Does the world need a sequel to TED? Seth MacFarlane seems to think so and I'm willing to give him a shot, given his pretty solid directorial debut. Sure, it wasn't anything that wouldn't feel at home in a three-episode-arc of Family Guy but that's not necessarily bad thing. Bengal Mangle Productions doesn't seem to think so, as they're suing MacFarlane and Co. because they feel he completely ripped off their idea for a foul-mouthed little teddy from their series, Charlie the Abusive Teddy.
Charlie, much like Ted, is foul-mouthed, does booze and drugs, and has his way with the ladies of the night. The similarities don't stop there, as both fictitious bears have pretty active social networking venues, and the suit details dozens of Tweets that if placed side by side, discuss some of the same topics. Alright, so there's not too many foul-mouthed little bears running around so I decided to give the Charlie creators the benefit of the doubt and looked up some videos.
Probably NSFW:
As you can see, I think copyright infringement in this case all lies in the execution, and Ted couldn't be further from Charlie. Charlie plays like that scene from NATURAL BORN KILLERS (laugh track and all). TED is very much MacFarlane's humor, through and through, and I don't think anyone would confuse the two. Given that TED made a boatload of money, and TED 2 will most bring in the dollars again, it's no wonder we're hearing about this suit now. If you feel so inclined, you can check out the details via Deadline here. It's about as exciting as you would imagine, containing even a breakdown of how the teddy bears look too similar. Are you kidding me? They're teddy bears! How are they supposed to look?
TED 2 is looking to hit theaters on June 26, 2015.