Family Guy: It's A Trap

Though Family Guy’s first two Star Wars send-ups weren’t quite as brilliant as you wanted them to be, there was enough hit-and-miss genius to recommend. Sad then that despite the fact that the Return Of The Jedi, being the weakest of the trilogy, arguably offers more scope for comedy, Peter Griffin's retelling feels like a half-hearted effort.

At least your hopes aren’t up for long though as Seth MacFarlane and co’s opening space crawl asks us to lower our expectations as they’ve “run out of gas” and were forced to do this one by Fox. Sure, this is likely a self-aware gag, but as the screen-time ticks by you get the feeling it’s close to the truth. The fact that characters from MacFarlane’s other shows are used to fill gaps is fine (Klaus the fish from American Dad is a fine Admiral Ackbar), the ‘let’s get this over with’ vibe isn’t.

Still, the Family Guy hive mind of writers offer enough golden moments to keep Jedi fanboys watching. A live-action sock puppet in Jabba’s palace to mock Lucas’ CGI additions, characters nodding in preparation for the Sarlacc Pitt escape, the old shuttle code, Stewie’s Vader noticing Chris’ Luke at the window… inspired. Shame then that there’s not more of it, although the force is still strong with the animation team.