INVASION OF THE LIVING TED

Following Revenge of the Living Ted (2020), villainous teddy Grizz returns with a new evil plan.

Lisa Marie and Vernon are endlessly interrogated by Agent Strong, who refuses to tell them where the government has their teddy friends Bearvis and the Duds. Meanwhile, Grizz, now an artificial intelligence living in Ursine Kodiak’s head, forces his unwilling host to do his evil bidding. At the worst possible time for the human heroes, Grizz strikes with a device (using “an incredibly clever blend of advanced science and dark magic”) that animates all teddy bears and gives them personalities modeled after his own. Their flight from the bears takes Lisa Marie, Vernon, and bully Drake through a variety of horror-movie tropes. Before they can get away, Drake’s turned into a duck (the pun’s pointed out). When the heroes reunite with Bearvis to infiltrate Grizz’s new base—Buckingham Palace—they discover both his plan to use the Tedinator to animate all the teddies in the world and the King Kong–esque Mega-Ted that Grizz’s minions are building to be his new body. Since they can’t beat Grizz with brawn, they lean on Lisa Marie’s intellect. While the general trajectory’s similar to previous installments, the ridiculous action (with key moments illustrated) and silliness carry the day right up to the thrillingly inconclusive ending. Human principal characters present White.

Unapologetically zany and wacky, with the biggest-scale disaster yet.