It’s nice to see someone in life broaden their horizons, especially in film and TV. This time, the king of adult humour cartoons, Seth MacFarlane, ventures out of the artist’s studio and behind the camera to shoot some real-life people for his big screen debut,Ted, but can the man who delivered such household names as Family Guy, American Dad!, and Peter Griffin do it outside of cartoonland, with a foul mouthed talking children’s teddy bear? The answer, is Yes.
One Christmas in the USA city of Boston, 8 year old friendless John Bennett wishes for his brand new teddy bear to come to life to be his friend. The next day, the cuddly toy is alive and talking! Dubbed ‘Ted’, the two make a pact to be friends for life. Fast-forward 27 years to 2012 and John (Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter) is in a dead end job but dating the incredibly hot office worker Lori Collins (Mila Kunis, Friends With Benefits). She thinks Ted’s (voiced and motion captured by MacFarlane) childish, stoner lifestyle is holding back John from fulfilling his potential, and through many trials and tribulations, the three work out an agreement between each other, although a creepy father/son combo have nefarious plans for the filthy but adorable stuffed bear.
Weirdly enough for a adult comedy film, Wahlberg puts in a ridiculously good performance as the adult John; his Boston accent is second-to-none and reminded me of one or two people I know with his slacker attitude. He does a great job in bringing John to life and making him realistic, but Kunis isn’t a slouch either; whilst the plot synopsis may make Lori out to be a bitch, she’s actually quite sweet, and only wants the best for John and Ted; even though she cares deeply for both her boyfriend and his bear, you can tell who she’s going to favour in the trifecta of the relationship. Speaking of which, due to the top notch acting, John and Lori’s relationship is really nice to view, with in their ups and downs leaving me thinking “Wow! There’s no way this level of quality couple should be allowed anywhere near this movie!”
Apart from the titular Ted, there’s enough great cameos from celebrities and Macfarlane ‘family’ voice actors to make up the fact there isn’t a major third human character. Giovanni Ribisi (Contraband) as the creepy Donny looks and sounds like a uncomfortable psychopath father, Joe McHale (Community) as Rex is perfectly sleazy as Lori’s boss, and many Family Guy fans may be surprised to learn how the guy who plays Joe in MacFarlane’s cartoon looks exactly like his character, and the woman who plays Lois looks nothing like hers.
For a CGI heavy movie, Ted is actually done very well; there were no major animation errors, and there were great little details like where patches of Ted’s fur had rubbed off; a lot of this goes down to MacFarlane’s vision and the great job he did in motion capturing the foul-mouthed bear in order to bring him to life (even if Ted does sound too much like Peter Griffin for his own good).
For a high concept film, it’s wonderful. It’s a slight on the children’s wish films like Big but it keeps going to adulthood and beyond. With the fantastically funny Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) voiceover at the start, setting the tone of the story in a whimsical childlike way, it soon gets brought back down to Earth with an adult bang with the drug taking, binge drinking and adulterous activities the little teddy bear gets involved in.
MacFarlane’s directorial debut is interesting from a technical viewpoint, and isn’t a failure in any respect; the film comes together nicely and flows quite well, and the hard-to-film fight scene between Ted and John (which could have gone so wrong easily) is spectacular. There are a few cuts that come a bit too soon after delivering a gag (disrupting the transition to the next scene; as the audience was still crying laughing at what just happened), and it’s not always worth building a scene to a crescendo before quickly cutting so Ted can deliver a one-liner; once, twice, three times even, it would have been fine, but it happened way too many times for full effect in the law of diminishing returns.
Even though it’s an adult comedy, Ted is quite a sharp, crude, witty film; there were some horrifically funny parts when Ted pretends to be mentally handicapped after being stitched up wrong, and outgrosses his fellow checkout colleague in a series of sexual positions; and while many fans may be fearing it’s just going to be a Family Guy/American Dad! Cartoon blown up to 90+ minutes and set in real life (and Ted doesn’t alleviate all of those fears), there’s enough crude humour done well to diverge Ted from MacFarlane’s cartoon works and knock out it’s main competition (The Dictator) for the adult comedy crown this summer.
But, MacFarlane still fell back a bit too much on his “safe” cartoon humour style; whilst there wasn’t the amount of Family Guy cutaway gags expected, they were still there. There was a lot of 80’s referencing just for the sake of it, and there doesn’t seem to be any point to just referencing something like Knight Rider for no reason; yes, Seth MacFarlane, you were a child of that era, but grow up and make something relevant to the modern day! Admittedly, it did set up two hilarious bits; the Wahlberg and Kunis in Saturday Night Fever mode was quality, and the constant Flash Gordon references pay off brilliantly; but at the same time, it felt like retreading old ground.
Not perfect, and it doesn’t deserve the sequel people are crying out for, but Ted easily stuffs the competition to take the adult comedy crown for this summer and possibly the year. It’s not new humour and jokes but the high concept “children’s film grown up” is terrific and engaging throughout. Throw in an out-of-place believable love story, and we have a begrudgingly deserved hit on our hands.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
