Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth
Over a full decade after finally winning his highly publicized civil rights case and joyously adopting a baby boy with his loving wife Tami Lynn, played by Jessica Barth, Ted the foul mouthed bear, voiced by Seth MacFarlane, is now facing his absolute greatest and most daunting challenge yet. He must navigate the incredibly difficult waters of raising a rebellious and highly angsty teenager. Their human son, Clubber, portrayed by Walker Scobell, is deeply and profoundly embarrassed by his wildly inappropriate, pot smoking teddy bear father.
Clubber desperately just wants to fit in and be seen as normal at his brand new, highly upscale, and prestigious high school. Meanwhile, his best friend John, played by Mark Wahlberg, and Samantha, played by Amanda Seyfried, are dealing with their very own complex domestic struggles. John is hopelessly attempting to navigate a severely chaotic midlife crisis by impulsively opening a spectacularly failing, Boston themed marijuana dispensary, which only adds to the daily stress of their lives.
Feeling increasingly desperate to bond with Clubber and prove his worth as a father, Ted and John concoct a wildly misguided plan. They enthusiastically decide to volunteer as the official chaperones for Clubbers highly anticipated high school field trip to the historic city of Washington DC. Naturally, their genuine but utterly clumsy attempts at behaving like responsible, mature adults rapidly and inevitably devolve into absolute, bong water soaked chaos that disrupts the entire educational journey. Things take an unexpectedly darker and even more hilarious turn when their old nemesis Donny, brought to life by Giovanni Ribisi, enters the picture.
Freshly released from state prison and only seemingly reformed from his past obsessive ways, Donny somehow starts working as the incredibly creepy janitor at Clubbers school. He has secretly hatched a bizarre and elaborate new plan to finally kidnap Ted once and for all, but this time he is deviously using the young and unsuspecting Clubber as the ultimate bait. To further complicate these disastrous matters, John and Ted manage to completely run afoul of the schools hyper strict and deeply PTA obsessed principal, played by the energetic Jack Black. This new adversary quickly makes it his personal and obsessive mission to permanently expel Clubber from the academy and find a way to legally revoke Teds hard won status as a living person.
Finding themselves backed into a corner and forced to finally step up to the plate, John and Ted must reluctantly put aside their endlessly juvenile antics and lifelong habit of avoiding real responsibility. They have to work together to save Clubber from Donnys terrifying clutches and definitively prove to the world that, despite his plush and seemingly ridiculous exterior, Ted is actually a genuinely capable and deeply loving father. Packed from beginning to end with the wildly popular franchises signature raunchy humor, relentless and rapid fire pop culture references, and genuinely surprising moments of emotional heart, Growing Pains serves as a hilarious and touching reminder to audiences everywhere. It ultimately proves that growing up and taking on adult responsibilities does not necessarily mean that you have to grow out of your lifelong thunder buddy.
