Movie Reaction: Ted

Formula: A dirty Muppets
          You, Me, and Dupree + Teddy Ruxpin
          Toy Story + Bad Santa

Cast: I feel like I should dislike Mark Wahlberg, but I don't. It's as simple as that. He's a real good sport in this. It took me about half the movie to remember the Mila Kunis/Meg connection for the casting. Remembering that, it shouldn't come as a surprise how willing she is "to go there" with the jokes the way the movie calls on. Beyond those two and Ted, who I'll get to in a second, there's no one here who got more than a couple scenes, but this one was chock-full of cameos and small roles and almost all of them hit. Also, this probably has the best D-list character since Lou Ferigno in I Love You, Man.

 Plot: No curve balls here. It is exactly what the previews make it out to be. My one knock, perhaps is that numerous times, it strays away from being a pure comedy where you can tell Seth McFarlane wants to do more, and it stretches out the movie. You'll notice that every joke from the previews are in the first 30 minutes. There's still some good ones later on, but this is pretty top-heavy.

Ted: It's pretty impressive how well they animate Ted. Never once was I distracted by a moment where I noticed he was animated. He is integrated into the scenes tremendously and is a character on the screen from beginning to end.

Elephant in the Room: Family Guy is only 30 minutes long. You want to know why? That's because it's a good amount of time to milk all the jokes out of a concept or storyline. The Teddy bear schtick only has some many jokes to it and the rest of the jokes are 80-referencing filler. Funny, yes, but this too young a skewing comedy to be hearing the age divide in the theater due to Flash Gordon and Tiffany references.

Shout Out: Crazy guy about 3 rows in front of me, way to go! Your loud muttered phrases kept me laughing through the dull moments. For that, I thank you.

To Sum Things Up:
If you like Family Guy, you will love this. It's as simple as that. Even if you don't love Family Guy, you'll probably like this. For anyone looking for a broadly-appealing comedy from McFarlane's fist live action comedy, you'll probably be disappointed.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend