Ted is one of the Funniest Films of 2012

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Check out the restricted trailer for Ted at the end of the review! It will give you a good taste of what this film is like.

Seth MacFarlane decided to venture into the live action film genre after spending many years working on animated TV shows such as Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show. Ted was his film of choice and it will not disappoint. Now many may think how a story about a 35 year old man and a live talking teddy bear couldn’t be anything but stupid, but Ted is one of the best comedies of 2012.

The film starts out by zooming into a home just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where the young John Bennett (Bretton Manley) resides with his parents. He has almost no friends growing up until he gets a stuffed bear for Christmas and makes a magical wish for the bear to come to life. The next morning he wakes up to a talking bear and they were best friends ever since.

Now, the story brings us back to present time where John Bennett (Mark Walhberg) and Ted (Seth MacFarlane) are still best friends who hang out, smoke pot, watch movies, and get into a whole mess of trouble. They both live at John’s girlfriend’s, Lori (Mila Kunis), apartment and John’s lack of motivation and Ted’s carefree existence are a huge stress for her and John’s relationship.

Throughout the film Ted will make you laugh your butt off with all of the racist, silly, obnoxious, and just plain crude behavior. Almost every scene in the movie is filled with hilarious material. Just seeing Ted do things in the real world such as drive, hit on women, and smoke pot was funny in its own right.

MacFarlane actually did an excellent job directing the film. Going into it you may have a hard time believing that you could actually care about a teddy bear, but by the end you find yourself choked up at some of the emotional scenes in the film. There was also a fight scene between John and Ted which was actually pretty good. There is no argument against this scene being ridiculous, but it was intense at the same time. At the end of the scene you might think twice about throwing your teddy bear around.

One qualm about the film would be that the transitions between a good amount of the scenes were very jumpy. There was plenty of times where John and Ted were going to do something and then the scene quickly cuts and all of a sudden they were doing something completely different. Now there are a lot of movies out there that do the same thing, but it just didn’t feel smooth. It almost felt like how a movie trailer is set up, where one minute there is a teddy bear in a suit next minute he is at a party. This is not a deal breaker but it was the one glaring weakness to Ted.

As far as the casting went, Walhberg was perfect for the born and raised Bostonian. Kunis did a good job but sometimes it is still hard to hear her as anything else than Meg from Family Guy, luckily she wasn’t playing a talking bear or something. Macfarlane is an extremely talented person; all of the voices he does are great. Even though Ted does sound a little bit like Peter Griffin from Family Guy it didn’t ruin the film. Plus, Macfarlane made it a point to address the similar voice in the film which was a nice touch.

All in all, Ted is one of the funniest films of 2012. A movie about a crude talking teddy bear worked with flying colors. John and Ted will have you laughing as they play out their friendship through the thick and thin of grown up life. It also makes you care so much about a stuffed bear that you will want to grab your “Thunder buddy” and hold them tight. Hollywood Apples is picking Ted and highly recommends it. This film earned its R rating so even though it is based around a teddy bear, this film is not safe for children. So besides children, everyone should give Ted a chance because it will make you and all of your friends laugh throughout.