Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story

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Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Directed by Pete Michels
Peter Shin (supervising director)
Produced by David A. Goodman, Seth McFarlane, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith (executive producers); Michael Rowe (supervising producer); Kim Fertman (associate producer); Alex Borstein, Steve Callaghan, Mike Henry, Patrick Henry, Alec Sulkin, Kara Vallow, Wellesley Wild, (producers); Mark Hentemann (consulting producer)
Written by Gary Janetti and Chris Sheridan (part I)
Alex Borstein (part II)
Steve Callaghan (part III)
Starring Seth MacFarlane
Alex Borstein
Seth Green
Mila Kunis
Music by Ron Jones Walter Murphy
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) September 27, 2005
Running time 88 minutes
Language English
Budget unknown
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (full title: 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 is mostly about Stewie Griffin trying to find his real father. It additionally contains commentaries and deleted scenes. The movie is also 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, written by different people, are titled "Stewie B. Goode," "Bango Was His Name Oh!" and "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure."

The FOX television network aired the edited and separated versions of the three segments on May 21, 2006. It also had several scenes cut out to make it more appropriate for broadcast.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Forced 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. Trying to kill his nemesis, Stewie rigs a life-guard 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", a red hotel room with a small television and a sign on the headboard of the bed saying "Welcome to Hell", where he is greeted by Steve Allen, who proclaims, "Okay, let's do this," and begins to get undressed. Stewie is abruptly brought back to Earth by Lois, and he decides to change his ways. As it turns out, Steve Allen wanted Stewie to fix his shirt collar. Instead, Allen is forced to watch non-stop reruns of Who's the Boss?

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 the two ramming a car through the wall of the bar. 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. Later, while watching television, Brian and Stewie see an interview with a San Francisco man who looks and sounds exactly like Stewie. Stewie decides that this is his real father, and resolves to travel to San Francisco to meet with him.

Learning that Quagmire is going on a "Cross Cuntry"(the name is only implied when Quagmire is asked "doesn't country have an "o" in it" to which he responds "nope") 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, Quagmire is handcuffed to a bed and mugged by a cleaning woman; Stewie finds Quagmire, and rather than free him, steals Quagmire's car keys and absconds with the Winnebago. At a truck stop, Stewie obtains amphetamines, takes them, and ends up crashing the Winnebago in the desert. They see and run toward what appears to be a Dr Pepper machine, but it is actually a mirage. The machine turns out to be an RC Cola machine. He considers giving up, but Brian encourages him to see his quest through to the end.

Meanwhile, in the B plot, Peter and Lois decide to encourage their older children to date.

Arriving in California, 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. "Stu," as he is called, is taking a time-travel vacation, which is how people in the future take time off. Stu activates a time-travel device to go back to his own time and prevent Stewie from learning information he shouldn't know, but Stewie grabs onto Stu at the last second and is transported to the future with him. (In the future, Stu refers to the younger Stewie as a child named "Pablo" from Nicaragua while around other people before Lois reveals her knowledge of who "Pablo" really is.) Here, Stewie learns his horrible fate: at age 35, he will be a virgin working for the Quahog Circuit Shack (a Circuit City-type store) and living in a low-rent condo. Furthermore, he is a doting mama's boy, having long ago abandoned his matricidal tendencies. At a family dinner, Stewie discovers that Chris will become a traffic cop and marry a hateful, foul-mouthed hustler named Vanessa who successfully insists on putting Peter and Lois into a retirement home; Meg will transition from female to male after college and lives as a transsexual man named Ron; and Brian will die of eating chocolate he found in the garbage, go to Heaven, and spend eternity drinking with Ernest Hemingway, Vincent van Gogh, and Kurt Cobain. Disgusted with the way his 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 a female co-worker named 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, costing Stu his job. Returning home, he finds that his apartment is in flames, thanks to "stress-release" candles Stewie placed while redecorating.

His life now ruined, Stu laments the day he was nearly crushed and killed by the lifeguard chair. 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 proceeds to ask Lois for money to purchase a new time-travel watch. Once the watch is bought, Stewie travels back in time to the day of the accident (with a brief stop to kill Vanessa with an RPG-7 on her and Chris' wedding day, at Lois' request), where he prevents himself from getting crushed by the chair; but before Stu can tell his younger self any of the information he's learned about his future, Stewie (the baby, not the adult) produces a laser gun and vaporizes Stu because he couldn't tell him if they ever found a suitable vehicle for Ellen Cleghorne. The family packs up and heads home, with Meg bidding farewell to a boy to whom she's been talking, considering how much she likes his name: Ron.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Content

The content is not entirely heavy but it does have some sexual humor, violent scenes and partial nudity. Also there is profanity, with the word "fuck" being spoken fourteen times: twice by Lois, once by Peter, twice by Stewie, seven times by Vanessa (who speaks it almost in every sentence), and twice by Cleveland. It also uses the word "shit" once by Vanessa, and the word "bullshit" once by Cleveland. The DVD and UMD contain a "censor" option (a default setting), which inserts a bleep every time those words are spoken, essentially rendering the film with the same content as would be found in a regular episode of Family Guy. The censor option is also available on Volume Three of the Family Guy DVD series.

[edit] Televised Version And Changes

The movie aired on FOX on May 21, 2006. As foretold in the DVD's audio commentary, many scenes were heavily edited and/or altered:

[edit] Run In Time Alloted
  • The first few gags at the swimming pool were cut, going straight to Peter trying to get Stewie to swim.
  • The scene showing "Property of Roger Moore" written on Stewie 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 takes a cloth he found with the initials "R.M.", and Stewie's additional line is "Although I can't help wondering who 'R.M.' is..."
  • Brian and Stewie arriving in San Francisco, along with Stewie's Thundercats cut-away.
  • Peter watching Britney Spears' comeback concert.
  • Lois telling Peter that "they never should've replaced [him] on Roseanne" and the cut-away that follows.
  • Stewie's lesson of "put it in, take it out" was shortened and edited to "and in, and out."
  • Stewie wondering if there's someone exactly like him, and then the cut-away to Stu over in San Francisco.
  • 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.

[edit] "Viewer-Friendly"
  • 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 Pablo [Stewie]. That fuckin' 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 that, Stewie told Stu to "insert your pen-is" (instead of "your phallus") "into her 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. Subsequently, the scene where Stewie blows up Vanessa with his RPG at her and Chris' wedding is cut out.

[edit] Televised Episodes
  • 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 after-party material were made especially for the DVD.
  • The opening credits, of course, 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.

[edit] Misc
  • Stewie finishing shaving his "coin purse" and remarking that it bears an odd resemblance to Michael Chiklis.
  • 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.
  • Peter recalling the time he was stranded on a desert island with Bono.
  • Stu showing Stewie his prom photo.
  • 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 cabinet for Christmas.
  • Sound effects were added when Stewie pulls Stu's eyelids back.
  • 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..."
  • The chase scene in the movie is a parody of another chase scene in the movie Bullit(1968).
  • The scene where Stewie returns on the right date but too far away, starts as a parody of the Ferris Bueller's Day Off movie where Ferris is trying to get home before his parents do.

[edit] Scenes Not on DVD

However, 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 Chevy Chase Show.

The first part of the movie, "Stewie B. Goode," aired on July 9, 2006 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block. "And Bango was His Name-O" aired on July 16, and "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure" aired on July 23.

[edit] Additional information

Brian selling copies of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story in "Road to Rupert"
Brian selling copies of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story in "Road to Rupert"
  • In the fifth season episode Road to Rupert, Brian is seen selling copies of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story on DVD.
  • The DVD was released on September 27, 2005, holding the No. 1 spot on DVD sales in stores for a week. A completed DVD edit of the film leaked onto Usenet on July 24, 2005. This was originally titled "The Family Guy Movie".
  • According to the DVD commentary there was an episode called Where is Stewie? where Stewie has a near-death experience and comes out of the closet, but when Fox cancelled Family Guy in 2002, the idea was scrapped. Eventually, the idea became the first part of the movie, with the latter part of the plot removed. Also, Stewie B. Goode was originally going to be one episode, but the story was thought to be too long for half an hour and was changed into a DVD movie.
  • There are 46 flashbacks in the 88-minute-long movie, averaging one every 1 minute and 55 seconds.
  • According to the DVD commentary in the end before the after-party, none of the movie ends up ever happening, not because the story itself isn't canon, but because the beginning Stewie kills the present Stewie. This could possibly explain why it was not featured in Volume Four of the Family Guy DVD series.
  • When the viewer-friendly version aired on Global, it was rated PG instead of the usual 14+.
  • In the drunken bar scene, Stewie sings Suicide Is Painless - the theme from the film and television series M*A*S*H.
  • The opening of the DVD version of the film is similar to the openings to Stewie and Brian's "Road to..." episodes.
  • Stu says he's a 35 year old virgin and in a earlier scene Stu says to Stewie we are only 30 years in the future,which would make Stewie 5 years old.

[edit] DVD Exclusive Awards Wins and Nomination

Wins
Overall Movie, Animated DVD Premiere
Animated Character Performance (voice and animation in a DVD premiere movie) (Stewie Griffin, voice: Seth MacFarlane)
Screenplay (for a DVD premiere movie)
Nominations
Director (of a DVD premiere movie) (lost to Martin Scorsese for No Direction Home: Bob Dylan)

[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  Family Guy
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Characters
Griffin family: PeterLoisMegChrisStewieBrian
Main relatives: FrancisThelmaBertramMickey McFinniganPewterschmidts
Brown family: ClevelandLorettaCleveland, Jr.
Swanson family: JoeBonnieKevin
Goldman family: MortMurielNeil
Other individuals: Glenn QuagmireHerbertTom TuckerMayor Adam West
DVDs and CDs
Stewie Griffin: The Untold StoryOff the Cutting Room FloorLive in Vegas
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