Ted

Rating: 7/10 (10 August 2012)

Seth MacFarlane had great success as the creator of acclaimed comedy cartoon Family Guy, and follow ups American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, but when I saw the trailer for this film, his first directed feature film, I was really looking forward to it. Basically, in Swampscott, Massachusetts, when he was five years old, John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) was given a large teddy bear that he named Teddy, he saw the bear as his only friend since he had no real ones and was lonely, and that Christmas night the boy wished the bear was real and alive, and his wish came true. John's parents (Family Guy's Lois - Alex Borstein and Ralph Garman) were shocked, and soon enough the story of the living teddy bear was all over the news and media as Teddy became a brief celebrity, and in the present day Johnny still has his best friend Ted (MacFarlane), now a pot-smoking, drinking and foul- mouthed waster, living with him in Boston, along with John's long-term girlfriend, office worker Lori Collins (Family Guy's Meg - Mila Kunis). Lori is hoping that with their four year anniversary approaching that John will propose marriage, but with Ted around she feels he is not able to live a normal grownup life, and obviously he is not happy to go along with his lifelong friend moving out, until of course he has four prostitutes round, and one during a game of Truth of Dare craps on the floor. Ted manages to find a new apartment, John helps him find a job in the grocery store, despite his disinterest in it, working there Ted's gross behaviour attracts beautiful co-worker Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth), but he still manages to see John a good amount of time, even skipping work, which frustrates Lori. While this is happening Ted also has to deal with a stalker, obsessive Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) who idolises the bear since being a child, seeing him on television, he wants to possess him for his fat and destructive son Robert (Aedin Mincks). It is at a party hosted by Lori's lewd boss Rex (Joel McHale) that things come to a head for her and John, he sneaks away and rushes to Ted's apartment, where the star of their most favourite movie, Flash Gordon, leading actor Sam J. Jones is there to have fun, John ends up spending longer there than he planned. Lori caught him in the act and in a rage breaks up with him, and in anger he blames Ted for this and says he should stay away and that he has ruined his life, they meet up again in a hotel room, have a fight, but slowly reconcile and realise he has to try and get his girlfriend back. Making an arrangement with "Sunrise" singer Norah Jones, Ted convinces her to let John go on stage at her concert, where Ted found out that Rex convinced Lori to go on a date with him, his singing of Octopussy's "All Time High" is embarrassing, but Lori was moved by him trying to win her back. Ted decides he should help the couple's relationship by going to Lori's apartment and having a talk, he takes responsibility for the party incident and not allowing his friend to have his own life, he offers to leave them alone, but after she is convinced by this he gets kidnapped by Donny and his son. At the stalker's house Ted is tortured with having his ear torn off by the boy who wants to play with him, but he manages to distract him long enough to make a phone call to John and tell him his situation, but he is recaptured, John uses Donny's contact card so he and Lori can rescue the bear. This becomes a big chase, Ted gets damaged along the way, and they end up in Fenway Park, the baseball park, after the stalker tries to grab the bear Ted ends up torn in half with his stuffing scattered, he dies in his friend arms, the wish magic fading away with his life. John and Lori return to the apartment and put Ted back together hoping that he will return to life, but it doesn't work, Lori tries the method of making the wish on a falling star again, the next morning the magic worked and Ted is alive again, and in the end John and Lori get married, and Ted has his own life and is promoted as store manager. Narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart, and also starring Family Guy's Joe - Patrick Warburton as Guy, Matt Walsh as Thomas, Alien's Tom Skerritt, Family Guy's Cleveland - Mike Henry as Southern Newscaster, Ray Romano and Ryan Reynolds as Jared. Wahlberg is good being the naive friend of the walking talking bear, Kunis as always is good at being beautiful and feisty, and the computer-animated teddy bear that is rude, crude, completely lovable and voiced and animated by MacFarlane does almost steal the show. You could think of this as a spoof of childhood fairy tales, maybe like Pinocchio, but it is done in a sophisticated and modern way, the humour is obviously very vulgar and offensive, but the fantasy element helps even it out, it is well written, and retro stuff like Flash Gordon involved is great fun, it is a really funny comedy film. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Song for "Everybody Needs a Best Friend". Very good!