When we heard Brian Henson, son of the immortal Jim Henson and the director of such delights like Muppet Christmas Carol, would be returning to the screen to make another movie, this time called The Happytime Murders we weren’t expecting it to feature so much puppet jizz, at least not in the first trailer. Yep, this is most definitely a Red Band trailer (one that you should most definitely not show your kids), full of puppet heads exploding and sex acts suggested by puppet prostitutes, but we’re kind of here for it? Mainly we’re just glad to see Melissa McCarthy make a swell return to the world of horribly profane humor, even if it really is just a puppet-filled version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Take a look for yourself, but definitely don’t do it at work:
This isn’t exactly new territory, especially for “auteurs” — Peter Jackson’s Meet the Feebles covered similar ground almost 30 years ago, and Sean Baker‘s Greg the Bunny once graced Fox’s comedy line-up — but very rarely does a film like this have star power to go along with it. Surprisingly, it’s got kind of a stacked cast, with Maya Rudolph and Joel McHale supporting McCarthy in live-action roles, and a number of talented puppeteers from the Henson Company working to bring the felt-covered fellows to life.
Happytime Murders has been floating around for a bit: It was announced back as a Henson Company project back in 2008, and only got revived once STX Entertainment picked up the rights from Lionsgate in 2015. It looks like this is a bit of a passion project for Henson, so hey, we hope that it’s good and that it was worth the ten year wait.
Here’s a synopsis via the distributor:
“The Happytime Murders” is a filthy comedy set in the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles where puppets and humans coexist. Two clashing detectives with a shared secret, one human (Melissa McCarthy) and one puppet, are forced to work together again to solve the brutal murders of the former cast of a beloved classic puppet television show.
The Happytime Murders will offend Fox News hosts everywhere on August 17.
Featured image via STX Entertainment.