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Ted opens Friday
June 29th |
Since
1997, Seth MacFarlane has been on a roller coaster. In the late 90's,
his blockbuster series Family Guy began, but was jerked around by Fox
to numerous different days and different time slots. Though fans of
the show were discouraged, in a way Fox helped MacFarlane. His show
progressively got more racy and vulgar to the point that "the
line" wasn't visible. The "pushing of the envelope"
saw more than just some quirky cutaways to Walt Disney telling Minnie
Mouse to strip, Kurt Cobain telling people to say no to drugs, to the
dog Brian winning an adult film award known as a "Woody"
(that had to be blurred). There was even an episode Fox refused to
air where the Griffins explored converting to Judaism so Chris could
be good at math. The show was cancelled in 2003, but was reborn on
Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and returned to Fox in 2005 after a
movie Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story was released on DVD. Now the
show that pushed the envelope pushes it further.
MacFarlane
takes on a new medium and a new role: motion picture director with
his first major film Ted. Now fans of MacFarlane's Family Guy will
flock to the movie in droves, but how will it be for those not
familiar with his hit show? MacFarlane has directed countless
animated shows, but will that same humor be used in his film. Telling
a story in a movie is completely different from model he used in the
Family Guy movie, where MacFarlane cut it up into multiple stories to
eventually be shown in 30 minutes segments of TV. Ted won't do that
though it will be interesting to see how he develops a 90 minute
film.
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MacFarlane mixes his crude and cute humor well. Look
no further than the "Thunderbuddies song". |
One
thing is for certain, MacFarlane is accompanied with plenty of
talent. Ted stars Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, who's star is getting
brighter every day. His supporting cast looks promising as well with
Joel McHale and Giovanni Ribisi along with Family Guy alums Patrick
Warburton, Patrick Stewart and Alex Borstein. The story is original
and simple, a young boy wishes that his toy bear was real. The bear
comes to life and their friendship expands. It's like a fairy tale
except that everyone ages and that's where the complications come in.
Ted has always lived with his owner John, but is being nudged to move
out by Ted's girlfriend Lori (Kunis). It's actually a simple story
about friendship. It just happens to be about a boy and his toy bear.
It's also a little ironic that the beautiful girlfriend is played
Kunis, who's character Meg on Family Guy is the object of scorn and
ridicule because she isn't attractive.
How
MacFarlane handles the transition to the big screen remains to be
seen. Ted can explode in theaters this weekend or completely implode.
If MacFarlane comes through, it'll just be another medium he has
conquered. If Family Guy has shown us anything, there's no telling
what he'll do next.
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| Ted picks up a girl named Sauvingnon Blanc. |
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