Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story

I m a fan of Family Guy. I m not obsessed with it or anything, but it probably is my second favourite show on TV right now. That s why when I heard a movie was coming out of it, I really wanted to see it. I was slightly dismayed when I heard that the movie was going straight to DVD, because even though this is hardly ever true, I think of them as too bad to been shown in the movie theatres. I still wanted to see it though, hoping it might rank up with, or at least be close to, South Park! Bigger, Longer & Uncut which was a movie that I loved. When it came out I got it, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn t great.

Stewie Griffin: The Untold Family Guy Story is a movie of the hit show, Family Guy. Incase you don t know what Family Guy is, I ll explain. If you already know what Family Guy is, you can skip this paragraph. Family Guy is a cartoon that airs on Fox. It follows the Griffin family, who lives in Quahog, Rhode Island. The members are Peter, who is comparable to Homer Simpson. He is big and fat. He s not very smart and does many idiotic things. There is Lois, who is married to Peter. She comes from a rich family and is probably the most normal in the family. She usually holds the family together, like Marge Simpson, although there are certain times when she does really strange things. Then there are the 3 kids, Meg, Chris, & Stewie. Meg is 16 years old and generally disliked by everybody. She is ugly and geeky, but longs to be popular. Chris is 13 years old. He is fat and stupid like Peter and has a big appetite. Then there is Stewie, who is merely a baby, but probably the smartest in the family. He is a diabolical genius, bent on destroying the world and killing Lois. There is also Brian, the dog. He is an alcoholic with a dry sense of humor. When Family Guy aired, it was pegged as a Simpson rip off, and I d have to agree, but I still think it is much funnier than the Simpsons are.

The movie starts off with the Griffins at a pool. Everyone is having a good time, except for Stewie, who refuses to go into the pool, because he is afraid he ll drown. Peter tries to get him in, but fails, so Lois signs Stewie up for swimming lessons, where she thinks Stewie can learn to get use to the water. When Stewie takes the swimming lessons, he is still scared of the water and highly envious of an other toddler who is an amazing swimmer. Stewie plans to kill the kid.

So Stewie rigs a lifeguard chair with dynamite and sticks a piece of candy in front, trying to lure the kid to it where he can blow him up. Unfortunately, the trap backfires and Stewie is caught in the explosion and buried in the rubble of the lifeguard chair. He nearly dies and gets a glimpse of hell, which is so horrible, when he awakes he is grateful to be alive and vows to change his evil ways.

So Stewie decides to be nice to everybody, but unfortunately finds it very hard. Stewie isn t really a nice person. He takes to drinking alcohol to keep him happy more often. While watching TV he notices a guy being interviewed that looks exactly like an older version of him. Stewie recognizes the place he s being interviewed in as San Francisco and even notices a pen sticking out of the mans pocket that has a hotel name on it. Stewie comes to the conclusion that the man is his father, because Peter is far too dumb to be his father. Him and Brian hitch a ride with Quagmire, the Griffins sex craved neighbor, to San Francisco where Stewie ventures to meet his real dad.

There is also a sub plot involving Peter, who becomes the host of a segment on TV that s called What Grinds my Gears , where he complains about different things that annoy him.

My main problem with this movie is that it isn t that much better than the show. It isn t too special. It use to actually be 3 connecting episodes that were going to air in season 4 of Family Guy, but instead were all just made into a movie. To me it just seems like an excuse to make more money. The South Park movie was great because it was something special. It was so much funnier than the show and really had a lot of effort put into it. The creators have said that they won t make a sequel unless they can figure out something that ll do justice to the first movie. The Family Guy movie is the opposite, in fact, there are many episodes from Season 1, 2 and 3 that I would say are overall funnier than this movie. That really disappointed me. It s a waste of money to rent this movie which is basically just 3 episodes when you can just rent the whole season 1 and 2 for the same price. That was my biggest problem with this movie.

Otherwise, the movie is good, but still not great. Family Guy is a really funny show and the movie can be really funny. It s about as funny as a show from any of the new seasons, but less funny than a show from the older seasons. There are plenty of good parodies and pop culture references. There was a funny parody of Ferris Bueller at the end that was funny, but not hilarious. A lot of the parodies were humorous, but not top notch parodies. The part about TiVo didn t really make me laugh and neither did Peter s rant about Lindsey Logan, which dragged on for way too long. In fact, a lot of the Grind My Gears segments weren t too funny, although not too much time was spent on them.

Part 1 and Part 3 of this movie were still filled with many laughs for the most part. I laughed quite a bit at some of the stuff in them and I think that fans of Family Guy will find it funny too. I didn t like part 2 though; it was too devoid of laughs. Alex Borstein wrote that part and I didn t like it too much. She relied too much on Stewie generating laughs just because he s Stewie. A friend of mine once said anything Stewie did would be funny and I sort of agreed, because a lot of unfunny things he does, end up being funny. That is ok for an episode which is about 21 minutes long, but when you re watching 88 minutes of a movie that centers on Stewie, you get bored of him quickly and you wont laugh at him just because he is Stewie. The novelty wears out. Part 2 relied too much on those types of laughs and didn t have enough humor in it or pop culture references.

The funniest parts in the movie have to be at the beginning and end of the movie, where it is like the Griffins are going to the premiere and after party of their own movie. These are the funniest parts and there are plenty of good jokes. There are also plenty of memorable Family Guy characters that turn up and provide a good laugh, such as the Greasy Guy, Cleveland, Quagmire, and many others. I was disappointed that the chicken wasn t in it and that the old child molester wasn t in it either, although his voice can be heard in one scene. I think they could ve been two of the funniest characters in the movie. I was also surprised that Joe only had one scene and Bonnie didn t even have a speaking role in this movie, but I m not a big fan of theirs anyways.

The voice acting was really good. Seth Macfarlane does an amazing job as Brian, Peter and Stewie, plus additional voices. He really brings those characters to life and is a very talented voice actor. He is convincing and funny. Alex Borstein is also good as Lois and she is very convincing, although her voice is a little annoying. Seth Green is always good as Chris, although he isn t in this movie too much. Seth Green really is the only person I d cast as Chris. He brings Chris to life, is funny and convincing. Mila Kunis is also good as Meg. All the voice acting is good and is like the show. There is also a small cameo from Drew Barrymore. So the voice acting is generally really good.

The plot for this movie was really good. It was a good plot for a movie, but its execution wasn t great. I liked how it centered around Stewie more because I believe that he is the best character. I also liked the idea of Stewie searching for his real father. These Stewie-Brian road trip ideas have been done many times before in Family Guy episodes, but the idea of Peter not being Stewies father is pretty good. There is also a great twist mid way through the movie that although a little obvious, is very interesting. I liked the plot of this movie, but it could ve been done way better. It was a good idea though.

Animation is good and this is one of the few rare movies that uses traditional animation still. All the movies these days are using computer animation and I prefer normal animation much more. Family Guy uses normal animation with drawings that are simple, yet still very well drawn. The animation is good and is exactly the same as the show. I see no problem with it.

Stewie Griffin! The Untold Family Guy Story could ve been much better. It had a good plot, great voice acting and good animation, but it could ve been funnier. It was funny, but not hilarious and it wasn t really anything special, just 3 show episodes. I d recommend it to fans of Family Guy, but I really don t think it s worth renting or buying, unless you can find it cheap. You might as well just rent Family Guy on DVD for the same price.