Capsule Summary (minimal spoilers):

The Happytime Murders is a movie that answers the question – what if Puppets were real and part of society? It’s not necessary to know, but they live among us, and in this case, L.A.

What we have here is a traditional film noir story, but involving puppets. Phil Phillips (Bill Barretta) is a puppet, and a former LAPD officer. He’s now a detective, and a beautiful woman puppet approaches him for a case. It leads him to reunite with his former partner Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy), his old squad leader, Lt.  Banning (Leslie David Baker), and a LOT of trouble. It’s all played for laughs. This is a dark comedy with puppets.

It’s directed by Brian Henson (Jim’s son). Runtime is 1:31 and it ends before it wears out its welcome. There’s a lot of humor here that is definitely NOT for kids. It’s amusing and funny. It’s quite sexually explicit and there’s a lot of violence against puppets. It is not your standard puppet faire, but it is amusing. I wouldn’t necessarily rush out to see it, as I’m sure it’ll be on streaming services soon enough. I’d rate it as good, not great.

Standard Review

Not much I feel like saying about the story, however, FBI Agent Campbell (Joel McHale) does make a good foil for the main characters. Maya Rudolph plays the typical noir-ish secretary Bubbles to Phil, and plays it well.

This film was initially announced in 2008, and has had Cameron Diaz and Katherine Heigl associated with the role Melissa McCarthy  finally won out. Melissa plays her typical over-the-top character, and here, it works rather well.

The Credits have some interesting background images, so you might like staying to watch those. Towards the end of the credits, the producers thank Mia Sara, lead actress in both Ferris Beuller’s Day Off and Legend, and both me and another patron were wondering why. After some investigation, I found that she’s been married to Brian Henson since 2010. Just another bit of silly trivia to squirrel away for another day, I guess.