Bear Jokes

Ted

Dir: Seth MacFarlane

Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Mila Kunis

Ted begins in Boston in 1985, where a young boy’s Christmas wish comes true and his toy teddy bear is magically brought to life. Ted (voiced and performed through motion capture by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane) enjoys a brief career as an 80s child star, before we jump to the present day where he now exists as a layabout stoner buddy, and general bad influence, to his 35 year old childhood friend, John (Mark Wahlberg). As the film progresses, Ted and John’s immature friendship based around getting high and watching Flash Gordon begins to take a strain on John’s relationship with his more mature girlfriend, Lori (Mila Kunis).

For a film about an anthropomorphised, pot-smoking, foul-mouthed and casually racist teddy bear – Ted begins very strongly. There’s loads of laughs to be had just watching Ted and John chilling on the couch and making pop-culture jokes, which are reminiscent of Family Guy’s glory days. There are also great comedic performances from the supporting cast, including a handful of amusing cameos. The first hour of Ted is well paced and had me regularly laughing out loud.

However, MacFarlene then seemed to remember he was writing a Hollywood movie and not an anarchic 20-minute TV episode. Staple story conventions thus creep in, channelling the likes of Knocked Up and Toy Story 2. The final act of the film, therefore, steers towards a predictable ending with significantly less laughs. Yet, annoyingly, the story didn’t need to be so telegraphed. More of the early vulgar humour would have been strong enough to entertain the movie’s key demographic, and some of the finest comedies – such as This Is Spinal Tap – manage to keep up the laughs when characters hit similar problems to MacFarlane’s.

The majority of Ted is crude, close to the mark and very very funny. Unfortunately, the schmaltzy and predictable story telling towards the end let down what could have been a much more entertaining film. Hopefully MacFarlane’s next picture will stick to pleasing the immature stoners, rather than attempting to grow up.

7 / 10