Get ready for a smorgasbord of reviews coming from this blog over the next few days. We start with the first film from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane...
A young boy makes a wish that his teddy bear could come to life and, as in all good fairy stories, it comes true. The trouble is, as the boy grows up into a thirty-something guy (Mark Whalberg) with a long suffering girlfriend (Mila Kunis) and dead end job to boot, so does the teddy bear, Ted (MacFarlane); into a cheeky, pot smoking layabout...
It's refreshing that, though his first feature film is primarily live action, MacFarlane has not strayed away from animation. The first striking feature of this movie is Ted himself, a wonderfully animated character who never looks that different from the stuffed inanimate object we see at the beginning of the film. Though his voice is eerily reminiscent of Peter Griffin, something Ted denies in one of the film's very funny in-jokes, he is a character that could have been very easily the stoner friend in any comedy.
He also doesn't overshadow the film's story as much as you would expect, given he's the title character and all. The one thing that MacFarlane shows is his heart within the storyline - this is a film about Whalberg and Kunis and their relationship. Though Kunis is never given a lot of time to shine as much as Black Swan showed us she could, their trials and tribulations are the back bone of the story.
The film never goes too far into mawkish sentiment though; a lot of Ted's one liners are often hilarious and occasionally border line offensive. A couple of fantastic cameos - Norah Jones and a surprise Hollywood A-lister whose presence should remain nameless just for the pure hilarity of it. Sam J Jones is the biggest laugh - an extended love letter to Flash Gordon filling a big set piece in the middle of the film that is more relevant than first appears.
Sadly the plot tries to cram a little too much in; Giovanni Ribsi is effective as a creepy Ted-stalker who serves as the film's villain of sorts, but is never given enough time on screen to make as much an impact on the plot. The film tries to add the element of peril in when it really works better as a romantic comedy.
Family Guy has in recent years been criticised for not being as good as it was in its early days, and that can be certainly true of many episodes, MacFarlane perhaps putting too much of himself into different projects. But Ted is a triumph for the director; and after all, The Simpsons made a film that was three levels above their input in their television series at the time. The same may soon be said of Stewie and the gang.
7/10
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