Ted comes to life in theaters

A lonely boy whose only Christmas wish is for a best friend – cute. A couple in love trying to figure out if they are meant to be together – sweet. A foul-mouthed, pot-smoking stuffed bear come to life? Comedy gold.

Ted, the big screen debut of director Seth MacFarlane, fireworked into theaters this summer. The film follows the relationship between 35-year-old John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) and his teddy bear Ted (voiced by MacFarlane). The two have been inseparable ever since John’s childhood wish for a best friend caused Ted to come to life. When John becomes serious with girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis), however, Ted’s immaturity creates problems for the couple’s relationship.

The humor in Ted is excellent. The clever jokes and dialogue are reminiscent of those made in Family Guy, which MacFarlane is creator and writer as well. In one scene, Ted and John sing an expletive-laced “thunder song,” cursing out the frightening weather phenomenon. In the tamest part of the song, the two mock thunder for merely being “God’s farts.” To get an idea of the film’s humor, imagine Family Guy, but with a license to an R rating and feature length. In fact, the cast of Ted features several show regulars from the animated TV series. See if you can recognize their voices!

As it turns out, everything is funnier coming out of the cotton mouth of a teddy bear – especially one with a Boston accent that slightly resembles Peter Griffin. The teddy bear aspect not only made for an original, hilarious story, but also allowed MacFarlane to write material that may have been outside the boundaries for what viewers would accept from a human character. For example, a teddy bear can get away with constantly doing bong hits, fraternizing with hookers, and swearing like a true New Englander - and we still love him.

Ted is a live-action film with a motion-capture teddy bear. It incorporates the same type of technology perfected by revolutionary movies such as Avatar and Lord of the Rings. According to MacFarlane, what CGI technology “does so well is that it takes fantastical characters and makes them as realistic in movement as possible.” This movie definitely captures that quality of realism. The character Ted is so well sutured into the film that viewers will forget he is animated. This effect is emphasized in an intense fight scene between Ted and John. Borne-like camera shots capture Mark Wahlberg and a teddy bear clobbering each other as they furiously barrel across a hotel room.

The progression of the story is a little predictable, but moviegoers were probably not drawn to theaters with high expectations of great plot twists and dynamic story structure. They bought tickets because they wanted to see a teddy bear partying, hitting on women, and hanging out with Mark Wahlberg. On those notes, the film delivered. Still, the plot does include some drama, not only in the conflicts that exist between John’s relationship with Ted and his relationship with his girlfriend, but also in forms like a creepy stalker (Giovanni Ribisi) obsessed with the famous teddy bear. (In his day, Ted was quite the national sensation, as a talking teddy bear would be. He even appeared on the Johnny Carson show, but has since faded into child-star oblivion, drawing a movie comparison to Corey Feldman.)

Ted has been creating waves ever since it hit theaters. It was the number one movie on a weekend where the top 12 box office films earned the highest aggregated revenue ever for June. The teddy bear comedy also topped the opening weekend gross of the first Hangover movie with a strong $54.4 million, achieving the eighth-place seat for best opening weekend ever for an R-rated movie. Ted also broke a record for the highest grossing domestic box office debut for an original R-rated comedy. The benefit from strong word of mouth is evident in the film’s 20-day total of an impressive $168 million. Finally, the movie has already been nominated for two Teen Choice Awards. Though, we’re holding out for some more prestigious awards come this winter; hey, if Bridesmaids can score an Oscar nom, you never know what could happen in the film industry!
Overall, Ted has all the elements of a leading summer comedy, including a hilarious cameo by Ryan Reynolds. The movie marked a successful feature film debut by MacFarlane, hopefully foreshadowing more films to come from the television entrepreneur. Like, say, maybe a Family Guy movie?

Photo courtesy of http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120629012941-ted-mark-wahlberg-s...