Review of The Happytime Murders (2018) by Joseph D — 24 Aug 2018

It's the mashup of Sesame Street & Who Framed Roger Rabbit we never got, till now!

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS.

I went into this expecting it to be awful, but dangit if this film didn't entertain!! At about 90 minuets, the story goes from detective noire, to comedy, to action, without missing a beat!

The cast was awesome! I've heard Melissa McCarthy is normally grating, but I didn't see it here. She was able to portray a character of subtlety, & "bombastitude"; ya can't help but root for her. The puppetry on display made the puppets I grew up with look like a backyard kiddy play. Everything was done practically, combining classic techniques with green screen suits & stellar voice acting to make me believe in a world populated by both humans & puppets.

The music was a cornucopia of modern classics which provided a tune for every mood, without telegraphing what was gonna happen.

Happytime Murders clearly understands it's target audience, folks like me, who grew up on the dry but clean humor of Muppets Tonight, & graduated to the less squeaky clean stuff on Comedy Central. The off-color humor, the zany situations, the bad puns, the plot & character cliches, the action, the drama, even the tear-jerk moments; this film knows what it is, & owns it. I'm giving it 4 stars outta 5! I don't know if I should call it a cult classic or not, but I really want to!!!