodes. Although called multi-angle what the featurette is referring to is a comparison between the table read and the finished animated scene. You’re not able to switch between the two yourself. “Storyboard/Animatic Comparisons” lasts about 20 minutes and gives a comparison for three individual episode. We also get a preview for “American Dad” to remind us its coming to DVD. ---

An excellent boxed set of one of TV’s best satires that does things that even “The Simpsons” won’t do, fans will be thrilled with this set of 13 episodes. Image quality is quite good and the colors pop. If you’re easily offended by satire without boundaries, I wouldn’t recommend this show to you. However, if you do have a funny bone and you’d like to have it tickled to the point of convulsions by all means pick up “The Family Guy: Volume 3”. Highly recommended.