Ted 2 (stylized as ted2) is a 2015 American fantasy comedy film. The sequel to Ted (2012), the film was co-produced and directed again by Seth MacFarlane, who co-wrote the script with returning writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild. The film follows the talking teddy bear Ted (voiced again by MacFarlane) as he fights for his civil rights in order to be recognized as a person and not as property so he can adopt a child. In addition to MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Giovanni Ribisi, and Jessica Barth also reprise their roles from the first film, with Amanda Seyfried, John Slattery, and Morgan Freeman joining the cast.
Principal photography began in Massachusetts in July 2014. Ted 2 was released on June 26, 2015, by Universal Pictures. Despite the film failing to achieve the critical and commercial success of its predecessor, it still became a box office success, grossing $215.9 million on a $68 million budget.
Three years after the events of the first film, Ted marries his girlfriend, Tami-Lynn, six months after John Bennett and Lori Collins divorced.
One year later, following a heated argument between Ted and Tami-Lynn, their co-worker, Joy, suggests to him that they have a baby to keep their marriage alive. When Ted discusses it with Tami-Lynn, she loves the idea, and they both agree to have a baby. As Ted cannot father a child, John decides to help find a sperm donor. After failed attempts to find one, John ultimately offers to donate his sperm, but Tami-Lynn is found to be infertile due to past drug use. Subsequently, the couple decide to adopt. The background checks bring Ted's legal status as a person into question, and the state authorities of Massachusetts declare Ted to be property rather than a person. As a result, Ted loses his job, his credit card and bank accounts are terminated, and his marriage to Tami-Lynn is annulled.
John suggests that they take the state to court. They ask the best lawyer they can find, who assigns the case pro bono to his niece Sam L. Jackson, a novice lawyer. They are initially reluctant due to her lack of pop culture knowledge but bond over their love of marijuana as they prepare to present the case. Meanwhile, Donny, Ted's life-long stalker, is now a janitor at Hasbro's headquarters in New York City. He proposes to the CEO to abduct Ted for research to manufacture live teddy bears commercially. He convinces him to hire an expert attorney to ensure that Ted maintains his status as property.
Despite Sam's best efforts, the court rules against Ted. Disheartened and desperate, the trio contact Patrick Meighan, a highly respected civil rights attorney, to help overturn the court's decision. During a Manhattan trip to meet Meighan, John and Sam fall in love and eventually kiss. When the trio meets Meighan, he is sympathetic to Ted's plight but ultimately refuses the case, as he believes Ted has not significantly contributed to humanity due to his hedonistic lifestyle.
Furious at the injustice and jealous of John's relationship with Sam, Ted takes out his frustrations on the two and angrily leaves. He wanders into the New York Comic-Con while Donny, as a Raphael cosplayer, discreetly follows Ted inside. When Ted encounters Donny, he flees and Donny chases him. Ted steals another person's cell phone to contact Sam and John to inform them of his situation, just as Donny abducts him. John and Sam arrive and find Ted, just as Donny is about to cut him open, and John punches Donny in the face. Ted quickly reconciles with John and Sam. As they leave, however, Donny, having regained consciousness, severs the cables holding up a display model of the Enterprise-D, and it swings towards Ted. John pushes Ted out of the way to save him but is hit and rendered unconscious before Donny is arrested after Ted exposes him.
John is rushed to the hospital, where he flatlines. The next day, the group is told that John has died and tearfully visits him, but he wakes up and reveals the doctors revived him and worked with him afterward to prank them. Although Sam is initially furious, she and John kiss as the group rejoices. Inspired by John's selflessness and Ted's emotions over the injured John, Meighan decides to take their case and successfully overturns the ruling by demonstrating that Ted is self-aware, feels complex emotions, and is capable of empathy. Ted proposes to Tami-Lynn again as they leave court. Sometime later, Ted and Tami-Lynn are remarried and adopt a baby boy, naming him after Rocky character Apollo Creed while John and Sam happily pursue their relationship. John even gives Apollo a teddy bear of his own.
Later on, a person who previously bought a box of Trix from Ted at the grocery store returns to the empty store, seemingly injured. He puts the cereal back on the counter and leaves with a look of betrayal.
During the 2012 American Dad!Comic-Con panel, MacFarlane stated that he would be open to a sequel to Ted.[13] In September 2012, chief executive Steve Burke said that the studio would be looking to make a sequel to Ted "as soon as possible".[14] In January 2013, on Anderson Live, Wahlberg confirmed that a sequel was in the works and that it would be the first sequel in his career, while also revealing that he and Ted (as voiced by MacFarlane) would appear at the 85th Academy Awards.[15] On October 2, 2013, it was announced Ted 2 would be released on June 26, 2015.[16]
Initially, the storyline for the film was quite different and involved Ted and John attempting to smuggle pot across the country,[17] but, due to concerns that the concept was too similar to then-recently released We're the Millers, the concept was scrapped and the storyline was overhauled to one inspired by John Jakes' North and South series as well as the life of Dred Scott.[17]Mila Kunis was set to reprise her role of Lori during early development, but when the drug smuggling storyline was scrapped and changed to the current one, it required a lawyer to be the female lead and there was no room for Lori.[17]
On January 27, 2015, the film's teaser poster was released.[26] This was followed two days later by its trailer.[27] The film premiered on June 24, 2015, in New York City, with its general release two days later.[28]
Home media
Ted 2 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 15, 2015, in the United States by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.[29] Both formats contained a theatrical version (115 minutes) and an "unrated" extended version (125 minutes), containing 10 minutes of extra footage. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom and Ireland on November 23, 2015, both formats containing the two versions.
On May 3, 2016, Ted vs. Flash Gordon: The Ultimate Collection was released on Blu-ray plus Digital HD, featuring Flash Gordon and the unrated versions of Ted and Ted 2.[30]
Reception
Box office
Ted 2 grossed $81.5 million in North America and $135.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $216.7 million, against a budget of $68 million.[4]
In the United States and Canada, Ted 2 opened on the same day as the family adventure film Max, across 3,441 theaters. It made $2.6 million from its Thursday night showings from 2,647 theaters,[31] and $13.2 million on its opening day.[32] In its opening weekend, Ted 2 earned $33.5 million, finishing third at the box office behind Jurassic World ($54.5 million) and Inside Out ($52.3 million).[33] The opening total was a disappointment, considering the film's initial projected opening of $45–50 million, and its predecessor's $54.4 million opening three years prior.[33] It was director MacFarlane's second consecutive underperforming opening, following 2014's A Million Ways to Die in the West, which opened to $16.8 million.[33]
Outside North America, the film earned an estimated $20 million in its opening weekend from 26 countries. It opened in number two in Germany ($3.7 million), Russia and the CIS ($3.5 million) and Australia ($3.3 million).[34]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 44% based on 209 reviews with an average rating of 5.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Ted 2 reunites Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane for another round of sophomoric, scatological humor -- and just as before, your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance for all of the above."[35] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 48 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[36] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, lower than the "A−" earned by its predecessor.[37]
James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film two out of four stars, saying "It would be disingenuous for me to claim that Ted 2 isn't funny. Although I was often bored by the plodding direction of the story, I laughed from time-to-time."[38] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+, saying "You realize what it must be like to be trapped in detention with a bunch of 15-year-old boys who think there's nothing more hilarious than repeating the same jokes about porn, pot, and pulling your pud over and over again. It's funny, until it's not."[39] Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic gave the film two out of five stars, saying "The film, like most of MacFarlane's work, is a mix of occasional laugh-out-loud moments - there are some here - and cringe-worthy misfires that play a lot more tone-deaf than he seems to intend."[40] Brian Truitt of USA Today gave the film two out of four stars, saying "MacFarlane and co-writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild have a gift for referential riffs, but the plot is the thinnest of narratives just to connect all the comedy bits."[41] Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "Sure, MacFarlane can write simple jokes as long as the 'f' key on his laptop holds out. Some of them are even funny. But a lot of them don't pay off, and most trod the same well-worn territory -- potheads, practical jokes, politically incorrect cliches."[42] Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press gave the film a negative review, saying "In an admirable effort to go a different route, MacFarlane has instead done something hopelessly bizarre: He's given his film too much sincerity and story, and it practically crushes whatever fun does exist."[43]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film three out of four stars, saying "MacFarlane is cynical, but he's not a cynic, and there are moments in Ted 2 where you can sense a longing for the gentler and more upbeat entertainment of an earlier generation."[44] Soren Anderson of The Seattle Times gave the film two out of four stars, saying "In the midst of comedy, seriousness. The combination feels forced. A more disciplined and smarter director might have been able to successfully blend the two elements, but crude dude MacFarlane hasn't the skill to bring it off."[45] Dan Callahan of The Wrap gave the film a negative review, saying "Bad taste needs to be more honest and more all-inclusive if it's to make a lasting impression, and MacFarlane's bad taste here is both too wishy-washy and too knee-jerk cruel to really make any impact."[46] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying "Mr. MacFarlane can be funny, but Ted 2 is insultingly lazy hack work that is worth discussing primarily because of how he tries and fails to turn race, and specifically black men, into comedy fodder."[47] Jacob Hall of New York Daily News gave the film one out of five stars, saying "Once again, you will believe that a talking CGI stuffed animal can be a racist, hateful monster with no redeeming qualities ... but his greatest sin is that he's not funny."[48] Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave the film two out of four stars, saying "If you didn't see and laugh at the first Ted, and maybe also at MacFarlane's button-pushing TV series Family Guy, then another movie deserves your entertainment dollars."[49] A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club gave the film a C+, saying "Ted 2 strikes a sometimes-awkward balance between sincerity and cheap provocation. It also forgets that the real draw of the first film wasn't Ted himself, but Wahlberg, whose sweet-lug routine scored a lot of belly laughs."[50]
In June 2015, Collider asked if the studio was already planning a third film; MacFarlane replied: "It's all based on appetite. If Ted 2 does as well as the first one, it means people want to see more of these characters. If that happens, then there would likely be a Ted 3. The franchise, to me, is one that's more character-based than premise-based. If you look at it like episodes in television, if you have characters that people like and they want to see them, again and again, you can tell any number of different stories. If there's a desire for it, then yeah, we would do a Ted 3."[55]
On October 27, 2015, during an interview on Today MacFarlane, again, did not rule out the possibility of Ted 3, stating: "We don't know, I like to kind of have some space between Ted [films], so it's possible there will be another one but there are no immediate plans."[56]
For the Ted TV-Show from 2024, MacFarlane originally asked Mark Wahlberg to reprise his role as John, but due to being too occupied on other project, the show became a prequel to the film series.[57]
On September 13, 2021, MacFarlane posted an image on Instagram of the Ted stuffed bear, writing "The original Ted stuffy mentally preparing for his return."[58]
In April 2022, it was announced that a prequel series was in development for Peacock, with writers Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh joining MacFarlane as the series' showrunners. MacFarlane reprised his role as the title character.[59] The series was released on January 11, 2024. A second season is set to premiere in 2025 alongside an animated television show starring MacFarlane and Wahlberg being in works.[60]
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