Thanks to Universal Pictures Australia, we had the chance to see Seth MacFarlane‘s TED before its Australian cinematic release. This is our review of the film – but as usual – no matter what we say; we recommend that you still go to your local cinema and see the film because: There is no better critic than yourself!

‘TED, is the story of John (Mark Wahlberg) and his all-time best friend Ted (voice of Seth MacFarlane) a magic teddy bear that came to life when John was only 8 years old, who became an instant celebrity around the world (even invited to famous talk shows) However, Ted is not the classic cute Teddy Bear because he drinks, curses, smokes pot, loves to party with prostitutes and is a total womanizer. He shared all these with John until the latter fell in love with Lori (Mila Kunis) and started sharing a life together, causing Ted to behave outrageously while John refuses to grow up due to his attachment to Ted. This resulted in tons of troubles which puts his relationship with Lori in jeopardy until they finally decided to live separately but seeing each other every single day.

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane makes his directorial film debut of TED, doing what he does best with his classic irreverent comedy – a successful formula which makes you laugh even in the middle of very rotten or cruel situations.

Hence, as you can imagine the plot is very simple as there is no point to dig in deep (who cares seriously?) because the highlight of TED is how MacFarlane translates his animated TV show experience into a full feature film for comedic purposes. This character uses the same elements which made Family Guy and American Dad big TV hits and it works in full magnitude. Yet not comparing TED with Family Guy is impossible as the humor is similar and Ted is a mix of Brian and Stevie Griffin who has great chemistry with real actors.

Speaking of real actors, Mark Wahlberg showed us once again that he can play any kind of role by still being funny and keeping his bad ass style. Mila Kunis on the other hand played a more supportive role, nevertheless did some peculiar scenes, complementing the ‘dynamic duo’ perfectly in the film. Obviously there are other great performances by actors like Donny (Giovanni Ribisi) and Lori’s annoying boss Rex (Community’s Joel McHale), just to name a few, and there are some very funny and random celebrity cameos including an old school one which science fiction fans will surely love and laugh.

Another great feature of the film is the amazing CGI work on Ted who looks so real, that after watching for 20 minutes, you truly accept him as a live character. The details are great as every single piece of fur on the bear seems different with flawless graphics on the eyes and facial movement, probably one of the best CGI jobs seen lately, technically speaking.

We really cannot find any let downs in this film as it was totally what we expected to see – ‘Family Guy’ with a Teddy Bear. Moreover, we probably know (and we hope to be wrong) what many film critics will complain about the movie that MacFarlane did not take any risk in his feature film directional debut. To that, we only say we will dedicate the song that Ted and John sings to the thunders to them and we are sure Mr MacFarlane would be proud.

Overall, TED is a solid comedy in its own style and if you are a Family Guy fan, you will definitely love it, because as we said it is a tried and true formula that makes you laugh no matter how irreverent it is. Sequel? Bring it on!

TED opens July 5, 2012