"Family Guy" Road to the Multiverse (2009)

Director:

Greg Colton

Writers:

Seth MacFarlane (creator)
Seth MacFarlane (developer) ...

TV Series:

"Family Guy" (1999)

Original Air Date:

27 syyskuu 2009 (Season 8, Episode 1)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Disney Spoof | Parallel Universe | Role Reversal | Alternate Reality | Dog

US TV Schedule:

Mon. Dec. 14	11:00 PM	TOON	Road to the Multiverse	#8.1
Tue. Dec. 15	3:00 AM	TOON	Road to the Multiverse	#8.1

Cast

Seth MacFarlane	...	Peter Griffin / Brian Griffin / Stewie Griffin / Glen Quagmire / Tom Tucker / Homosexual / Stereopticon Man / Additional Voices (voice)
Alex Borstein	...	Lois Griffin / Additional Voices (voice)
Seth Green	...	Chris Griffin / Additional Voices (voice)
Mila Kunis	...	Meg Griffin (voice)
Mike Henry	...	Cleveland Brown / Herbert / Additional Voices (voice)
John G. Brennan	...	Mort Goldman (voice)
Steve Callaghan	...	(voice)
Ralph Garman	...	(voice)
Mark Hentemann	...	(voice)
Kei Ogawa	...	Japanese Meg / Japanese Lois (voice)
Danny Smith	...	(voice)
Alec Sulkin	...	(voice)
John Viener	...	(voice)
Patrick Warburton	...	Joe Swanson (voice)
Kotaro Watanabe	...	(voice)

Runtime:

30 min

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Company:

Fuzzy Door Productions

Trivia:

The fate of the Jewish character who comes to the door is inspired by the long-standing rumor that Walt Disney was a closet Nazi and/or racist. Evidence is mostly circumstantial, although Walt certainly wasn't above using Jewish jokes of slightly questionable taste. (In The Opry House (1929/I), for instance, Mickey dances around dressed as a Hasidic Jew. One scene cut from Three Little Pigs (1933) even had the Wolf dressed up as a stereotypical Jewish peddler; the scene was changed after complaints came in from Jewish groups.)

Goofs:

Continuity: While Brian and Stewie are in the universe where all people have two heads, you can see a picture of Chris on the wall, in which he has only the one head.

Quotes:

Brian Griffin: Okay, I'm a new neighbor, and you're my pet human, Hotchkis, got it?
Stewie Griffin: [stammers] I'm not so crazy about "Hotchkis" anymore.
Brian Griffin: What do you mean? You came up with Hotchkis.
Stewie Griffin: Eh, I know, but how about Axel or Maximillian or Dex? You know, it's gotta have an "x" in it 'cause that means I have cool parents who take me on expensive ski trips on spring break and I get to drink wine with dinner even though I'm only 14 and...
[Brian rings the doorbell]
Dog Peter: [scampering to the door] Omigodiknowthatsounditmeanstheresapotentialintruderatthefrontdoororoneofmypalseitherwayimexcitedandreadyforanything!
[opens the door]
Dog Peter: Hello!
Stewie Griffin: Heh.
Brian Griffin: Hello, my name is Blake Carrington.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References The Little Mermaid (1989)

Soundtrack:

Drop Dead Legs

Example of What's Right and What's Wrong With "Family Guy"

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This season opener is the perfect example of why "Family Guy" can be pretty funny at times, but also has the ability to leave the audience groaning with disgust, stunned with perplexity, or simply yawning with boredom.

I love "Road Movie" parodies on "Family Guy", and this has to be one of the best. Idea-wise, it's very creative: Brian and Stewie hop between alternate universes. Some jokes, such as the "real world" or "compliment guy" are funny and and intelligent, hearkening back to the best stuff from "Looney Tunes." My favorite---and I doubt few others will disagree that it was their favorite---was the "Disney world." The "Family Guy" animators really gave it their all to imitate the Disney style. It actually looked much more like a Don Bluth movie than anything else (Don Bluth was a former Disney animator, but his style is much more recognizable than Disney). Still, who'd laugh at a "Don Bluth" universe?

And herein lies the problem. Disney's too easy a target to lampoon, too famous and too timeworn a subject. At least "Family Guy" could have toyed with how Don Bluth preferred beautiful animation over substance, relied too much on Dom DeLuise as a voice-over artist, consistently was a box-office failure, or at least could have made a cheap "Troll in Central Park" joke (SNL did it with Alec Baldwin as Charles Nelson Reilly as King Llort---but I digress, which I love doing). But no, leave it to "Family Guy" to follow up a brilliantly funny song-and-dance number with a cheap anti-Semitism potshot at Disney. Ha! Ha! Ha! Walt was an anti-Semite! How original is that? And really, using the irony of anti-Semitism as a gag is getting as stale as week-old Wonder Bread. If only "Family Guy" could have thought of something a little less cheap than defaming Walt Disney in this way, it could have been funnier and more subtle.

We all know subtlety is not "Family Guy's" strong suit. Still, this could be mitigated with better writing overall. And need I mention perplexing anachronisms which the teenage and young adult audience will not get? Even if you are over 40, will you find it funny? The "no Christianity" universe was pretty funny until they brought in a completely unfunny John Hinckley reference. By the time I got to the "Dogs-as-sentient beings" universe, I was pooped.

Overall, this episode was uneven at best. It had its funny moments, but I was bored a lot of the time.

And am I the only one who feels sorry for the Meg character for the running gag of her being the black sheep of the family, and therefore the target of cruel jokes? It's not funny, it's just....just sad.