211, Ted

Not since Who Framed Roger Rabbit can I think of a movie where animated characters lived alongside humans in blissful happiness and it was completely accepted as normal.  More recently there have been The Muppets where Walter was able to carry out day to day duties with no one batting an eyelid.  All good movies but all lacking something special - the adult element - sure, these movies are fine to take the kids too but sometimes we need something just for us.  Just like Wanted was an adaptation of a quite grown up comic, Ted takes us into a realm not yet seen on the big screen and I was unsure if it could actually work.  Luckily I was wrong.

Before you spend the entire movie trying to guess who the narrator is (as I did), its Patrick Stewart.  So moving on..........

Ted is a bear, bought for little John Bennett, a picked on kids who just wishes he had a best friend that he could have forever and ever - one Christmas - his wish came true and sure enough - Ted came to life, instantly to the horror of his parents but once accepted he became a bit of a celeb, starring on chat shows and adverts until the public got bored and both John (Wahlberg) and Ted (McFarlane) grew up and we have two drop out individuals hooked on drinking and getting high.  Somehow, John meets and falls in love with the stunning Lori (Kunis) and it becomes clear that three's a crowd and John has to make a decision between his lifelong buddy and the girl of his dreams.

This film goes to places you couldn't imagine - a Bear with a Bong on the couch paired with a slightly odd obsession with Flash Gordon (which plays out into a quite funny sub story line and impromptu cameo from Sam J Jones, Flash as himself) with other subtle appearances from Tom Skerritt and Norah Jones with a great speechless part from Ryan Reynolds who I'm sure only got involved due to his love of Family Guy.

Macfarlane is every bit as rude and crude as one can get away with nowadays on a movie and even manages to bag himself a hottie from the supermarket who he manages to satisfy with certain vegetable produce due to his 'lack' of required equipment, something he jokingly said he complained to Hasbro about - there are little one-liners ion this that make the movie what it is and although some may fly over your head - most are easily catchable.

Kunis & Wahlberg bounce brilliantly off of each other but the movie takes a dark turn of events towards the end with an appearance from Giovanni Ribisi and his very odd child who seek to capture Ted and keep him for themselves.

The story is pretty self explanatory - Bennett is torn between his life long friend and his future beloved and has some tough choices to make, not helped by Lori's seedy boss making moves on her at every turn and a group of work friends who think she could do so much better.  Wahlberg's character has to step up and prove he's a man with a plan rather than a boy with a bear and do whats right to satisfy everybody. 

There are plenty of 80's references throughout this and in my mind - Macfarlane nailed his role - the Bear is epic - I want one!  The effects are seamless and the fight scene really goes to town (just keep an eye out for the hotel room brawl)

It was a 'given' that Mila Kunis would star heavily in this due to her involvement with Macfarlane in place with her role as Meg from Family Guy but Wahlberg was an inspired choice but well played on his part also.

Its funny, rude & crude all at the same time with an actual tear jerker for an ending but don't let any of that out you off - its worth every penny.  Like Seth or loathe him he does do this type of comedy almost better than anyone else and believe - you've never seen anything like this before.