The Happytime Murders' Marketing May Have Doomed It to Failure

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for director Brian Henson's The Happytime Murders, in theaters now.

Brian Henson’s first major puppet feature since 1996's Muppet Treasure Island opened this weekend to a slew of vicious reviews. More than one called it the worst movie of the year, and those that didn’t found endless elements lacking. The jokes were too crass and lowbrow, the characters were two-dimensional and the plot was derivative. But does the crime comedy really deserve that kind of hyperbole, or did it merely fall victim to mismanaged expectations?

The Happytime Murders has been in development in since 2008, when Lionsgate secured the rights. The elevator pitch has been "R-rated puppet movie," and that clearly remained the film’s major selling point in the 10 years it took to get to the big screen. The very first frame of the trailer was the red R-rated title card warning audiences that the preview itself isn’t fit for children. Presumably the choice to release an adults-only teaser wasn’t made simply to allow for the early release of the Silly String gag. But its inclusion as a signature bit among other moments of “adult” humor was reflective of the broader goal to showcase the (gasp) dark side of The Jim Henson Company. As if we didn't already know it existed.

That appeared to be the entire job of the film’s marketing – to ensure everyone knew The Happytime Murders would feature adult humor. Nearly every other element of the story, from the relationship between ex-partners Phil Phillips and Connie Edwards to the marginalized status of puppets in Los Angeles to the background of the Happytime Gang itself, had to be explained in reviews or press promotion beforehand. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in an age when trailers so often serve as abbreviated versions of the films they’re designed to introduce, but it set up The Happytime Murders to live or die on puppets making dick jokes. Or sex jokes. Or drug jokes. Or just any joke that couldn't have been included on Sesame Street.

But in a post Avenue Q, Meet the Feebles and, hell, Crank Yankers era, adult puppet humor by its lonesome isn’t a groundbreaking enough conceit to carry a film. A commercial maybe, but not a feature. The humor either had to be really, really intelligent or else needed to be backed up with a plot and performances worthy of Roger Rabbit – an analogous story with similarly lightweight humor, but one that was far better executed. Unfortunately, The Happytime Murders did notably fall down in the story department, at least when it came to premise and originality.

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As CBR said in its own review, what puppets actually are and the details of why they’re so marginalized are poorly handled to an almost comic degree. Puppets bleed stuffing, but can donate organs to humans. At some point the movie alludes to a segregated state of existence in which puppets were only allowed to work as entertainers, but even that idea is an inference based on one line uttered in the first quarter of the movie. Those two missteps illustrate the other problem with marketing one single element of a film -- that it's the only thing anyone believes is sellable. In the case of The Happytime Murders, the film’s promotion told audiences they were going to see an iconic children's brand spectacularly subverted ... except a) they didn't do it very well, and b) other people have, decades ago.

But The Happytime Murders still isnt' the dumpster fire that people are saying it is. There are plenty of gags that land that have nothing to do with the gimmick of puppets swearing, having sex and taking drugs that was used to sell the movie. At one point, Phil breaks into the apartment of a passed-out Connie and cleans it for her, and she exclaims, “That’s like stealing someone’s car and putting new tires on it. I don’t know how to take that.” There’s also the running gag that dogs are the puppets’ apex predator, and in one case are actually used as murder weapons. It’s not the smartest joke on the block, but it’s executed well multiple times. There’s also the relatively dumb constant reference to the incestuous marriage of two cousins who were cast members of Happytime Gang, the beloved 1980s children's show at the center of the film's mystery. Again, not the most sophisticated set-up, but the payoff – a five-second bit involving three-eyed mutant puppet children – is one of the movie's most unexpectedly funny moments. That in and of itself speaks to the sophisticated level of puppetry at work that achieves seamless and believable integration of puppets and humans in Los Angeles.

Beyond that, Melissa McCarthy nails the in-your-face rough lady/cop shtick she pioneered in Bridesmaids and has been trying and failing to recreate in films like The Heat, Tammy and Identity Thief. When she snorts a bunch of Pop Rocks and kicks the crap out of a bulldog gangster who was disrespectful to his girlfriend, it’s genuinely funny. Her frustrated insult-trading with Phil and their unified hatred of Joel McHale’s FBI agent is not only funny, but indicates a sincerely rooted relationship. And literally every scene she shares with Maya Rudolph (or any time Maya Rudolph is on screen) reminds us these are two improvisers with considerable skill.

The bottom line is there’s more to enjoy in The Happytime Murders than the only mildly edgy humor the marketing insisted was the best part. And it's possible that audiences and reviewers were conditioned to expect far more from the movie than was necessary. The film absolutely has its problems, some of them major, but labeling it the worst movie of 2018 when this is a year that brought us Fifty Shades Freed, Show Dogs and Slender Man feels unnecessarily hyperbolic.

In theaters now, director Brian Henson’s The Happytime Murders stars Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale and Elizabeth Banks.