Movie review: ‘Ted 2,’ like its hero’s midsection, is overstuffed

                      
 In this image released by Universal Pictures, the character Ted, voiced by Seth MacFarlane, left, and Mark Wahlberg appear in a scene from "Ted 2.

You can almost hear Seth MacFarlane trying to grow as a filmmaker during “Ted 2” — and not just because of the almost uncomfortable periods of audience silence that greeted sections of the sequel.

In their efforts to avoid making the same movie twice, writer-director MacFarlane and returning co-writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild have wisely thrown out the second-time-around blueprint of amping up the outrageousness. Because, honestly, once you’ve seen a living teddy bear drink beer, smoke weed, snort coke and offend pretty much everyone within earshot, the whole thing becomes pretty hard to top.

Instead, they’ve given the sequel a timely message, plenty of heart and the most elaborate, classy, old-school Hollywood dance number to grace the screen in years.

They’ve also given it a running joke about how wherever you are on the Internet, you’re always only two clicks away from seeing a black penis. So, you know, it’s not exactly “Masterpiece Theatre.”

“Ted 2” kicks off with the wedding of Ted (once again voiced by MacFarlane) and his White-Trash Barbie, Tami-Lynn (Jessica Barth). It’s been six months since John (Mark Wahlberg), Ted’s Thunder Buddy for life, divorced Lori (Mila Kunis), and John still hasn’t recovered.

Cut to a year later, and Ted and Tami-Lynn are yelling at each other and breaking things in their dumpy apartment. Their latest argument is about her buying pricey clothes for her job at the grocery store. But Tami-Lynn has ambition. After all, as she says, she’s “just trying to climb the corporate fence.”