"Family Guy" was one of those excellent shows that were prematurely cancelled by the retards at FOX whom purposely rigged it to fail constantly changing the timeslot, and pre-empting it for any little thing. Either way, due to very strong DVD sales, the show was put back on the air by some stroke of luck, and now "Family Guy" is stronger than ever and in spite of my skepticism, this Straight to Video movie is actually great, and as funny as the series. This time around this very clever vehicle centers around a more elaborate plot, believe it or not, but the real aspect to watch for is the comedy.

"Family Guy" is popular because of its razor sharp wit and random humor that mimics Monty Python with its often gutsy take no prisoner humor that tackles anything from racial stereotypes to dead celebrities. Political figures aren't safe from the jabs, either. Hell, when "Family Guy" was brought back on the air by FOX, they wasted no time in insulting the network for doing so by listing every single failed show that aired after they were cancelled. Either way, in this new film which felt like an extended episode, Stewie discovers who may be his real father on the television and goes searching for him with Brian. As episodes like "Road to Rhode Island" and "Road to Europe" they experience many obstacles along the way. What happens in the second half of the film with Stewie's discovery really manages to become a sprawling reference to "Back to the Future 2".

McFarlane takes us from the premiere of the film which is really a hilarious set of sketches featuring the series recurring guests including the Evil Monkey, and then we enter in to the movie where it really manages to turn in to an often hilarious comedy and takes advantage giving a little more violence than it was allowed on television. We get to see Stewie inflicting a lot more damage to people this time around, and there are more racial epithets as well that really managed to make me roar in laughter ("Is Trisha Takanawa Japanese or Chinese?", "Trisha has had a few drinks, so she said she love the movie long time"). Hey, if you find "Family Guy" the least bit offensive you're either not a fan or too much of a tight ass to appreciate what they're doing. Not to mention, we also get to hear people say "fuck", a lot.

One of the more twisted and slightly disturbing scenes is when the writers finally put an end to the feud between Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. I won't tell you how, but surprisingly, I was a bit disturbed; it's something the writers of "Family Guy" excel at, and when they can disturb, they're basically doing their job. As a big fan of the series, "The Untold Story" really is a treat and never drags on too long. At only being under ninety minutes, McFarlane surely gets the job done with a tight film that succeeds in feeling like an extended episode.

I have to say, for a movie I was looking forward to, with expectations that gradually increased from skepticism to optimism over the course of time I gandered at the buzz for this, I must say I was slightly disappointed. It's not to say I was expecting a masterpiece, but I was expecting something really good, and ultimately it's not as funny as it could be, or should be. It's a common problem with series that are fun, and then when extended it completely loses everything that made it so good. It's a rare bunch that can extend a half hour in to a full length movie without losing any of its life. The "South Park" movie accomplished the run time without losing the magic, and "The Untold Story" doesn't completely work as a full film.

It's impossible to keep the material funny while stretched in to an hour and a half slot, and McFarlane doesn't pull it off as well as he'd like. The movie has its share of hilarious jokes, that's pretty much a given, but there were sometimes when the film didn't pull off the jokes, and then there were times when the movie went on without a single funny joke. I was just angered that I didn't laugh as much as I thought I would. What "The Untold Story" fails in, is it misses the energy and pure randomness of the show where everything was so erratic and unexpected, but the script here seemed to be planned from a procedural standpoint where it became sadly obvious many of the jokes were pinned on instead of really thrown at us out of nowhere.

"The Untold Story" is not a perfect film adaptation of the series. It has its share of hit and misses, and a production that misses the energy that makes the series so great, but it is a lot better than many of the other comedies I've seen in years, and this is "Family Guy" at its best.

• To turn the movie from Censored to Uncensored, go to the Language section on the DVD and go to English (Uncensored), and the expletives will fly.
• Some of the cast from FOX' "Mad TV" make appearances on the series from Will Sasso, to Phil Lamarr, and Alex Borstein (who plays Lois and many other voices) respectively.
• The actors who played Cheetara and Lion-O are the actual actors from the series.

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