Tonight's movie watch, which I bought earlier today on DVD, was The Happytime Murders, an exceedingly quirky fantasy/crime/comedy movie released in 2018 by STX Entertainment, and is somewhat reminiscent in basic storyline to the 1988 live-action/animation movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit – but with two very major differences.
Firstly, instead of humans sharing the world with living cartoons, they share it in this movie with living puppets. Secondly, this ain't no family film – no indeed, not when it's full to overflowing with outrageous, in-yer-face puppet sex scenes (really!) and wall-to-wall expletives throughout. In the States, it was originally given an 'R' rating, and here in the UK my DVD of it has a '15' rating.
But here's the biggest twist of all – guess who created a movie that is so raunchy it would even make Fritz the Cat blush? None other than that production studio byword for big/small screen wholesomeness, the Jim Henson Company! I kid you not! During the early 2000s, under the specially-coined name Henson Alternative, the studio who created Sesame Street and The Muppet Show diverged into productions aimed at a more mature audience, beginning with various TV shows, but with The Happytime Murders as its first feature-length movie release. It's even directed by Jim Henson's own son, Brian Henson.
In this film, which is set in the seedy backstreets of Los Angeles, two former, exceedingly estranged LAPD cop partners, one human (Detective Connie Edwards, played by Melissa McCarthy), one puppet (Phil Phillips, voiced by Bill Barretta, and now an ex-cop after having fallen short big time during an earlier case), reluctantly combine forces once again to track down whoever (or whatever) is systematically slaughtering all the cast members of the erstwhile hit children's TV show The Happytime Gang, all of whom save one are puppets. The lone exception is the voluptuous human Jenny (Elizabeth Banks), who was once Phil's girlfriend, so he has a vested interest in coming good this time. But will he and Edwards succeed – especially when their anonymous but deadly adversary successfully frames Phil for all of the killings?
The Happytime Murders is a thoroughly anarchic neo-noir satire movie and has been diversely described in the film world as filthy, outrageous, wicked, uproarious, inventive, crazy, and highly original – and yes, it is all of these, and so much more too. But above all else, it is funny, very funny – totally hilarious, in fact – throughout its 87-minute running time (even the end credits contain great gags and laugh-outloud out-takes).
To put it another way: at the beginning of this review, I mentioned that The Happytime Murders is somewhat reminiscent in basic storyline to Who Framed Roger Rabbit – which it is. In presentation, however, it is far closer to Meet The Feebles – so if you've ever watched that movie, which is another dark, controversial, adult-themed puppet-featuring fantasy/crime/comedy flick, directed by none other than Peter Jackson and released in 1989, you'll know exactly what to expect!
But that's not all either. For The Happytime Murders also includes some of the most incredible, technically-complex puppetry that I have ever seen on film. Even the film critics, who generally hated this movie when it was released, grudgingly agreed about the latter aspect. Moreover, as soon as I learnt that they loathed it, I knew that I was going to love it – and, sure enough, I did!
If you'd like to view a trailer for The Happytime Murders on YouTube, please click here – but prepare to be shocked if the word 'puppet' has hitherto only ever conjured forth in your mind some innocent childhood images of talking frogs, joke-telling bears, and big yellow birds. There's also an even more overt, no-holds-barred Restricted trailer for it on YouTube, but I'll leave you to find that one for yourself! To quote this film's own publicity slogans: "No Sesame, All Street" and "Sex. Murder. Puppets." – absolutely!
Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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