Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story is a direct-to-DVD animated film set in Family Guy's fictional universe. Released on September 27, 2005, the movie's main plot point concerns Stewie Griffin trying to find his real father. The DVD contains commentaries and a sneak preview of American Dad!. The movie is available in the UMD format for the PlayStation Portable.
The movie was originally written to be a "straight-to-video" movie in three episode length segments. The three segments, each written by different people, are titled "Stewie B. Goode". "Bango Was His Name Oh" and "Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure". These three episodes were aired as the three-part season four finale. FOX aired the edited and separated versions of the three segments on May 21, 2006. It also had several scenes cut out, new scenes put in and other scenes altered to make it more appropriate for broadcast on American television.
Plot synopsis
Red carpet premiere and opening
The entire film begins with a news report involving the premiere of the actual film itself at the Quahog Performing Arts Center, where several characters have been invited. Eventually, the Griffin family arrives and each of them make a grand entrance, with the exceptions of Meg and Chris. Brian comes out of the limo and asks how everyone got in his bedroom. Chris comes out and makes a joke that he was sitting backwards in the limo so his underwear was going the right way. Stewie comes out and describes his political career, which resembles Saddam Hussein's. Lois falls out as she is extremely drunk because there was booze in the car and is followed by Peter, embarrassed beyond belief. Meg comes out and reporter Tricia Takanawa asks her a question and before Meg can even respond, David Bowie arrives and Tricia's attention is drawn to him as she dry humps his leg and offers to make him fish ball soup. Other guests included Drew Barrymore, the Kool-Aid Man and Cleveland. It ends inside the theater, where Quagmire is making a bootleg recording of the film. On screen we see fictional trailers for fictional movies. Then, on a green background, we see a sex warning, then it cuts to the 20th Century Fox logo.
Stewie B. Goode
Main Page: Stewie B. Goode
The film opens at the Quahog Community Swimming Pool. Encouraged by Peter and Lois to take swimming lessons, Stewie meets the star pupil of the class, Brad. Jealous, Stewie decides to try and outdo him in a swimming race. He nearly drowns in the process, while Brad finishes in first place. Feeling humiliated and wanting to kill his nemesis, Stewie rigs a lifeguard chair with dynamite and lures Brad beneath it by putting a piece of marzipan under it. However, Stewie's detonator malfunctions, and he blows himself up and is crushed beneath the lifeguard chair. Stewie awakens in Hell. Stewie is abruptly brought back to Earth, and he decides to change his ways.
Meanwhile, Peter gets a job at Quahog 5 News, hosting a ranting segment known as What Really Grinds My Gears, in which he rants about things that bother him, such as Lindsay Lohan and the 19th century. Peter becomes extremely popular, overshadowing Tom Tucker and making him feel jealous. His jealousy causes for himself to get fired.
Stewie's attempts at being a good boy mainly revolve around smothering Brian with affection, much to the latter's consternation. Brian finally goads Stewie into reverting to his old, violent ways, resurrecting Stewie's fear of Hell. Deciding to follow Brian's example of controlling anger through drunkenness, Stewie becomes an alcoholic; Brian, seeking to cure Stewie, takes him out for a night of drinking at The Drunken Clam which culminates in Stewie ramming Brian's car through the wall of the bar.
Knowing Stewie is Peter's son, Tom takes advantage of the situation and presents footage of the accident at the news station. Peter loses his job and Tom regains his post.
The next morning, Stewie wakes up naked in his crib with a hangover, apparently having blacked out and given Roger Moore his phone number the night before. Stewie laments to Brian his lonely existence in the world, and wishes that there were someone else to whom he could relate.
Bango Was His Name Oh
Main Page: Bango Was His Name Oh
Later, while watching television, Brian and Stewie see an interview with a San Francisco man who looks and sounds exactly like Stewie. Stewie is convinced that this man is his real father (he's really not proud of having Peter as a father) and resolves to travel to San Francisco to meet with him.
Learning that Quagmire is going on a Cross "Cuntry" trip through all 50 states with the intent of having sex with a woman in every state, Brian and Stewie hitch a ride in his "Wanna-bang-o". At a motel in New Jersey, Quagmire is handcuffed to a bed and mugged by a cleaning woman; Stewie finds Quagmire, and rather than free him, steals the "Wanna-bang-o". Having obtained "pep pills" from a trucker, Stewie goes off-road and crashes the vehicle. When they are stranded in the desert there is a clear homage with In the Army Now. Stewie almost gives up, but Brian gives a pep talk.
Meanwhile, in the B plot, Peter and Lois decide to encourage their older children to date others so that they could spend some time alone together without worry of interruption. They succeed in the end, only to question whether their motives were good and if the kids were really ready to see other people.
Arriving in San Francisco, Stewie and Brian track down the man from the television. Stewie confronts the man on a trolley, and is shocked to discover that the man is actually Stewie from 30 years in the future.
The movie then cuts to a brief intermission.
Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure
Main Page: Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure
Stu Griffin, as Stewie's future self is called, is taking a time-travel vacation, which is how people in the future take time off. Stewie tricks his way back to the future with Stu. In the future, Stu refers to the younger Stewie as a child named "Pablo" from Nicaragua. Amazingly, no one seems to notice the similarities between the two.
In the year 2035 at a family dinner, Stewie discovers how the lives of his family will pan out: Chris will become a traffic cop and marry a hateful, foul-mouthed hustler named Vanessa who belittles him and insists on putting Peter and Lois in a retirement home; Meg will transition from female to male after college and lives as a man named Ron; and Brian will die by eating chocolate he found in the garbage, go to Heaven, and spend a rather promising eternity drinking with Ernest Hemingway, Vincent van Gogh and Kurt Cobain.
Stewie over time learns of his own horrible fate: at age 35, he will be a virgin working for the Quahog Circuit Shack and living in a low-rent apartment and his only friend will be a female co-worker named Fran. Furthermore, he is a doting mama's boy, having long ago abandoned his matricidal tendencies.
Disgusted with the way his future life will turn out, Stewie remodels Stu's apartment and coaches him through The Joy of Sex with the intent of getting Stu to lose his virginity to Fran. Stu and Fran do end up having sex—for about eight seconds, followed by 40 minutes of Stu crying, and then offering to pay for the sex. Fran goes back to Circuit Shack and tells everyone about it, costing Stu his job. Returning home, he finds that his apartment is in flames, ironically caused by "stress-release" candles Stewie placed while redecorating.
His life now ruined, Stu laments the day of his near-death experience at the Community Pool. Noting that it may be a clue to the reason of his future life, Stewie asks him to elaborate, and Stu reveals that memories of the experience will re-surface when young Stewie is 20, causing him to regress and preventing him from taking any risks. Armed with this knowledge, Stu and Stewie proceed to the retirement home where Lois now resides to ask for money to purchase a new time-travel watch; Lois, who reveals she knew all along that "Pablo" was Stewie, obliges. They buy the watch, but before Stewie leaves Stu realizes that his history will change if Stewie succeeds, and that they will never see each other the same way again. They say their final goodbyes and Stewie begins his mission.
Stewie travels back in time to the day of the accident and runs to the pool. He manages to prevent himself from getting crushed by the chair. Past Stewie wonders what happened and asks Future Stewie who he is - Future Stewie responds, and after a brief talk Past Stewie vaporizes Future Stewie with his raygun. By obliterating Future Stewie, the trajectory of his future is changed, without him knowing. The family packs up and heads home, with Meg bidding farewell to a boy to whom she's been talking to, considering how much she likes his name: Ron.
Afterparty and ending
After the film ends, we cut to the afterparty, where each member of the Griffin family is interviewed by Tricia Takanawa, sharing thoughts involved with Family Guy's cancellation and comeback. In the end, during his final speech, Peter rips out a fart as a joke, and everyone laughs. The film ends with the screen pulls back, revealing it to be on another TV screen with Peter next to it. He explains that farting is no laughing matter, then rips out another fart, revealing it to be another joke.
Script
[For the complete script, see: "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" at the Transcripts Wiki]
References and notes
- The movie is referenced in "Road to Rupert" when Brian sells a DVD of it at the Griffins' yard sale. Lois mispronounces it as "Stymie Gruffin: The Untold Story" and criticizes its lack of film elements, noting that it's just three episodes back-to-back. She is then taken away by FOX employees.
- Quahog Circuit Shack is a reference to the now-defunct electronics store Circuit City.
- Stewie's climatic run to the pool parodies a similar scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Elmer Fudd from Looney Tunes appears to shoot & finally kill Bugs Bunny.
- There is a reference to the Steve Bartman incident during Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series between the Chicago Cubs and Florida Marlins which caused major controversy.
- There is a parody of the 1989 Cher music video, "If I Could Turn Back Time", in which Meg causes a whole naval force to jump off a ship.
- The video store Peter tries to get porn from was called "Lackluster Video", a parody of Blockbuster Video.
- When Quagmire tells Peter and Lois about wanting to go to Las Vegas, Peter brings up the last time he and Lois went to Vegas, they saw the Jew Man Group, a parody of the Blue Man Group.
- Tom Tucker appears playing Crash Nitro Kart on a Game Boy Advance.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is parodied in the second act, with René Auberjonois reprising his role of Odo and Stewie portrayed as Quark. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is also parodied in the third act when Stewie jumps on his older self and shouts "Surprise!" Catherine Hicks does the same thing to William Shatner in The Voyage Home.
- In a ThunderCats parody, Larry Kenney and Lynne Lipton reprised their respective roles of Lion-O and Cheetara. However, because the original voice actor of Snarf, Bob McFadden, had died, Seth MacFarlane voiced the role.
- When Peter, as the host of Family Feud, cops a feel from one of the female contestants, it's a reference to Richard Dawson, who always kissed the ladies on the show.
- One of the cutaway gags in "Stewie B. Goode" parodies the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
- The title of the episode "Stewie B. Goode" is a reference to the song "Johnny B. Goode."
- The Griffins buy TiVo at a store, while looking at many different TVs.
- The title of the episode "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure" is a reference to the film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
- There is a song by the bands Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution and Streetlight Manifesto called "Here's to Life" and three people mentioned who have committed suicide are Kurt Cobain, Ernest Hemingway, and Vincent van Gogh the same people who Brian is talking to in Heaven.[1]
- Stewie's vision of Hell in his near-death experience may be an allusion to Jean-Paul Sartre's play, 'No Exit'.
- When Stewie goes "back in time" to 2005, he "leaps" into Chris' wedding to Vanessa, much like the character Dr. Samuel Beckett on the television series Quantum Leap.
- Brian and Stewie discuss the urban legend of the ghost in Three Men and a Baby.
- Britney Spears is seen at a Comeback Concert on TV with Peter watching it.
- When Lois is trying to teach Chris the names of the girls from Sex and the City, the Asian torture expert Endo from Lethal Weapon electroshocks him when he gets the names wrong.
Televised version and changes
The movie aired on FOX on May 21, 2006. As foretold in the DVD commentary, many scenes were heavily edited and/or altered:
Scenes that were cut on TV
- On the DVD, the cut-scene in which Gandhi is in a comedy club, and says "...and the black people are always like 'Hey bitch!'" In the televised version, black people is changed to Americans.
- Quagmire, tied to the bed, dialing with his penis; in time porn comes on TV.
- Vanessa's line, "Ah, screw him Stu. That kid's from Guam!"
- Stewie's line "You're humping Fran" was changed to "You're nailing Fran."
- Fran's off-camera action of "putting in my diaphragm" was changed to "getting my diaphragm."
- After Fran's diaphragm line, Stewie told Stu to "insert your pen-is into her vag-in-a" in the FOX version. The syndicated version bleeps out the words "pen-is" and "vag-in-a."
- Lois requesting Stewie that, on his way back to the past, he "make sure Chris never marries that bitch Vanessa" and that she never end up in a retirement home, to which Stewie replies by laughing maniacally for an extended period of time. Subsequently, the scene where Stewie blows up Vanessa with his RPG at her and Chris' wedding is cut out, along with the fact that the time watch had enough battery power to travel to three destinations on one charge instead of two.
- A joke made by Stewie "Look at you Brad, floating in the water, you remind me of one of my stools!" is cut out.
- Stewie finishing shaving his "coin purse" and remarking that it bears an odd resemblance to Michael Chiklis, along with The Shield cutaway that follows.
Main changes from the DVD
- The red carpet premiere featured at the beginning of the DVD, the intermission between "And Bango Was His Name-O" and "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure", and the wrap party after all the episodes were made especially for the DVD.
- The opening credits are replaced by the standard theme song and are shown at the beginning of each part. Each part is closed by the end credits.
- Some transition effects and music were altered to fit as normal episodes.
Smaller changes from the DVD
- The first few gags at the swimming pool were cut, going straight to Peter trying to get Stewie to swim.
- Lois telling Peter that "they never should've replaced him on Roseanne" and the cut-away that follows.
- The scene showing "Property of Roger Moore" written on Stewie, naked, was cut. However, Roger Moore's scene was not cut, and a minor animation was added to mention him. Right before he shows up, Stewie, in pajamas, takes a cloth he found with the initials "R.M.", and Stewie's additional line is "Although I can't help wondering where I was last night, and who 'R.M.' is."
- Stewie wondering if there's someone exactly like him, and then the cut-away to Stu over in San Francisco.
- Brian and Stewie arriving in San Francisco, along with the ThunderCats cut-away after Stewie asks Brian if San Francisco has wacky roommates like the ones seen on sitcoms.
- Peter watching Britney Spears' disastrous comeback concert.
- Chris, as a police officer, giving Lois a list of violations he was going to turn her in for if she didn't give him a cookie.
- Stewie's lesson of "put it in, take it out" was shortened and edited to "and in, and out."
Miscellaneous scenes cut from televised episodes
- Stewie saying grace at the dinner table and Peter bringing up his great aunt Ella Fitzgerald Griffin.
- Brian and Stewie playing Pac-Man at The Drunken Clam, and Brian telling Stewie to get the fruit to get more points, and Stewie says that there was a ghost in the way.
- Peter recalling the time he was stranded on a desert island with Bono, where they had a crate of food that Bono was "Saving for the starving children" when they get rescued, only for Peter to find Bono "tasting" the food to "see if the starving children would like it." Peter then proceeds to beat up Bono and eat the food himself.
- Stu showing Stewie his prom photo, and how odd it was that he could remember that after so long.
- Peter and Lois watching Law & Order P.C.A.M.P.I.E.O.F.T.D: Petty Crimes Against Municipal Property in Excess of Five Thousand Dollars.
- Stewie remarking that Stu being fired is "almost as bad as when Peter got fired as the first director of Terms of Endearment."
- Stewie remembering when Peter got Lois a Galaga arcade machine for Christmas.
- Sound effects were added when Stewie pulls Stu's eyelids back.
- An elderly Tom and Diane giving news in the retirement home.
- The closing shot was cut out, instead ending the last episode on Meg's line "I've always liked that name; Ron..."
Scenes not on DVD
The televised episodes also contained two scenes not featured on the DVD release. At the end of "And Bango Was His Name-O", there is a Soap-style cliffhanger concerning Stewie, the cell phone man, and "any of our younger viewers." "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure" begins with a 24-style opening recapping the events of the previous two episodes and showing an unrelated clip from the short-lived TV series, The Chevy Chase Show.
Cast
- Seth MacFarlane - Stewie Griffin, Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Glenn Quagmire, Tom Tucker, Stu Griffin, Bugs Bunny, Additional Voices
- Alex Borstein - Lois Griffin, Tricia Takanawa, Vanessa, Condoleezza Rice, Additional Voices
- Seth Green - Chris Griffin, Additional Voices
- Mila Kunis - Meg Griffin, Additional Voices
- Lori Alan - Diane Simmons
- René Auberjonois - Odo
- Drew Barrymore - Herself
- Joy Behar - Herself
- Noel Blanc - Elmer Fudd
- Adam Borstein - Fireman, Additional Voices
- John G. Brennan - Horace, Additional Voices
- Michael Clarke Duncan - The Stork
- Bill Fagerbakke - Change For A Buck
- Ralph Garman - Additional Voices
- Jennie Garth - Kelly Taylor
- David Goodman - Jesus
- Mike Henry - Cleveland Brown, Herbert, Additional Voices
- Ali Hillis - Meg singing "If I Could Turn Back Time"
- Gary Janetti - Additional Voices
- Larry Kenney - Lion-O
- Don LaFontaine - FOX Announcer
- Phil LaMarr - Ollie Williams, Additional Voices
- Lynne Lipton - Cheetara
- Ron Livingston- Lackluster Video Clerk
- Rachael MacFarlane - Katie Couric, Baby-Expecting Woman
- Busy Phillips - Additional Voices
- Jason Priestley - Brandon Walsh
- Kevin Michael Richardson - Ray Charles, Additional Voices
- Kate Rigg - Brandi, Esperanza
- Will Sasso - Randy Newman, James Lipton
- Chris Sheridan - Additional Voices
- Danny Smith - Additional Voices
- André Sogliuzzo - Additional Voices
- Tori Spelling - Donna Martin
- Fred Tatasciore - Additional Voices
- Rory Thost - Casper the Friendly Ghost
- John Viener - Meg "Ron" Griffin
- Patrick Warburton - Joe Swanson
- Audrey Wasilewski - Additional Voices
- Adam West - Mayor Adam West
- Wally Wingert - Additional Voices
Music
- In the drunken bar scene, Stewie sings "Suicide Is Painless" — the theme from the film and television series M*A*S*H.
- During the first round of rehearsals for Stu's sexual intercourse with Fran, Stewie sings "I Am the Monarch of the Sea" from H.M.S. Pinafore.
- Stewie also sings "I Have Confidence" from the musical The Sound of Music.
- Stu sings Donna Summer's 1979 huge hit "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" to prove to Stewie he is really himself in the future.