Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Genre Character of the Week: Ted


As my wife is a pretty big fan of Mark Wahlberg, I’ve sat through my share of his films; whether his characters are fighting monkeys (sorry apes), plants, or their own dysfunctional families, I’ve pretty much seen them all.  In the last couple years however, he’s started to move into some pretty great comedies, like The Other Guys, and his most recently released film Ted, which features this week’s genre character – Ted.

Ted is, simply put, a teddy bear who came to life after a little boy made a Christmas wish.  After some brief terror from the boys family, the Ted became a mild celebrity, and after a while, the world sort of settled down and stopped focusing on him so much.  Many years later, the young boy is in his mid-thirties, dating a lovely young woman, and still living with his magical bear, Ted, who, although also in his mid-thirties (or late twenties, I suppose) is still in the same, unchanging body of the teddy bear he started out in.

Considering that, he’s actually pretty well adjusted.  The problem is, although he’s a great friend to Wahlberg’s character, John, he’s a pretty lousy influence on him, something which is pretty obvious to John’s girlfriend, Lori (played by Mila Kunis).

What I love about the character is pretty much the whole concept, the idea of taking a fantasy most children have (if only my toys could come to life) and then seeing the logical conclusion to such a wish if it were granted.

The film is great, a lot of fun, and completely inappropriate for children – remember, just because it’s funny does not mean it’s for kids.

No comments:

Post a Comment