The Happytime Murders (2018)

Directed by: Brian Henson | 91 minutes | action, comedy | Actors: Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph, Leslie David Baker, Joel McHale, Cynthy Wu, Michael McDonald, Mitch Silpa, Hemky Madera, Brekkan Spens, Ryan Tran, Fortune Feimster

It won’t have come in handy for the makers: the release of the trailer for ‘The Happytime Murders’ aroused so much resistance that it would eventually even lead to a lawsuit, brought by the production company behind ‘Sesame Street’ (known to us as ‘Sesame Street’). ). Reason: The violent and crude way in which the Sesame Street-esque puppets and tagline of the movie (‘No Sesame. All Street’) were made fun of. The production company ultimately failed to win the lawsuit, leaving the makers a double winner given the extra publicity generated by the controversy. But was ‘The Happytime Murders’ worth the fuss at all? The end result seems to confirm that the production company could have better spent its money on something other than a lawsuit.

‘The Happytime Murders’ is best described as a buddy cop comedy between pop and private detective Phil Philips (voiced by Bill Barretta) and the foul-mouthed detective Edwards (Melissa McCarthy). If you can speak of a plot, this is about a serial killer who hates dolls and decides to kill them one by one. The thread that seems to connect the murders is an old television show, ‘The Happytime Gang’, which featured a group of dolls in collaboration with Phil’s ex-girlfriend Jenny (Elizabeth Banks in a barely noticeable supporting role). If all traces point to Phil, it’s up to him and Edwards to work together willy-nilly and prove his innocence.

It is clear that ‘The Happytime Murders’ should not have a challenging plot. The plot has very little to say and somewhere halfway it completely abandons the logic that is still somewhat present. Because you see most plot twists coming an hour in advance, the film becomes very dependent on the joke density. Although the film is still somewhat off the grid, the humor quickly drops to a rather sad level. The original and successful jokes are very hard to find and the general level of the film is well summarized in a very long ‘sex scene’ between two dolls that ends with a long ejaculation scene. If you can laugh at this you will enjoy ‘The Happytime Murders’. It makes more sense that you probably give up after half an hour.

Somewhere beneath the surface there was probably a nice gross film, but in ‘The Happytime Murders’ the whole thing never rises above an annoying childish blandness. The film is still somewhat held together by Melissa McCarthy, certainly not at her best here, but naturally funny enough to steal the show even here for a few moments. ‘The Happytime Murders’ is mainly an unbridled succession of silly laugh-or-I-shoot jokes and suffers from a plot that is far too shaky. And we can dream of that ‘Basic Instinct’ parody by now.

If this is all director Brian Henson (“The Muppet Christmas Carol”) can get out of a gross buddy cop movie with a doll and Melissa McCarthy, the end result is particularly shabby. An anarchic, wacky puppet comedy could have turned out great if a good dash of black humor had been thrown in, but has now become nothing more than an annoying little thing.