Would you believe that a film — a sequel no less — starring a teddy bear with a foul mouth and a taste for beer and pot would use as it’s source material a classic holiday film, a long-running TV franchise and a 19th-century legal case?
The success of the film Ted, released in 2012, made a sequel almost inevitable. With almost $550 million in global ticket sales, the profane teddy bear and his best friend, John (Mark Wahlberg), seemed a sure bet for a follow-up — at least to the filmmakers. But writer, director and voice of Ted, Seth McFarlane wasn’t so sure. He explains: “I actually hadn’t planned on making a Ted 2, but any time something does well, that always comes up. There’s no reason to do it if you’re going to repeat the same movie. It’s not satisfying for the audience, and it’s really boring for us.” Though McFarlane and his team had a fondness for the characters, and felt it was possible that they could create a worthwhile sequel, they needed to find inspiration for a story that they could tell.
Executive producer Wellsley Wild shares: “Seth was reading a book on the Dred Scott case and came up with this idea: ‘Since Ted is a stuffed animal that came to life, what if he finds out he’s not a citizen? What if he’s not considered a person and just considered property?’ He wanted to explore that and to find out if there was anything interesting there…or if this would just be a boring court case movie with a couple of jokes peppered here and there. We ended up going off of this idea, which was modeled after the case.”
Once the framework of the sequel was decided upon, the writing team got to work. Executive producer Alec Sulkin (who also writes with McFarlane) admits that it was his love of a television show that spurred on much of the comedy’s dialogue: “I’ve watched Law & Order ever since it’s been on. I know all the legalese and everything you hear them say over and over again in court, but it’s funnier when it’s this foul-mouthed teddy bear involved in a serious legal drama. That was a focal point for me as we were writing the script, making sure that those moments rang true.”
As the development of the film continued, the team found yet another source for material in a favorite film. Sulkin explains the inspiration for a pivotal scene: “We wanted Ted to have this ‘mess around’ sequence, which is almost shot-for-shot directly taken from Planes, Trains & Automobiles, with the great John Candy doing the same things that Ted does here. We thought it was a good parallel because Candy was the teddy bear of that movie. He’s lovable, incredibly disruptive and funny. We see Ted in the same way; he tries to do the right thing while trying to be fun. He gets into his music and, of course, it all goes wrong and their car ends up flying off the road and through the roof of a barn.”
Ted 2 is available beginning Dec. 15 on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.
© 2015 Universal Studios Credit: Tippett Studio/Universal Studios
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