Ted 2

Cuddly, my ass: It's no secret that Ted the teddy bear, who came to life years ago, is not exactly the ideal of a child's toy, with his loose mouth and fondness for easy girls, alcohol, and anything that can be smoked. Yet the state of Massachusetts refuses to recognize him as a person, still seeing him as an object. What an outrage! But Ted really wanted to adopt a baby to solve his marriage problems with Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth). With the help of his thunder buddy John (Mark Wahlberg), Ted now wants to sue the state and finally be recognized as a person. The friends get support from the young lawyer Samantha L. Jackson (Amanda Seyfried), who is qualified for the task by the fact that she likes to smoke pot as much as her fluffy client. Still, they lose in court, and it almost seems like Ted will have to resign himself to never being anything more than a talking toy. But there is one last hope - and so Ted, John and Samantha embark on a mad road trip to New York...

When Family Guy and American Dad creator Seth MacFarlane unleashed Ted the swearing, pot-smoking and in every way politically incorrect teddy bear on the public in 2002, it flushed over $500 million into the box office worldwide - more than ten times its production cost. A sequel was therefore quickly decided. With Ted 2, this success is to be surpassed. This is to be ensured by even more nasty jokes, even more celebrity guest appearances, even more allusions to the nerd culture of the 80s and even more action. However, the concept is only partially successful. Because in some moments, as with MacFarlane's recent western comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West, it becomes very clear that sometimes more is just too much of a good thing. This applies to the end of Ted and John's visit to a fertility clinic, for example, but also to a few raunchy lines that don't really get any funnier with the use of various expletives.

On the other hand, the film works particularly well when it gets really nasty and takes aim at the mendacity of Americans in matters of gun laws or the uptight political correctness in a more or less hidden satirical way. Particularly funny is the visit to an improv theatre, where Ted and John try to upset the actors with some particularly piquant suggestions. But also in other scenes surprisingly biting profundities are hidden between the raunchy silliness again and again, which, however, clearly lose their effect due to the somewhat overused sex jokes.

What works really well, on the other hand, are the many self-deprecating guest appearances. Whether it's former US late night king Jay Leno, swashbuckler Liam Neeson (whose cameo gets a sequel after the credits) or Michael Dorn, who does a wonderful job of lampooning his role from Star Trek: Next Generation, they all provide some really good laughs with their appearances. And Amanda Seyfried as a pop culture dyslexic who hasn't seen a movie with Samuel L. Jackson, doesn't know Rocky or who Gollum is - which leads to a really funny encounter at New York ComicCon - is a more than adequate replacement for Mila Kunis.

The film is filled with very obvious side jabs and little allusions (for instance, if you look closely during a scuffle at ComicCon, you'll spot an arch-nemesis of Peter Griffin from Family Guy among the costars), which always keeps the film's fun factor pleasantly high, even in its weaker moments. No question: the sequel didn't turn out as good as Part 1. There are too many longueurs and the ending, which is full of pathos and surely meant to be ironic, only works to a certain extent. Nevertheless, the second screen appearance of the rowdy, but somehow lovable Teddy is for all fans of the predecessor a great pleasure with many good laughs. Therefore, if you loved the first Ted, you will at least like the sequel. And for it there is then at the end also a content: Worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp