Ted 2

Ted (Seth MacFarlane) and his thunder buddy John (Mark Wahlberg) are back in Ted 2, the sequel to MacFarlane’s 2012 comedy about a foul-mouthed teddy bear who came to life.

Ted has married his Brooklyn babe, Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth), and they decide to have a baby to save their relationship. But before Ted can become a father, he has to prove in court that he is a person and not property.

In the first film it was John who needed to grow up. Now the narrative is all about Ted, while Wahlberg’s dumped man-child takes a depressed backseat to his bear bro, having little to do besides tag along and find romance with the young pot-smoking lawyer (Amanda Seyfried) assigned to help Ted. Seyfried does a good job of injecting warmth to her role, which nicely balances the crudity of the mostly male cast.

Since the predecessor was a comedy that successfully walked the line between clever and crass, the same could be expected for the sequel. Yet, because this is a Seth MacFarlane project, expectations are involuntarily higher. Unfortunately Ted 2 falls more on the crass side and feels like a half-hearted attempt to milk the concept – MacFarlane is more successful when he breaks the mould.

There are more than enough one-liners and silly humour to get plenty of giggles from the audience, and the animators should get special mention for creating such a believable and sometimes sweet performance from a teddy bear, but it feels like most of the cast are under-utilised and bored. At least there are a whole lot of cameos to get the audience talking. (LL)

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