The Happytime Murders
Short description
The Happytime Murders is set in a version of Los Angeles where puppets live alongside humans as second-class citizens. When the former cast members of a popular children's television show, The Happytime Gang, start being killed one after another, puppet private investigator Phil Philips takes the case. A former police officer, he is asked by his old boss to help his former partner, Detective Connie Edwards, and the two must work together despite their difficult history to find whoever is targeting the show's alumni.
Brian Henson directs from a screenplay by Todd Berger, with Melissa McCarthy as Connie Edwards and Bill Barretta as the puppet Phil Philips. The cast also includes Leslie David Baker, Elizabeth Banks, Joel McHale and Maya Rudolph. Henson, known for his earlier work directing The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island and Tinseltown, produced the film with McCarthy and Ben Falcone.
Released in 2018 and running 91 minutes, the film mixes action, comedy, crime and horror. Made for a budget of 40 million dollars, it earned 28 million dollars worldwide, less than its production cost. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 4 out of 10 from 245 reviews, while on TMDB audiences give it 5.8 out of 10 from 1,109 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Some of the puppets in the film were borrowed from Henson’s previous works, such as 'Animal Planet' (1994) or 'Kermit the Frog: Years in the Swamp' (2002).
- The tall man in the photograph in Detective Edwards’ apartment is the film’s director, Brian Henson.
- The film used 125 puppets, and 40 of them were made specifically for the shoot. All the sets were designed to make it convenient for the puppeteers to operate the marionettes. The floors were made two-tiered for the convenience of the actors.
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