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| French poster artwork for the bromantic comedy drama film Ted. |
Boisterous
Bear
by Linh
The idea for Ted
has been with creator and voice star of the animated television series Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane, for the
last ten years. He waited until things settled with the success of Family Guy before putting all his time
and effort into bringing the talking teddy bear to life with his Family Guy colleagues Alec Sulkin and
Wellesley Wild. Ted is MacFarlane’s
directorial debut and it contains the same tone of adult sex humour and some
familiar faces and/or voices from Family
Guy that fans of the TV programme will instantly recognise.
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BED
BUDDIES: John (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted (Seth MacFarlane) sing
their ‘Thunder Buddies’ Song as Lori (Mila Kunis) waits patiently in the film Ted. Image: Media Rights Capital,
Universal Pictures.
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Ted
opens with a voice-over narrator (Patrick Stewart) introducing a small town
near Boston on Christmas Eve in 1985, where an eight year old boy named John
Bennett (Bretton Manley) feels so lonely because none of the other children
wants to be his friend. On Christmas Day, John opens his Christmas present to
find a talking teddy bear whom he names Ted. That night, John makes a wish upon
a shooting star that Ted will come alive and be his best friend for life. The
next morning, John and his parents are shocked at first to find Ted really has
come alive and Ted becomes an instant celebrity.
Twenty seven years later, Ted
has become a pot-smoking, beer-guzzling, unemployed has-been, while 35 year old
John (Mark Wahlberg) works at the rental cars store with Guy (Patrick
Warburton) for his Tom Skerritt-obsessed boss Thomas (Matt Walsh). John also
has a girlfriend named Lori Collins (Mila Kunis) whom he has been with for
almost four years. As their fourth anniversary approaches, Lori expects a
marriage proposal, but when John fails to present her with a ring, she gives
John an ultimatum. He must let go of his childhood friend so he can move on
with his life as a grown man. However, John is not the only one who can’t let
go of his childhood as Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) and his son Robert (Aedin
Mincks) are fans of Ted and they plot to kidnap him.
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PARTY
PAIR: Ted (Seth MacFarlane) and John (Mark Wahlberg) party
together like it's the 1980s in the film Ted.
Image: Media Rights Capital, Universal Pictures.
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Mark Wahlberg (Lone
Survivor, 2 Guns) has come a long
way since leading his hip-hop dance group 'Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch' to
international success in the early 1990s. Wahlberg shows his versatility in
comedy as John and is believable as the man-boy who must decide how to keep his
best friend and lover happy, in order to keep himself happy.
Mila Kunis (Jupiter
Ascending, Oz:The Great and Powerful)
is familiar to fans of Family Guy as
the voice of Meg Griffin, and she is wonderful as John’s very patient and
loving girlfriend Lori; Patrick Warburton plays the odd but nice Guy, whose
sexuality is questionable and is another voice star of Family Guy, as the paraplegic wheelchair-bound cop Joe Swanson;
Giovanni Ribisi is delightful as the creepy and slightly deranged Donny, who
has been obsessed with Ted since his childhood days and tries to abduct Ted.
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LIFELONG
LOVE: Lori (Mila Kunis) asks John (Mark Wahlberg) to consider
getting Ted to move out of their apartment in the film Ted. Image: Media Rights Capital, Universal Pictures.
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MacFarlane is excellent as the voice of the wise-cracking
Ted and the viewer needs to suspend their disbelief to enjoy the antics and
irreverent humour of this computer-generated bear. MacFarlane is definitely a
child of the 1980s with so many pop culture references from that decade that
would bring knowing smiles from viewers who remember the eighties. Cameo
appearances from 1980s celebrities form part of the narrative, as it
strengthens the friendship bond between John and Ted while they reminisce about
the superheroes they admired when they were young. Surprise appearances from
the likes of Norah Jones, Tom Skerritt and Ryan Reynolds add to the fun.
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COUCH
CONVERSATION: John (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted (Seth
MacFarlane) discuss Ted's new girlfriend in the film Ted. Image: Media Rights Capital, Universal Pictures.
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Ted is
more than a buddy movie or a standard romantic comedy. It is a bromantic comedy
drama - a romantic comedy of brotherly love on the verge of breaking up in
dramatic style. There are themes of life-long friendships, various stereotypes
of race/ethnicity/gender/sexuality and different depictions of masculinity or
male transgressions.
Since the success of The
Hangover and Bridesmaids,
adult-rated films with sex-related humour accompanied with coarse language have
become more popular, and Ted attempts
to lure the same audiences with its similar appeal.
Ted is highly enjoyable and the uninitiated may require several
viewings of Family Guy television episodes to appreciate the style of humour and
satirical silliness of Ted’s narrative
and characterisations. Ted’s closing
credit song ‘Everybody Needs A Best Friend’, with lyrics by MacFarlane and music by
Walter Murphy, even received a Best Original Song Academy Award nomination. A sequel to this film is in production (possibly
due for release in 2015) and it would be interesting to see if MacFarlane can
conjure up something equally satisfying for fans of the potty-mouthed talking
teddy bear.
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TED'S
TAMI-LYNN: Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth) finds some of Ted's antics in
poor taste in the film Ted. Image:
Media Rights Capital, Universal Pictures.
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Director: Seth MacFarlane
Writers:
Seth MacFarlane (screenplay, story), Alec Sulkin (screenplay), Wellesley Wild
(screenplay)
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane (voice), Giovanni Ribisi, Joel McHale, Patrick Warburton, Matt Walsh, Jessica Barth, Bill
Smitrovich, Ralph Garman, Alex Borstein, Laura Vandervoort, Jessica Stroup,
Bretton Manley, Aedin Mincks, Robert Wu, John Viener, Zane Cowans, Tara Strong,
Mike Henry, Danny Smith, Patrick Stewart (voice), Tom Skerritt, Sam J. Jones,
Norah Jones, Ryan Reynolds
Producers:
Seth MacFarlane, Wellesley Wild, John Jacobs, Scott Stuber, Jason Clark, Joseph
J. Micucci, Mark Kamine
Cinematographer: Michael
Barrett
Original
Music Composer: Walter Murphy
Film
Editor: Jeff Freeman
Production:
Stephen J. Lineweaver (Production Designer), E. David Cosier (Art Direction),
Kyra Friedman Curcio (Set Decorator)
Costume
Designer: Debra McGuire
Running
Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
