The Happytime Murders - The Jim Henson Company's first R-rated movie

Check it out.

The Roger Rabbit sequel won't get here for at least two years, and already they're making a knock-off.

edited 14th Oct '10 11:24:01 AM by EddieValiant,Jr.

• COUGH COUGH*meetthefeebles*COUGH!

edited 14th Oct '10 1:52:45 PM by Roundy210

Yeah, but it's a Henson production. I'm certainly interested. Even if it's probably not going to be a Muppet movie.

^^ I actually thought of that shorty after posting.

I'd like to watch it out of curiosity, but it seems like a blatant Who Framed Roger Rabbit knock-off more than anything.

Wasnt Cool World bad enough than this? Even though I may be into muppet stuff. I just smell a Knock-off right in front of me.

edited 27th Oct '10 3:10:20 PM by Playedforkeeps

I actually quite like Cool World, but then again, I'm quite the schediaphile.

edited 27th Oct '10 4:28:33 PM by EddieValiant,Jr.

This was in development before the Who Framed Roger Rabbit sequel was resurrected...at Disney (Disney owns the Jim Henson Company). Disney put into turnaround not because of dueling movies but because they claimed it was too dark (apparently, the script is rather R-rated in content).

Actually, The Henson company is independent of Disney. Disney just owns the Muppets!

French Narrator: Six Years Later...

The movie's still in the works (since 2008) finding distribution in STX Entertainment (Hardcore Henry) and now Jamie Foxx is being eyed as the human lead for The Jim Henson Company's Happytime Murders.

So buckle your pants.

More than Two Years Later:

Jamie Foxx is out, and we have a proper cast list:

In other news: The movie is finally coming August 17, 2018...

...and I made a page for the movie! I've only started it, so contributions would be super.

I'd much rather have Jamie Foxx than Melissa McCarthy, but McCarthy was amazing in Spy so I remain cautiously optimistic.

I'm flummoxed that this actually has Brian Henson involved - prior to that, I was thinking that they should be calling them "Moopets" instead of Muppets. But yeah, it's the old "By trying to act mature, they're being really immature" standpoint from me.

Red band trailer is out:

Apart from the other shows mentioned above, it has a strong Avenue Q vibe too.

Oh, and Sesame Workshop lost their attempt to stop them from using the Tag Line "No Sesame, All Street".

edited 10th Jun '18 6:13:03 PM by alanh

Well...maybe they'll resurrect David Bowie to write the theme song...

edited 14th Jun '18 8:48:18 PM by TheShadow

This kind of reminds me of that one Family Guy bit

Homicide: Life on Sesame Street

"This show contains adult content and is brought to you by the letter H."

I got to go to an advance screening tonight. It was entertaining. The basic premise is that humans and puppets exist alongside of each other. Puppets have very few rights, and are openly discriminated against. Phil is the brother of a member of a very successful (at least four seasons) comedy show called The Happytime Gang whose cast consisted of six puppets and one human cast member. Now, it looks like someone's bumping the cast off just as they approach a lucrative syndication deal. Complicating things, Phil is an ex-cop due to an incident where, despite top marks in marksmanship, he misses a shot against a puppet, and laws are passed prohibiting puppets from joining law enforcement since "a puppet won't shoot a puppet". Furthermore, his former partner (McCarthy) is extremely embittered by the incident in question and hates Phil's guts.

The film was fun to watch, with plenty of over-the-top humor. Very little gore since the puppets are filled with stuffing. Lots of puppet sex and drug use (well, sugar abuse) and quite a bit of smoking. I didn't see the plot twist coming, but it made perfect sense. All in all, I enjoyed it.

Good buzz around this movie.

Huh, you could've fooled me.

Might be another case of Critical Dissonance. I've seen mixed reviews. Some people like it, some hate it, with very few reaching a middle ground.

Phil responds to comments from IGN regarding his movie. Hilarity Ensues.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Aug 25th 2018 at 5:20:44 AM

I guess I'm in the camp that hated this movie. Every single joke is an immature, childish sex or drug gag that's supposed to be hilarious because they're puppets. It wants to be so edgy but there's just no substance. It's just gross out humor for the sake of being gross. And Melissa has zero chemistry with her puppet co-star. Maybe it could've worked if I actually cared about the characters, but they don't have an traits beyond 'cop partners that used to be BFF's but had a fallout.'

Thread title changed per request.

Saw this movie myself, cant say it was particulary outstanding. Its just the usual "Lets take this thing that people dismiss a being for children (puppets) and make it super foul and crude". There was some genuinely funny stuff, like the main puppet's rapport with Melissa Mccarthy but it was kinda unremarkable overall

I was at first reminded of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but then I saw all these crude, childish sex jokes.

If there's no Judge Doom figure to force things to a certain tone, then I wouldn't advise seeing it.

I saw it. My friend particularly seemed to enjoy it, and the theater laughed well enough. It's nowhere as brilliant as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and I think the main problem is that it's just an okay murder-mystery Film Noir. If the story and social commentary was tighter and smarter I think the overall joke of the movie would have landed better. There was a few points where it got too raunchy, but most of the time it felt Tarantino-esque in its dialogue rather than childish.

Certainly Melissa McCarthy and Maya Rudolph elevate the movie, and coupled with how Phil is the typical hard-boiled PI results in some good character interactions.

Definitely the end credits are some of the best material, which shows Hilarious Outtakes with the puppeteers in plain view. The biggest laugh of the movie was the machine they used to emulate the puppet sex scene broke down.