Seth MacFarlane’s big screen debut, Ted, is pure comedic gold. For MacFarlane fans who have grown accustom to his oft brash and crude humor, Ted delivers, and then some, but it is perhaps the depth to the movie, as well as the magnificent cast that helps ensure that Ted is more than some raunchy ‘bros before hos’ type of flick.
Mark Wahlberg is fantastic as the mediocre Bostonian John Bennett, a loner kid whose Christmas wish for a best friend was granted in the form of his stuffed bear affectionately named Ted.
As John grows up, as does Ted, and this is perhaps one of the more interesting parts of the film. Ted the bear becomes a national celebrity as the real-life talking bear, highlighted by a scene that finds Ted as a guest on the Johnny Carson show (which looks absolutely amazing and quite real by the way).
As years go by, John and Ted are inseperable, that is until John’s girlfriend Lori (played by an incredibly feisty and extremely funny Mila Kunis) becomes fed up and decides that John must decide between her or his best friend Ted.
The movie is as raunchy and gut-bustingly funny as one would come to expect from anything created by MacFarlane and most certainly takes full advantage of the pictures R rating.
Not only does MacFarlane provide the voice for Ted (who has a line in the film poking fun of himself saying “I do not sound like Peter Griffin”), he also provided all of Ted’s motions via motion capturing, leaving Wahlberg to shoot his scenes alone yet it seems as if there is actual chemistry between the two.
The film also has quite a few of interesting cameo’s and supporting actors. The under-appreciated Joel McHale of Community fame is excellent as the jerk boss trying to usurp Lori from John and the fact that Flash Gordon himself is in the movie is almost reason enough to see Ted.
While the plot device of someone making a choice between a lover or a friend, has been done already, for some reason Ted seems fresh. Perhaps it is because of the rapid fire jokes and over-the-top humor, but something helps to ensure that even the parts of the film that establish emotional depth do not drag on or come off as overtly sappy.
Ted is exactly what one would expect from the creator of Family Guy an then some, and this is MacFarlane’s first crack at the big screen, it will be interesting what he does for an encore.
