This is probably the first modern comedy I’ve seen in a long time that I liked and was genuinely funny, without being overly crude. This comedy didn’t reduce itself to stale homosexual humor or dick and fart jokes, which populate so many “comedies” now-a-days. Instead it chose to be actually funny and have an actual storyline that wanted characters and character development...oh yah...it was funny. The one thing I didn’t expect from this movie was its heart and the fact that decisions/actions have consequences, which never seem to be in the mindset of the hedonistic world of Hollywood, where the motto is, “Everything goes”. I’m not saying this movie doesn’t have crude humor, because it does. But this is one of the first modern comedies, I’ve seen in a long time, where I felt the crude humor wasn’t over played, used too much, fit in with the movie, and had consequences.
Ultimately this is a movie about relationships: John’s relationship with Ted and his girlfriend Lori, Ted’s relationship with John and Lori, and Lori’s relationship with John and Ted. All of these are explored in a smart realistic way or as realistic, as it can be with a talking bear in their lives. I also liked how MacFarlane didn’t shy back on John or Ted and the choices they make in their lives. There are a lot times in this movie where they are extremely unlikable because of those choices despite how funny or humorous those scenes were. MacFarlane never once pulls back from the main themes of the movie: growing up and relationships. John has to grow up. Lori is the one constant that keeps the movie rolling along. She is the foundation of everything and Mila Kunis does a great job of rising to the challenge as a very patient girlfriend, that most women who watch this might think she’s too patient. But then even she says he’s the hottest man in Boston and he makes me laugh, considering John is played by Walberg (a wise casting choice by MacFarlane), Lori might be right on that regard, but then I don’t fully know about that. But I could tell you about Lori, because that I know about, as I think MacFarlane counted on every male in the world knowing about that (another good casting choice by him also).
Relationship is the main focus of this movie and the driving force of the movie over all as it pertains to the two main characters and the one female character. The friendship between the main character, John, and, the titled, Ted felt genuine since they’ve been friends for 27 years. Their dialogue reflected that friendship along with their mythic, idolization of the movie Flash Gordon, which changed their childhood. I mean because who doesn’t have some movie, book, or song/album that helped to influence your life as you were growing up. Adding this part into their lives really helped to flesh out their characters and make them more real. It wasn’t used as some kind cheap gimmick because the characters referenced this movie a lot just like real friends would in real life.
It’s the first movie I’ve seen that seemed to really want to comment on the whole man/child experience with some wit, metaphor, and intelligence, unlike so many other comedies that reduces the comedy to gross out humor or just plain juvenile comedy. Ted is the device McFarlane uses to explore these things in men’s life and how the consequences of not growing up can be deadly, as John begins to find out. I liked how this movies heart dealt with John having to grow up and stop relying on his stuffed bear Ted. It dealt with real life things that a lot of these so called comedies now-a-days always gloss over.
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