Rating: ***
Review Date: 12/24/09
Cast: Seth MacFarlane, Seth Green
I saw a brief little clip of this at work and immediately rushed out to buy the DVD. It's a retelling of "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) featuring the cast of Fox's "Family Guy" TV show (which I've never seen, by the way). The writing is clever, but the humor is uneven and not very funny. It even uses one of the same gags from Seth Green's "Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II" (2009). However, it did make me laugh out loud 2-3 times, which is unusual for me. Where the video really stands out is in its shot-for-shot recreation of the original film, which basically looks like a cel-shaded version of the movie. It's absolutely astonishing and gorgeous to look at. It also uses the same score and sound effects from the film, so it really is like watching an animated version of "The Empire Strikes Back." Positively brilliant. Clearly a labor of love by all of the folks who were involved, and I'm looking forward to picking up "Blue Harvest" as well.