John Bennett is a kid desperate for a best friend. On Christmas day he receives a teddy bear, names it Ted and makes a wish that they'll be best friends forever. The following morning the teddy bear has sprung to life. The CGI work is immediately impressive, the lack of twee, which could so easily have infected the movie, is thankfully absent and best of all the biting wit of MacFarlane is ever present.
The movie quickly skips to a thirty five year old John (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted, still living together and still best friends. John is in a four year relationship with Lori (Mila Kunis) who is desperate for her boyfriend to grow up and move on from his childhood pal. Ted is a teddy bear though and has no intention of growing up, or moving on from getting high and drinking. MacFarlane voices the bear and he is, without doubt, an extension of Peter from Family Guy. If anything though this is MacFarlane cutting loose.
Ted is a brilliant comic creation, you can't help but be caught up in how cute the bear is on the outside and how vulgar he is as a character. It never gets old seeing him smoke pot, swear or have sex with checkout girl. Seriously. It's one of the oddest central premisses for a movie in recent years, that it works is a credit to a script that a) keeps things funny and b) somehow keeps the whole tale grounded in some sort of reality.
There are cameos aplenty, some great nods to Family Guy throughout and some wonderfully silly performances from the supporting cast.
Ted manages to be a bromance tale between a man and his talking teddy bear without sinking into too much mush. Which, y'know, considering the talking teddy bear thing, is kind of impressive.
You will laugh. Go. (Unless easily offended by swearing bears.)
★★★☆☆
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