WHAT’S IT ABOUT
In the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, two clashing detectives — one human and the other a puppet — must work together to solve the brutal murders of former cast members of a beloved puppet TV show.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
If you are a fan of Jenny McCarthy, then you already know what to expect. Her movies are usually around a 4 or 6 for the most part, so expecting a blockbuster should never be in the equation. In The Happytime Murders, Detective Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) is forced to team up with her old puppet partner Phil Philips. In this world where humans and puppets co-exist, someone is killing puppets, and it’s up to Edwards and Philips to find out who. This type of story has been told before so it’s nothing new. Puppets have been in movies with real people before so once again, nothing new. There have also been movies where puppets curse, kill, and have sex. So what’s so special about The Happytime Murders? Nothing. The entire film relies solely on shock value as I’m sure no twentysomething has ever heard a puppet with a foul mouth. I like Jenny McCarthy, and I thought she was funny in this movie, but most of the jokes felt improvised or set up so she could deliver the punch line. This could have been a much better movie if there were more jokes throughout the film, they didn’t rely on Jenny to keep it funny, and the puppets had facial expressions like moving eyebrows or lashes. The only real issue I had with the movie (besides not being that funny) was having the puppets act like their only reason to exist is to make humans happy. Once again, this is nothing new because it’s the same thought process as the toys in Toy Story. The difference is having a being that everyone knows is sentient say those words, now you have slavery and racism toward a group (race) of individuals. I wasn’t looking for it, it was just so blatantly obvious.
Media
- Genre – Action/Comedy
- Street date
- Digital – November 20th 2018
- DVD/Blu-Ray – December 4th 2018
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size – 2.40:1
- Sound – English Dolby Atmos, English Dolby TrueHD 7.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles – Spanish, English SDH
Extras
- Deleted ScenesGag ReelLine-O-RamaVirtual Environments: Go behind the scenes to see the transformation of the film’s virtual environments including visual effects through backdrops, action scenes, and the movements of the puppets themselves.
- VFX Breakdown: An overview of the impact of visual special effects in the film.
- Avatars Demo: VFX supervisors discuss how The Happytime Murders created a new realm of puppet movies by using avatars to make the puppets come to life.
- Theatrical Trailers
- Feature Commentary with Director Brian Henson and voice actor Bill Barretta