Warning: Freakin' spoilers!
Ted should feel like Family Guy, but it doesn't. Ted should come across as a teddy bear replacement for Peter Griffin, but he doesn't. The film feels new and fresh - an original take on tired ideas. And now that CGI characters are everywhere we turn, advertising cereal and toothpaste, it's easy to forget that films like this are masterpieces - Ted is utterly convincing. He interacts with everything around him and he's a real life, talking, drug taking, binge drinking teddy bear. That's just the way it is. Get used to it.
Although the trailers depict Ted as being filled with stuff that makes its 15 age rating look a little low (and it is), it's actually quite an emotional journey and, especially towards the end, it gets very sad indeed. It's not what you expect, and we're not talking Titanic here, but there's still a considerable amount of genuine emotion involved. It means it's valid. It has a purpose. It teaches lessons and has an impact. It's not just an excuse to make a teddy bear swear - which is wonderfully refreshing. You have a laugh, a whale of a time, and then things begin to get a little bit to much to bear... HA!
You can definitely feel the Family Guy vibe injected by Seth MacFarlane and many of the characters who appear provide the voices of Family Guy characters. There's a similar quality to the slapstick and the showy soundtrack from Walter Murphy is also thrown in for good measure. All of this goes to show that Ted is a team effort, made by the folks who are responsible for one of the greatest cartoons we've ever had the pleasure of viewing. It's a bit like watching Monsters Inc and knowing it was done by the same people who made Toy Story so good - it makes you feel proud of them and happy to be a part of their creative journey.
The story is your average paint-by-numbers shizzle but there are plenty of surprises along the way to make up for it. However, it's got to be said - and here come those "freakin' spoilers" you were warned about up top - the only reason Ted didn't pop his clogs at the end is because they want a sequel. Duh. Granted, the film isn't meant to be taken 100% seriously (it's a talking teddy bear for christ's sake) but by the end there's been so much emotion loaded into the story that you can't help but believe in it. That's why suddenly being encouraged to accept that Ted can be brought magically back to life, after having already having been magicked into life and then dying, feels like a bit of a big ask. On top of that, we're encouraged to forget he had been torn in half and then clumsily sewn back together again too. Ted wakes up the morning after with no damage to his fluffy body whatsoever. No tears, no wounds, no threads hanging - and that'd have been a perfect moment for a gag. He could have woken up genuinely pissed off at the state he was in and insisted he was taken to a professional - but instead, he pretends to have a few problems before revealing that all is well. It's cheap! But it's probably because the clock was ticking, they'd ran out of time and the movie was already around 10 minutes too long.
It could have been considered a modern 'classic', perhaps, if it'd been left with Ted dead after saying his final few wise words. No sequel. Simply fondly remembered as a fantastic little adventure.
Nonetheless, it's great. Really good fun. And there's an inevitable sequel on its way so you better enjoy it not being a trilogy with a shitty third film while you can!
★★★★☆
Roo