The Muppets Show Their Naughtier Side
The director Brian Henson wasn’t surprised when some viewers were mortified by the red- band trailer for his new movie “The Happytime Murders” — so explicit it can be shown in theaters only before R-rated movies. In one scene, “I used puppets and Silly String to comically depict a man ejaculating,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s the choice of Silly String that makes people say, ‘Oh, this is just naughty, ridiculous, guilty- pleasure fun.’ ”
Of course, the fact that it’s puppets having sex might be a clue, too.
“Happytime,” a mystery spoof starring Melissa McCarthy as a cop who teams up with a puppet partner to investigate the killings of blue- felt victims that was in global release at the end of August, isn’t the first risqué puppet opus. There was “Avenue Q” on Broadway and the 2004 comedy “Team America: World Police.” It’s not even the only transgressive puppet satire that came out recently: “Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich,” a darkly comic, Nazi-themed reboot of the horror franchise about demonic toys, was also recently released.
But “Happytime” is the first R-rated movie from the Jim Henson Company, founded by Brian’s father and famous for family friendly fare like “The Muppet Show.”
“I was worried the audience would be upset,” Brian Henson admitted. “But truthfully, this is very similar to what my dad and all those Muppets guys would do when cameras weren’t rolling — they had naughty, blue senses of humor.”
That was offscreen, though. How would the elder Henson, who died in 1990, feel about gags like the porn-movie scene in which an octopus milks a cow’s eight udders simultaneously? “I think he would enjoy it and say, ‘ You went over the line in a couple of places,’ ” Brian Henson said. “But there’s an expectation with R-rated comedies these days that you should go a little too far, so I did it on purpose.”
Ms. McCarthy agreed, saying she wasn’t concerned about offending moviegoers. “Sometimes, when things aren’t real, you can push it a little farther,” she said. “These are puppets, so you can only take them so seriously, and that’s the fun of it.” Still, the mother of two preteenage girls added, “My kids will not be seeing ‘Happytime,’ and other children shouldn’t see it until they’re older.”
Thomas Lennon, the veteran comedic actor (“Reno 911!”) who plays a comic-book artist battling white-supremacist marionettes in “The Littlest Reich,” allowed his young son, Oliver, to play a small role in the movie. “He was very excited to be in it,” Mr. Lennon said. “But he might not ever see it.”
That’s because unlike in “Happytime,” actual human beings engage in explicit sex — and are gruesomely slaughtered by the mini-Nazis. “I approached it as a horror movie, but everything I do has comedy,” said the screenwriter S. Craig Zahler, whose credits include “Bone Tomahawk” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99.”
There are precedents for puppets committing mayhem, like the 1978 Anthony Hopkins ventriloquist shocker, “Magic,” and 10 years later, “Child’s Play.”
And we haven’t seen the last oddball puppet film. Mr. Zahler is working with the Jim Henson Company to produce his dream project, “Hug Chickenpenny,” a Dickensian fable about an Elephant Man- esque orphan embodied by an animatronic puppet. “It’s got a gothic horror feel, but it’s a very heartfelt piece,” Mr. Zahler said.
One aspect will set it apart from “Happytime” and “The Littlest Reich.” Mr. Zahler said, “It will be PG or PG-13.”