First Take: The Happytime Murders- 15 certificate + puppets = fluffing bad idea

SYNOPSIS- When the puppet cast of an ‘90s children’s TV show begin to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.

Ridiculous as it sounds, the desire for studios to take conventional ideas and add a little edgy flavour to them is quite the trend at the minute- just look at films at Sausage Party and you’ll see a pretty decent example. Unfortunately this isn’t one of those kinds of films. Brian Henson (the son of Jim) has been trying to get this one made for a long time, and it’s obvious- because the trailers gave EVERYTHING away.

Henson’s direction is good, don’t get me wrong, but at 91 minutes, the film doesn’t have enough material to flesh out the plot- as the script from Todd Berger (with uncredited rewrites by Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone) fails to deliver in laughs, using moments that ultimately fail to shock the audience enough to warrant the use of the 6 laugh test- as there are simply no big laughs until a pretty inventive end credits sequence.. It’s shot pretty well by Mitchell Admundsen, and the music from Christopher Lennertz does the job for what it’s meant to be.

When it comes to the performances, the actual live cast members are alright- Melissa McCarthy basically reprises elements of her character from The Heat, Elizabeth Banks, Joel McHale and Maya Rudolph do some decent work, but I have to single out the puppeteers who are able to make the film come alive- they are the saving grace, as it’s obvious that the Henson Company are the only ones to have experience making films like this, and it clearly shows; it’s just a real shame that the film has to disappoint the way it does.

THE VERDICT

I had another big chunk of the legendary Great Men and Women™ of the blog with me (including Renata Road director Ed Greenberg), and we all felt a crushing sense of disappointment when the credits began. The Happytime Murders had potential, but its execution was about as flat as the chemistry in THAT scene from the trailer. A real shame, as it now truly is the poor man’s Sausage Party.

RATING- 2/5