Seth Macfarlane’s big screen writing debut
has its hits and its misses, but on the whole was a lot better than I expected.
I heard on the grapevine that the premise, a grown man who lives with his
magically living teddy bear, was meant to be a series but Macfarlane and
executives felt that it wouldn’t have the steam for a very big run and I think
that the movie format was almost certainly a better call… even it began to lose
momentum at stages. Unlike Family Guy, ‘Ted’s humour is derived from the plot
as opposed to random inserts, however, at times, particular at both ends of the
film that family guy disconnectedness shines through.
Performances on the whole are pretty good.
The cast all nail very convincing Boston Twangs over their speech that
definitely helps cement the story on the real world. A little more
characterisation would have been nice; the characters aren’t fully fleshed out,
which does hark back to the idea of being a long running series. I suppose that
in long running cartoon series, with a few exceptions, the audience is given
twenty episodes or thereabouts to slowly develop the characters, who are
developed through plot, however, in an hour forty movie a little more detailed
process needs to be applied and I don’t feel as if Ted did this. I really feel
that the movie would have been better for it and that newcomers to Macfarlane’s
material may have found this a little jarring.
The comedy is sharper then Mr. Macfarlane’s
usual material. The timing and general connectivity is very clean and organic.
Conservatives be warned: this film certainly goes out of its way at times to
offend and makes no effort to pull its punches. I love this style of humour but
it certainly isn’t for everyone and admittedly the shock and awe tactics that
are inherent to it do not allow for an immense amount of replayability. The
jokes are a little hit and miss, but on the whole the audience that was crammed
into the screening I attended was in stitches.
The animation on Ted is superb although I
don’t imagine this was a momentous task. Ted is integrated seamlessly into the
world and I found myself forgetting he was a computerized conjuration. The
stock footage of Ted’s celebrity career and magazine cutouts were an extremely
nice touch and looked the most natural. The small wear and tear provides a
stark contrast from the flashback at the start of the film to Ted’s overall
composition after the climax.
Macfarlane’s voice work is outstanding as usual and truly speaks to the
vocal range of the man. Best of all, the rapport between Macfarlane and
Wahlberg is fantastic and creates a believable relationship, something that as
I have said, I wish was more developed.
‘Ted’ is certainly not a flawless film, but
for the most part it is damn funny. I really hope that Macfarlane has future
screen projects in mind, as I am sure that over time he could really start to
churn out some masterworks of comedy. If you want a few laughs with your mates
at the expense of a little good taste then make sure to scout this one out.
Alex
Wanted:
Thunder Buddy
