Seth MacFarlane’s film about a naughty teddy bear will make audiences smile this summer. (Photo property of Universal Pictures)
By: Jacob Elyachar
Imagine if you are an eight-year-old boy, who is friendless and growing up in Boston. It’s Christmas morning and you receive a teddy bear that you instantly bond with and before you go to bed, you make a wish about making your teddy bear come alive? The next morning, you wake up and your teddy bear is not only walking but talking as well! This is the basic summary of the opening sequence to Seth MacFarlane’s Ted.
Ted marks MacFarlane’s first directorial debut of a live action film. In addition to voicing the fowl mouthed teddy bear, MacFarlane wrote the screenplay and helped produced the movie. It seemed like a big screen version of Family Guy for numerous reasons. One reason is the show’s writing style. If anyone saw an episode of any of MacFarlane’s comedies: Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show, there are known to have multiple flashbacks and dream sequences that are normally sprinkled throughout the episode.
Another reason is that the film could be similar to the FOX animated sitcom is the film’s cast. If filmgoers and MacFarlane fans have a chance to watch the movie, they would find multiple people who have worked with him in the past. Among them include Mila Kunis, Patrick Warburton, Mike Henry and Sir Patrick Stewart, who voice characters on multiple MacFarlane shows and play either starring or supporting roles in the film.
One of the reasons many moviegoers would enjoy the film is the titular character. Seth MacFarlane did an incredible job bringing the weed and beer loving teddy bear to life as he was the one responsible for both the voicing duties and performing Ted’s movements for CGI. The CGI designers did an impeccable job creating Ted because he actually looked like an actual teddy bear instead of a Build-a-Bear Workshop reject.
The acting in this film was great because each of these actors had great chemistry with each other and had terrific moments throughout the film. Mark Wahlberg continues to improve his abilities as a comedic actor as he played Ted’s longtime friend: John Bennett. Mila Kunis and Joel McHale also have some strong moments in this film. Also be on the lookout for cameos from Norah Jones, Flash Gordon’s Sam J. Jones and Ryan Reynolds that are featured throughout the film.
Overall and Grade: Ted is a very raunchy but hysterical comedy film that proves that in the right hands that teddy bears can successfully get away with smoking weed, drinking beer and even swear. This comedy is one of the year’s best and I cannot wait to see this again on DVD. A-
