[yasr_overall_rating]
When the puppet cast of an ’80s children’s TV show begins to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.
“The Happytime Murders” puts a new spin on our favorite beloved characters. This original idea comes from the mind of Brian Henson, the son of muppets creator Jim Henson. The film is rated “R” so don’t bring the kiddies along. These puppets aren’t singing along to the alphabet song, they are dealing with drug addicts, porn addicts, and puppet homicide. Similar to Avenue Q on Broadway, this film goes where puppets have never been before.
Phil Phillips (Bill Baretta) is a detective puppet that teams up with Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) to find out who is murdering the puppets in The Happytime Gang. What’s sad is that this detective is a puppet yet puts these other puppets on a different level than him. What’s even sadder is no one even cares when the puppets are murdered. Perhaps showing how the “real world” treats puppets and their puppeteers. Sugar gets puppets high like cocaine, they smoke cigarettes, and gunshots kill them. This is confusing because when you think of a puppet you think they are made of some sort of stuffing and that they wouldn’t have any blood.
McCarthy is surrounded by a fantastic team of comedians including Joel McHale, Maya Rudolph, and Elizabeth Banks. Henson basically wanted to show the real side of an art form that he truly loves and doesn’t get enough attention. Through humor and sexual innuendos, he succeeds at getting adults to truly take notice. Some of the scenes, however, have no context or storyline and are just straight out raunchy.
In theaters Friday, August 24th
