Ted

Seth MacFarlane is the king of animated television, having been the creator of hit shows such as Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show. Having dominated the Sunday primetime slot, MacFarlane has set his sights on a new venture; feature films. Ted marks his directorial debut and features a not-so-average teddy bear who magically comes alive when a young John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) makes a wish on a shooting star.

Despite being a cute and cuddly teddy bear, Ted regularly drinks, gets high, and gets it on with women. Basically he’s the exact opposite of what you would expect a magical living teddy bear to be. And it’s totally awesome. Ted, who is voiced by MacFarlane himself, is without question the highlight of the film. He’s rude, crude, and tiptoes the line between what’s acceptable. He’s the ideal example of a partying frat brother who doesn’t want to grow up, except instead of a half-shaven beer belly fool, he’s a little fluffy teddy bear.

Ted boils down to what is essentially a life-action Family Guy, comprising of a hodgepodge of pop culture references and crude adult humor. Seth MacFarlane knows his comedy, whether it’s crafting an entire subplot around 80’s sci-fi superhero Flash Gordon (Sam Jones) or making fun of the fact that Ted is using Peter Griffin’s voice. The humor itself is laugh out loud funny. That fact that it’s coming from a three foot teddy bear is just icing on the cake.

Where the film does drag on, though, is in the relationship of John and his longtime girlfriend, Lori (Mila Kunis). Lori believes that John will never grow up and be a man so long as Ted is holding him back. It’s a predictable game of back and forth love tag that only shines with Ted as the third wheel. It’s not that Kunis or Wahlberg are bad actors, either. There’s just little substance. Just as Ted would be the kind of guy you want to go and party with, he’s the guys you go to see this film for.

Fans of anything Seth MacFarlane will be pleased to know that Ted is in the same vein as his other works, perhaps a bit too much so. There’s nothing new about the film, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, audiences wanting something different may be a little disappointed. MacFarlane delivers exactly what you would expect; a cute, pot smoking teddy bear spouting profanities. Honestly, is anything else really needed?