Seth “Family Guy” MacFarlane is making the move to the silver screen, but not with one of this hit TV shows, but an actual buddy flick, Ted. Now, it’s true, Ted is about a guy and his not-so-imaginary friend, a talking teddy-bear, but it’s still a big step away from the anything-goes cartoons he’s used to. How did he plot the line between real and absurd? He watched Ghostbusters;
What made you want a CGI talking teddy bear in your first film?
All of my experience has been in animation, so I felt it would be good to include an animated element. But making Ted was also about finding a balance between that sort of sledgehammer-realism of modern comedy, at least in that Judd Apatow style, and capturing the style of comedy that I loved in the ’80s, movies like Back to the Future and Ghostbusters. Those movies were funny for adults, but they also had an element of showmanship to them; there was an element of un-realism. It was always very well-balanced.Ghostbusters is a movie that we looked to often during Ted’s production process, because it’s a movie that essentially takes place in the real world; New York City is presented as New York City and the characters are all very realistic, but there’s this one element that’s completely unrealistic. By keeping everything else very grounded, they earned that. You don’t have wacky characters in a wacky situation—you have grounded and real characters and one wacky situation for them to deal with.
I hope Ted establishes the modern version of what those ’80s movies accomplished: combining real characters with a fun, outrageous, summer comedy premise.
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The trailer was cute, but still one note and obvious.
Still waiting for MacFarlane to do something that is actually funny.
Logo Lou>> Actually funny… as far as?… Obviously, like alot of things in life, comedy is subjective. But I’m sure there is at-least a couple things in his shows that most would find funny. If not all of it. So that leaves us with the film… which has yet to be released. There is no ground for calling the film a “one trick pony” with-out yet seeing it. Just because a film has a talking teddy-bear does not mean it doesn’t have other eliments that would later qualify it as a favorite film… possibly earning it household, or cult following. Alot of pictures aren’t able to convey what their true heart is in a 2 min and 30 sec advertisment. I’ve been suprised… many more times than once. But, again, my… and your conjecture is moot… as the film is yet to release.
I feel pretty safe calling it one note without seeing it. Foul mouthed teddy bear. You really think it’ll be anything more than that? Not a chance. That’s like saying a Michael Bay movie will have a coherent plot. There will be no layers, no depth (although I’m sure there will be a pandering, cloying “sentimental” scene that will be quickly undercut by some trite metaphor/potty joke. Every single TV show MacFarlane has done has been the EXACT same show… foul mouthed Simpsons clone. He’s a hack. Comedy is subjective, like you said. EVERYTHING is subjective. But good and bad does exist. He’s bad. Everything he has done has been uninspired, cliche, and, of course, horribly written.
This is true. I give the guy credit, he’s a good voice actor. But that only makes the fact that he’s essentially recycling Peter Griffin, (Homer Simpson without redeemable qualities and more obnoxiousness) all the more disappointing.