The Happytime Murders

And now a review from one of my best friends from College, the one and only, Chris Chipman.

2018. 91 minutes. Rated R
Quote: Less Feebles, more Smoochy… and that’s a good thing!

!!! Warning, this movie is not for children!!! (I feel obligated to say this although the trailers have done a
good job of it…)

I want to start by getting this out of the way. If you haven’t seen Meet the Feebles, a 1989 film from Lord
of the Rings Maestro Peter Jackson back when he was shelling out low-budget horror and shock flicks,
you owe it to yourself. Meet the Feebles is vile, hilarious and goes down just about every dark alley you
could imagine with the premise of “Muppets, but R-rated,” –so far, in fact, that the movie was even
banned in many countries. Meet the Feebles is quite a film and I love it dearly; it’s one of those movies
that is just so much fun to show people and test their limits on what is offensive.

When I first heard that a new R-rated Muppet movie was in the works, I, like many who know the
Feebles I’m sure, was skeptical. Why do this when Hollywood could never allow the levels of depravity
and twistedness of the Jackson’s dirty puppet opus Feebles?

The answer to this is two-fold it would seem:

1: Most regular movie-goers have never seen the Feebles (and they got Melissa McCarthy) and

2: The movie is being helmed and championed by Brian Henson… that’s right, THAT Brian Henson.
Folks, this R-rated Muppet movie is directed by Jim Henson’s (creator of the Muppets) son, director of
Muppet Treasure Island and a Muppet Christmas Carol. Let’s just say I was immediately interested.
What Brian Henson–along with a large crew of talented Muppet performers from Sesame Street and the
prior Muppet films–has crafted is actually a much different beast than the Feebles, with more in
common with Death to Smoochy or an R-rated Who Framed Roger Rabbit than the depravity for
depravity’s sake work of Peter Jackson, and that is it’s strongest suit and biggest surprise.

The film takes place in an alternate-reality Los Angeles where humans and puppets coexist. The puppets,
however, are much lower on the social totem pole than the humans, filling much of the films subtext
and plot with the puppets as metaphor for race, sex and class issues in our real world. Our story centers
around ex-police officer turned private investigator Phil Philips (voiced by Bill Beretta, who recently has
been the voice of Muppets The Swedish Chef, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, and Pepe the Prawn to name a few) who
witnesses the murder of Bumblypants (voiced by Kevin Clash, Elmo of Sesame Street Fame), who was
one of the cast members of “The Happytime Gang”, which was a 1990’s television show. When Phil’s
brother, Larry Shenanigans Philips–who was also a cast member of the Happytime Gang–is murdered,
Phil begins to suspect the murders are connected and has to Team up with his ex-parter (and human)
Detective Connie Edwards (McCarthy).

The plot thickens as we learn that Connie and Phil were once the perfect buddy-cop duo, with Phil being
the very first puppet police officer, until one day he missed a shot trying to take down a criminal holding
Connie at gun-point that nearly resulted in her -death, and did result in the death of an innocent
bystander puppet. Iinconsequently, Phil,was wrongfully accused of intentionally missing the shot since
“puppets won’t shoot their own kind,” lost his job and and got all puppets banned from the police force.

From there, the movie follows a fairly by-the-numbers noir-style whodunit, reminding us that Brian
Henson and gang are really committing to the formula that his father once, and he several times after,
used for the Muppets: “What if we made [insert genre or movie here] but there are also Muppets.” This
movie really plays like a script for a Muppet-noir that never got made but the material was too dark for
the actual Mmuppets, so they went ahead and upped the raunch to 11 and made it with different
puppets. It won’t work for everyone, but I was 100% on board.

A fear I had before watching this film was that it was going to be very one-note on the jokes and the
trailers didn’t do much to curb this fear. I am happy to report, however, that while the jokes are VERY
low-brow and very hard R in their vulgarity, the movie does a very good job of front-loading those jokes
to world-build. It knows you bought your ticket to see Mpuppets saying dirty words and doing dirty
things and it gets that out of its system quickly, using the shock value to bring you in. When the movie
hits it’s stride you find out it actually has a heart under all of that seedy underbelly, with a main puppet
character who ends up being quite likeable and a main human character in McCarthy that has great
chemistry with her puppet counterpart (no easy feat). Melissa McCarthy has a lot of heavy lifting to do
here and is up to the task, with many scenes consisting of just her and a crapload of puppets. She really
sells the world they have created and her signature brand of improv and dirty one-liners feels natural
with the other characters that inhabit this world. Her physical comedy skills are also on full display. Extra
props also for the movie containing my favorite cameo from Ben Falcone (McCarthy’s real-life husband,
who you may remember as the Air Marshall in Bridesmaids) so far. Also, Phil’s secretary Bubbles
(surprisingly, a human; despite the name, played fairly straight by Maya Rudolph) brings a lot to a role that could have been very one-note. She, like Philips, is ripped right out of a noir. Dressed like it’s the
1950s with a voice to match, Bubbles ends up being a fairly layered character who proves to be quite
resourceful in her own right.


The Happytime Murders was a surprise for me. I was cautiously optimistic but assumed it would just be
an excuse for dirty jokes told by Muppets more akin to an extended Family Guy sketch. While there are
plenty of dirty jokes told by and involving Muppets to get people in seats, the movie then surprises with
a brilliant showcase of puppeteering talent, reminding everyone why this artform was so amazing in the
first place. In this day and age of over-CGI action spectacles, the fact that I can still sit in a theatre and
think about the technical wizardry and complexity of a Muppet that smokes a cigarette, drives a car, or
gives an 8-legged reach-around to a cow (yes, you read that right) is a testament to the hard-work on
screen. Stay for the credits for some fun behind the scenes bits as well.

Your mileage may vary, but I was entertained. That, at first order, is the most important part of going to
the movies for me.

Author: Peter

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