Family Guy: It's a Trap! (2011)
Season 9, Episode 18
Still funny but not as good as the previous two specials
16 January 2011
With the regularity of a third world country, another power cut hits the Griffin house and it is with a weary sigh that everyone knows that the telling of Jedi is on its way.

This film has not been particularly well received but for me I found it funny enough to like if not love. The Family Guy Star Wars parodies are structured on the movies themselves so the fact that Jedi is not particularly good sort of makes it harder to do as a comedy everyone will like. In combination with this is that the spoof "franchise" is perhaps not as fresh as it was when they did Blue Harvest. This leads to some bits that are amusing but drag on far too long (the nodding bit for example, or that country singer) as well as material that is funny but is a bit obvious and seen-before. I still laughed though and there is enough here to draw regular laughs from those that like Family Guy – although I will caveat that by saying I do not watch the TV show so perhaps It's a Trap feels fresher for me whereas for regular viewers it may just be more of the same.

The in-joking is overdone even if it is funny. I liked them sticking it to Seth Green even if it did lack teeth in terms of what was said, but they did do it for too long. The rest of the material is reasonably good but, like I said, there didn't seem to be much enthusiasm or imaginative wit in the writing, like the obvious jokes were enough and if everything could be made to last a few more seconds it would only help the writers fill it up. The voice cast are typically good and the animation cannot be faulted (I do love how they look just like the original films), but the material just needed more spark.

I'm not sure if the "we were forced to make this by Fox" line is a joke or true but there is certainly a sense that it is an expectation rather than a good idea. I still found it funny and it provided me some good laughs throughout, but they were mostly silly gags and most of them ran on for a few seconds after my laugh had finished. Worth seeing and certainly not the dire spectacle that others here have said, but not as good as they first managed and it certainly had room to be sharper.
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