The Mark of Zorro: 'TED' Earns a B

Seth Macfarlane, the creator of the hit TV series Family Guy,
has successfully moved to the big screen with his first film “Ted”. “Ted” is
about a boy named Jon who makes a wish that his new teddy bear would come to life which is what every 8 year old does, including me but nothing every became of it. However Jon’s teddy bear actually comes to life and becomes his friend.

Fast forward 30 years and Ted and Jon are still living together, acting
childish and irresponsibly until Jon’s girlfriend wants to take their
relationship to the next level and thinks it would be best if Ted was gone.

I, for one, am a fan of “Family Guy” and was very excited for
this film. I knew it was going to be funny because Seth Macfarlane was writing
it, but that's all I was expecting it to be. The thought of Ted actually being
a good movie never really crossed my mind. Luckily, and to my pleasant surprise, Ted was actually a solid movie.

Two things make Ted work and function well as a film: A great story and
surprisingly good direction from Macfarlane. You’ve got to hand it to him -
Macfarlane took on a big responsibility by taking on the project, and in spite
of the risky business of film making, his career as a movie maker is secure.

Ted was the main reason why this film worked. Ted is voiced by Seth Macfarlane and he does the exact same voice as Peter Griffin from Family Guy. The best thing about Ted was that he didn't feel like a teddy bear. He actually felt like a real person. He had great depth to him and many human-like qualities. Grant it they were human qualities that most people shouldn’t want to have like irresponsibility and immaturity but still they made Ted feel human.

The other reason why this film worked was because of the directing and writing by Seth Macfarlane. We all knew that he would do well when writing the jokes and the comedy tones of this film. Most of the comedy was hilarious and had me laughing hard. Most of the jokes are not what I call "thoughtless jokes". You know those jokes that are flat and don't really make you think, like fart jokes. Most of them were really well thought out and had depth to them. Also there were a lot of great references and cameos which usually get on my nerves but didn't for this film. Comedy was mostly like “Family Guy” comedy, which is top notch comedy in my opinion.

Surprisingly though he did a good job directing and writing when there was some
drama involved as well. The drama in this movie takes up about 5% of this movie, but it was seriously sad and I didn't accept this movie to make me feel sad.

The drama in this film was handled well. However, Macfarlane's direction and writing wasn't perfect. There were a few scenes

like a car chase scene that felt a little out of place but for me that wasn't a
giant problem. Also the ending scene, which I’m not going to spoil, but it was
another one of those action scenes that just felt out of place for this film.

Aside from those two things another thing that worked well was the human characters. Mark Wahlberg’s character, Jon, I actually liked which I usually don't in most of his movies and Mila Kunis, Jon’s girlfriend, was also very likable. She's got a good attitude and wasn’t being too pushy about kicking Ted out. What also made her likable was that she had depth and wasn't used in this movie just for her looks which is what she is sometimes used for.

All-in-all, Ted was a pleasant surprise. It had a few negatives like a few out of place scenes and it did have a few "thoughtless" jokes, like someone farting, that got on my nerves for a second but that’s about it.

Overall it was well directed, well written and howlingly funny. There are some
awesome cameos and references that are very memorable unlike cameos and
references in Adam Sandler movies. I liked Ted and think it deserves a solid B
grade.

(Warning! This film is very raunchy with its drug use and
references and is not for kids)

TED IS PLAYING AT MOST THEATERS, INCLUDING KINGSTOWNE AND HOFFMAN 

(The author is a rising sophomore at South County High School.)