Ted (2012)

Whilst I did not hate 'Ted' I cannot say I was impressed by it. First, the voice of Ted. It's Peter Griffin!!! It's like the creators of SpongeBob making a movie and they use the voice of SpongeBob. It's really distracting. And when Ted is making fun of someone, he uses Stewie's voice?!?! Why!?!? I would imagine he would have another voice he could have used. The beginning of the film, Ted is a cute and innocent bear. I felt the movie was funnier then. The vulgar, smoking, sexually active Ted felt forced to me. In addition, the hype and popularity that built up the film had me expecting something fresh, something that would keep me laughing days after. To my disappointment, 'Ted', turned out to just another Rom-Com, its only real unique twist being Ted himself. Having said that, 'Ted' did provide some laughs. The animations for Ted were of a good quality, doing a good job in making it seem like Ted was actually there with the actors, rather than just a computer-generated 3D image. What I felt let 'Ted' down was it's predictability and lack of memorable or unique laughs. 'Ted's plot didn't seem to suit it's targeted audience, I have seen similar story lines in films rated PG or even G but the explicit content of 'Ted' was clearly intended for more mature audiences, therefore I felt it deserved a more mature plot. The middle of the film is bogged down in so much of the humor style that MacFarlane has become known for that I lost interest in the humor and moved my full attention on the plot, which I had even less interest in. There were several problems I noticed with the middle chunk of the film when the comedy died down to almost nothing with a few chuckle-worthy moments every now and then. The biggest problem was that John and Lori had no chemistry together. I did not buy the fact that they were a couple and I could not invest to their story. If the film had focused on John and Ted trying to remain friends because of John's relationship with Lori, the film would have worked because the two had good chemistry. I never felt like John and Lori were emotionally connected on any level, so I did not care if they got back together or not. In order for this movie to be funny you have to find the idea of a crude teddy bear to be ridiculous. For this to happen, you need to be able to associate the voice of the voice actor with a CGI bear. The voice was a little too real for me. I could imagine in my head what the voice actor probably looked like. Overall, I'd recommend 'Ted' to those who are looking for a relatively light-hearted story with a few giggles added in and a cursing, yet somehow still lovable, teddy bear. It's descent, but nothing overly special.
Rating: 6/10 Orange Slices. Ted