Ted Review

When I first read about Ted some months back, probably in one of those ‘preview of the year’ features that crop up in the film magazines around December time, I thought it sounded like a pretty amusing concept. One Christmas a lonely young boy gets a teddy bear and wishes it to come to life. His wish comes true. Twenty-five years later, the young boy has grown up into Mark Wahlberg and the teddy bear is still very much alive, is voiced by writer-director Seth McFarlane and has developed a penchant for booze, bongs and bimbos. Their continued cohabitation threatens Wahlberg’s relationship with Mila Kunis, meaning the pair has to readdress their relationship.

Your fondness for Ted will depend very much on how much you like McFarlane’s previous work in general and Family Guyspecifically. Ted is very Family Guy in both its humour and tangential style. This is a bit of a double-edged sword – whilst many will find the Family Guy-ness of the film an attractive aspect, others will be disappointed that MacFarlane has felt the need to so doggedly ape the style of his cartoon. Ted proves that MacFarlane is a competent enough storyteller in this medium, so it’s a shame he hasn’t moved out of his comfort zone a little.

Unfortunately for a comedy, the jokes in the film can be a bit hit and miss. Whilst there are a clutch of very funny lines, some jokes already feel out-dated (Susan Boyle references? Really? And we’ll see how resonate that Jack and Jill quip is when the film hits DVD shelves), some punch lines are telegraphed from miles away and most gratingly, when the film goes for ‘offensive’ or ‘outrageous’, it more often comes across as ‘tedious’ and ‘predictable’. Of course the most important thing to get right is in any comedy is character. Anchorman is funny because a sexist seventies newsreader is funny. Zoolander is funny because an idiot male model is funny. Is a swearing teddy bear funny? I guess the answer, though only just, is yes; even if he does sound too much like Peter Griffin (a fact that the film acknowledges).

What is easy to like about the film is Mark Wahlberg, who is easily one of the most watchable actors around. His slightly dumb lunk of a character is lovable in all the ways his ursine co-star is most definitely not. Mila Kunis is also pretty game too, but she isn’t given a great deal to do in the film. There are a number of cameos in the film, most of which are surprisingly well-judged (who steals the show? Well, there can be only one).

Ultimately though, the film feels a little tired where it should feel fresh – Shaun of the Dead rather had the ‘slacker-best-friend threatens protagonist’s relationship’ angle sewn up years ago and that other Pegg-Frost vehicle, Paul, beat Ted to the punch in the cute yet sweary-druggy CGI sidekick stakes. There are also about 2,032 Judd Apatow bromance films which tread very similar ground. Ted then is a decent idea and boasts strong talent behind it, but it is lazily executed. It’s not bad for a few giggles, but is highly unlikely to knock the stuffing out of you.