The Happytime Murders is a 2018 crime comedy about the puppet cast of an ’80s children’s TV show getting murdered one by one, with a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet taking on the case.
Like many of us who grew up on the beloved Muppets of the television shows and movies, there is a sort of ultra-soft spot in our hearts where only joy, laughter and childhood dreams come to settle. It’s like a safe zone, a place we know that can’t ever be corrupted by the darkness of the world outside. Even if as adults we may not admit it, we visit it often and revel in classic Jim Henson productions with great satisfaction. Now his son Brian Henson, who has been behind many of these classics, including The Muppet Christmas Carol, brings us his latest featuring the famous puppets, seemingly intent on driving a steamroller straight over the whole legacy. That’s most likely entirely the point, yet The Happytime Murders is a relentlessly weary and dreary affair that misses the mark, being a squirm-inducing experience not because of the content, but because it feels so creatively empty.
In Los Angeles, it’s a world like all Muppets movies, where people and puppets live together, but in this alternative reality, the people actively hate their fuzzy neighbors (some are poached for their ‘good luck’ feet). Still, gotta make a living, so disgraced police detective Muppet Phil Philips (voiced by Bill Barretta) is now a private investigator. One day, into his office walks Sandra White (voiced by Dorien Davies), a sex-crazed Muppet with an extortion note claiming she needs to pay big money or her ‘secret’ will be revealed. This eventually leads him to the cast of the TV show “The Happytime Gang,” who are suddenly being knocked off. Soon after, the cops assign Detective Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy), his former (human) partner, to the murders and the pair set off to stop the madness.
A raunchy puppet movie is hardly something new, and just the same as live-action raunchy movies, it all spirals down to cheap sex jokes and sight gags, the screenwriters of The Happytime Murders pretty much running dry the well. I’m sure there is a subculture somewhere out there where Muppets talking trashy and doing the nasty fulfil some sort of personal fantasy, and if so, then this will certainly fit the bill, yet beyond that, there is nearly nothing after that could count for entertainment.
The story is a retread of others, including the recent Will Smith disappointment Bright, though even that had more interest behind the premise. Admittedly, there is a spark here, the idea of going dark with the Muppets something that could have some legs, but The Happytime Murders settles for a string of lifeless setpieces that don’t have much click. What we get is 90 minutes of sassy talk from McCarthy, tons of awkward slapstick, and lots of sex stuff. Lots. The problem is that is doesn’t hit with any significance, even as it seems loaded with potential, taking some of the expectations of the Muppet movies and trying to give them a spin.
So sure, not a kid’s movie. The trailers went way out of their way to make that clear, and yet, for grownups who might enjoy seeing icons of their past dip their toes outside a G-rated world, this has a few minutes that might satisfy, and that right there is exactly the problem. A two-minute trailer is right where this should have stayed. No doubt Brian Henson and his crew and cast put some effort into this and perhaps a nod is deserved for trying something new, but it relies too much on the concept and nothing on the possibilities.