Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story

It's definitely not for kids, but this occasionally laugh-out-loud feature-length effort will be catnip for fans of the cartoon series The Family Guy (which debuted on Fox in 1999, was later canceled, and then finally brought back on the strength of strong DVD sales). Essentially a trio of unaired episodes strung together, The Untold Story focuses on the show's most popular character, the dysfunctional Griffin family's highly-advanced infant child Stewie (whose haughty British-sounding voice is courtesy of series creator Seth MacFarlane). The story revolves around a near-death experience for Stewie that causes him to become (gasp) nicer, leading to a horrifying vision of himself in the future. Along the way, the show pokes hit-and-miss fun at The Sound of Music, Gandhi (seen here as a standup comedian), Jesus (as a lame magician who appeared on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), the Indiana Jones films, and those old Memorex audio tape ads with Ella Fitzgerald. Oh yeah, there's also a trip to hell that includes meeting Steve Allen. Ouch. DVD extras include an audio commentary. Optional. (T. Keogh)