Puppet sex? Check. Interesting story? No
It’s easy to assume that when the cameras are off, producers of children’s TV shows are making soft-core porn with the wholesome characters.
Gifted with after-hours access to the Elmo puppet, wouldn’t you create a shot-for-shot remake of “9½ Weeks” starring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger?
The makers of “The Happytime Murders” have taken this totally natural artistic urge and released it as a 91-minute feature film. This is an absolutely fascinating exercise — down to the post-credits sequence where the filmmakers show the puppeteers enthusiastically creating the puppet sex.
Unfortunately, it’s not much of a movie. The best thing “Happytime” has going for it is shock value, and that wears away after about 10 minutes. It doesn’t have an interesting story, and the jokes fall flat. By the end of the first act, you’ll feel sorry for the handful of humans on screen — lead Melissa McCarthy and talented actors including Maya Rudolph and Joel McHale, who seem unsure what’s happening.
“The Happytime Murders” was made by Henson Alternative, which has been creating lower-profile mature puppet content for about a decade. Brian Henson, current chairman of the Jim Henson Company, directs the movie. He’s careful not to include characters that resemble any from “The Muppet Show” or “Sesame Street,” living or dead.
The movie begins promisingly, with a “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” vibe. Puppets live in the human world, but in a lower caste. Private eye Phil Philips (voiced by longtime Henson collaborator Bill Barretta) was a detective in the human world who was disgraced and lost his badge. He teams with his former partner (McCarthy, playing a conglomeration of every other Melissa McCarthy character) to solve a serial killing of beloved puppets from a popular show.
Shock value goes a long way in the beginning of “The Happytime Murders.” One laugh-out-loud moment, in the first minute, simply features a Muppet-like character getting his cab stolen by a human, and blurting out a frustrated “F— you!” This is funny, because we associate the Henson puppet look and bouncing walk with a level of wholesomeness, and the profanity is such a stunner. It’s like the first time your infant inadvertently gives the middle finger.
But it quickly becomes clear that this contradictory surprise is the only move available to Henson and “Happytime” writer Todd Berger. When the shock value wears off (a prolonged sex scene with Silly String is the last moment of true inspiration), it becomes clear the film is held together with the barest of stories. The makers of the movie seem bored with anything that doesn’t center on sex and violence.
“Roger Rabbit” reveled in exploring the lively space it had created, finding humor and joy in the idea that animated creations and humans shared a single world. The makers of “Happytime Murders” have little of this creative spark, seemingly comfortable to repeat the same aggressive sex scenes and violent gun deaths with stuffing flying in the air.
Next to the first 10 minutes, the last five minutes are the best, showing the puppeteers — clearly having a great time — mashing two puppets against each other in unbridled fornication. Among the puppeteers listed in the credits is Kevin Clash, who controlled Elmo on “Sesame Street” for decades.
Although “The Happytime Murders” isn’t much fun to watch, it was clearly a blast to make.