Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)
Directed by Pete Michels & Peter Shin
Written by Seth MacFarlane, David Zuckerman, Alex Borstein, Steve Callaghan, Gary Janetti, & Chris Sheridan

Predictably, ninety minutes of the "Family Guy" formula is about equally entertaining and wearisome. I laughed my ass off through much of it, as the jokes are fast, furious, and frequently brilliantly offensive. That said, the various narrative conventions (particularly the "Just like that time I …" gag) really start getting on your nerves after awhile, even if you find the punchlines hilarious.

The "beating an unfunny joke into the ground" joke sometimes elevates the jokes to funny, but more often returns the jokes to unfunny. Also, for all of its relentlessly savage superiority toward other TV shows' senses of humor, "Family Guy" is prone to some really pandering pop culture referencing. ("Thundercats!" Ha, Ha! I remember that!)

Patchy as it is, I still enjoyed this, in a Naked Gun sort of way. The makers of "Family Guy" do have a knack for going the extra mile for a gag, such as making a "90210" reference and actually bothering to get the original cast members to do the voices. I just keep hoping that one day the show will actually be as brilliantly funny as it thinks it is.

Review by Buck Bernardo