A decent comedy that quickly goes from cute to irreverent

Rating: 7/10 (10 May 2014)

I remember this film being promoted two years ago and in the television advertisement for this, I liked the line, "My bad! I was sending a Tweet," which for me is one of the funniest and most memorable lines in this film. One of my housemates rented out this film in the same year it was released but I only watched about the first fifteen minutes of it at that time. More recently I rented it myself and when I watched it the whole way through, I was slightly more satisfied despite the film dragging on from the middle and it was also a little overlong.
For a start, Ted was well-animated and comically voiced by Seth MacFarlane who brought us 'Family Guy.' Speaking of which, the irreverent dialogue in this would appeal to fans of the said animated sitcom and Ted's mention of Peter Griffin was a cracking fourth-wall joke and pop culture reference rolled into one. Other pop culture references I noticed were to other films distributed by Universal such as E.T. and Jurassic Park and I figured that they could pay homage to Universal's centenary in 2012. Back to 'Ted,' the titular character's animation was one of the best assets of the production values as were the cinematography and some beautiful uses of scenery, particularly John's snowy childhood neighbourhood (plus also the lens flare effect over it) and the park. While the incidental music was pretty grand for the film's genre, the music accompanying Ted falling down after having been torn in half was simple yet suitably chilling and dramatic. I also liked the song played over the opening credits as well as the use of the Flash Gordon theme, Norah Jones's ' Come Away with Me' that she briefly performed live and Tiffany's 'I Think We're Alone Now.' Both Joneses (Sam from Flash Gordon and Norah) were surprising additions to the cast and what surprised me even more was Norah's dialogue since I never saw her to speak in a tongue-in-cheek way but Sam's appearance was more worthy, especially when he demonstrated his Flash Gordon actions. With regard to the leading human characters, the chemistry between Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis may have been typical rom-com cliché but their bonding with Ted has made this chemistry somewhat new. The narration from Patrick Stewart was engaging and almost as irreverent as the film itself.
Overall 'Ted' is a worthwhile comedy that has its cheeky moments but funny ones too, albeit its sluggish pacing and long running time. 7.5/10.