Family Guy – Volume Four
Picture:
B- Sound: B Extras: B+ Episodes: B
Family Guy – Volume Four is funnier than that time that
Mime got lit on fire….what no clip?
Anyway, here we have the fourth volume of Family Guy, with all the same great humor and insanity as all
previous volumes. Family Guy hit the airwaves over seven years ago in 1999, and the
animation world has not been the same since.
Family Guy manages to infuse
today’s current events, pop-culture, nostalgia, gratuitous sex and violence,
and tons more into a mere half hour time slot.
It has become a growing trend for the Fox Network to cancel top rate
shows, Fox attributing this to poor ratings and not to the fact that they move
these series around from time slot to time slot.
Arrested Development, Futurama, and Family Guy,
to name a few, have all fallen victim to this time slot sabotage, but
thankfully due to other Networks (such as Cartoon Network) picking up these
orphaned series in syndication, and in turn gaining groundbreaking ratings, Fox
has reanalyzed certain series and brought them back from the dead. It is not only syndication which has saved
this series but also the fact that its first two Volumes are amongst the
highest selling DVD Box Sets of all time.
Family Guy’s prime target
audience is young adults, generally 15-25 years of age, and this is just fine
with series creator Seth MacFarlane who not only writes and directs but also
voices many of the series’ characters.
The creative powerhouse that is Family
Guy holds its ground when compared to such classics as The Simpsons and the now ten year old South Park.
To this
reviewer it remains simply amazing that a series like Family Guy manages to entertain viewing after viewing, throwing
onlookers into fits of laughing hysteria.
This sweet set contains some of the best Family Guy episodes to date,
including PTV, The Father, The Son and The Holy Fonz, and much more. Many other series have managed to infuse
themselves into our culture, such as Seinfeld
(“NO SOUP FOR YOU!”), and Family Guy
is no different not a day going by since the series has aired that this
reviewer has not heard something along the lines of “For every pickle I find…I
shall kill you!” The fact remains that Family Guy is some of the best, purely
entertaining TV today and at this rate the series is only getting better.
The voice
cast of the series is as special and essential to the show as the creative
writing. Many great voice actors
overtake the series such as Alex Borstein (Mad
TV), Seth Green (Robot Chicken),
Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld), Mila
Kunis (That 70’s Show), Seth
MacFarlane (Family Guy Creator), and
many more. The dedication that the voice
cast has to the series is completely evident, especially when interviews are
seen explaining their ecstatic reactions to the series being picked-up again by
Fox. Overall, this Volume (4) as well as
the other three volumes of the series are a must have for any DVD collection,
and this reviewer personally can’t wait to see what this crazy crew does next.
Here is a
full list of Family Guy – Volume Four’s
14 gut busting episodes:
PTV
Brian Goes Back to College
The Courtship of Stewie’s Father
The Fat Guy Strangler
The Father, The Son and The Holy
Fonz
Brian Sings and Swings
Patriot Games
I Take Thee Quagmire
Sibling Rivalry
Deep Throats
Peterotica
You May Now Kiss the…Uh…Guy Who
Receives
Petergeist
The Griffin Family History
This DVD
set is very well presented in picture, sound, and especially extras. This TV on DVD set’s picture is presented in
a sufficient 1.33:1 full frame format, with adequate clarity and DVD transfer
that is quite good for animation. The
sound quality of this DVD set is quite good in its Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
sound format, the quality being well distributed and clear. The extras compliment the set very well. Not only is there a plethora of extras but
the audience will want to watch them again and again just like the
episodes. The extras range from Commentaries
on every episode, 40 deleted scenes, 3 featurettes, and many more special
features. In the end, a very well put together set.
A great
television series such as Family Guy
could not have been subdued for long, hence its reemergence in movie form and
its prime time television comeback.
Other shows such as Futurama
who experienced the same fate as Family
Guy will soon see the light of day once again, soon to reappear on TV and
straight to DVD movies. Family Guy – Volume Four is a
collection essential that will make you laugh from morning to night.
- Michael P. Dougherty II
