The Happytime Murders
The Happytime Murders is a 2018 American crime comedy film directed by Brian Henson and written by Todd Berger from a story by Berger and Dee Austin Robertson. The film stars Melissa McCarthy, Bill Barretta, Joel McHale, Maya Rudolph, Leslie David Baker, and Elizabeth Banks. Set in a world where humans and living puppets co-exist, the film follows a puppet private investigator and a human police detective who must solve a murder spree of retired sitcom stars. The film was first announced in 2008 by The Jim Henson Company, the production studio of Muppets creator Jim  Henson. Various actors, including Cameron Diaz, Katherine Heigl and Jamie Foxx, were approached to star before McCarthy signed on in May 2017. Filming began in Los Angeles that September, and involved the use of over 120 puppets. "The Happytime Murders" was the first film released by Henson Alternative, a banner of The Jim Henson Company that receives an R-Rating. "The Happytime Murders" was released on August 24, 2018, by STXfilms. It received mostly negative reviews from critics for its humor, performances and story, though the puppetry did receive praise. The film was a box-office bomb, grossing $27.5  million worldwide against a $40–47 million budget. The film received six nominations at the 39th Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture and Worst Actress for McCarthy, who won the latter award. Plot. In a world where living puppets coexist with humans but are treated as second-class citizens, Phil Phillips was the first puppet cop on the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) before being fired. Now a private investigator with a human secretary Bubbles, he is hired by puppet client Sandra White to discover the identity of her blackmailer. Phil investigates a lead at a puppet-owned porn shop . While he checks their records in a back room, an attacker kills everyone else present, including Mr. Bumblypants, a former cast member of the beloved puppet television sitcom "The Happytime Gang", which was due to go into syndication. The LAPD arrives and Phil meets with his former partner Detective Connie Edwards. Twelve years prior, Edwards was being held at gunpoint by a puppet perpetrator. Phil tried to shoot him, but missed and hit an innocent puppet, killing him in front of his young daughter. Edwards testified against Phil and a law was enacted preventing puppets from becoming police officers. In  the present, Edwards believes it was a robbery gone wrong. Phil believes it was murder, since no money was taken. That night, Phil's brother Larry "Shenanigans" Phillips, a former "Happytime Gang" cast-member, is torn apart when someone lets dogs onto his property. Afterwards, Phil reluctantly joins forces with Edwards to find the killer. The two track down former "Happytime Gang" cast-member Lyle in a puppet drug-den, where it is revealed that Phil saved Edwards by getting her an emergency puppet liver transplant. Lyle is killed in a drive-by shooting in front of Phil. After having  sexual intercourse with Sandra and escaping the FBI, Phil goes to see Jenny, the only human "Happytime Gang" cast-member and his former girlfriend, at a puppet strip club where she works. Phil is unable to protect her when her car explodes. The police see Phil leaving the scene and believe him to be responsible for the murders. Phil hides at Edwards's apartment and they discover that former "Happytime Gang" member Goofer has apparently overdosed and drowned. They go to the house of the two remaining "Happytime Gang" members, Ezra and Cara, only to find their mangled bodies. The  FBI arrives and detains Phil and Edwards. Phil is shown Sandra in an interrogation room. She reveals that she and Jenny are married and claims that Phil killed Jenny and the others to keep Sandra for himself. Edwards is suspended from duty and enlists Bubbles for help exonerating Phil. They break into Sandra's home and discover a hidden room containing plans for the deaths of the "Happytime Gang" stars and a frameup of Phil. Edwards notices a picture of the puppet Phil accidentally shot years ago, and realizes that Sandra is the daughter of the man he accidentally shot  and is out for revenge against Phil. Bubbles sets off a booby trap, which ignites a fire destroying all the evidence. Afterwards, Edwards breaks Phil out of jail to stop Sandra. Phil and Edwards race to the airport, where Sandra is planning to escape with the sitcom's royalty money. Phil apologizes for killing her father, saying it has haunted him all the years since and asks why the "Happytime Gang" stars had to die. Sandra says she wanted Phil to suffer as payback. It is revealed that Jenny is alive, having faked her death, and is in cahoots with  Sandra, but Sandra knocks Jenny out to take the money for herself after Phil reveals her true history. Sandra holds Edwards at gunpoint, putting her and Phil in the same position as twelve years before. Phil takes his shot and does not miss this time, killing Sandra. Edwards's police superior Banning arrives to congratulate Phil and Edwards on cracking the case. He restores Edwards to active duty and convinces the mayor to lift the ban on puppet cops, welcoming Phil back on the force. Phil asks Bubbles out on a date, which she accepts. Cast. Puppeteers. In addition, Henson  makes an on-screen cameo in a photograph in Edwards's apartment. Production. Development. Announced in 2008 as being in development at The Jim Henson Company, serving as the company's first film to receive an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, the film was picked up two years later by Lionsgate with a targeted January 2011 start date. At the time, Cameron Diaz had been offered a lead role in the film. Diaz dropped out and Katherine Heigl entered into talks to replace her. In July 2015, it was announced that STX Entertainment had picked up  the film rights to "The Happytime Murders" (Lionsgate having lost them) and put the film in active development, with script revisions by Erich and Jon Hoeber. In April 2016, Jamie Foxx entered negotiations to star in the film. In May 2017, it was revealed that Melissa McCarthy had signed on to star in the film instead, as well as to contribute minor, uncredited rewrites to the film's screenplay. This was followed by Maya Rudolph being added in August, and in September, Elizabeth Banks, puppeteer Bill Barretta and Joel McHale all officially joined the cast. Filming. Principal photography on the  film began in Los Angeles, California, on September 11, 2017. The film had a production budget in the range of $40–47 million, with McCarthy paid between $10 and 17.5 million. There were a total of 125 puppets in the film with 40 created specifically for it. To accommodate the puppeteers, all of the sets were built up so that the puppeteers could stand on the floor, since their optimum way to operate the puppets is if they are standing with straight arms. Because the floor of the sets came up in pieces, the human actors had a margin  to stay on their path. Visual effects supervisor Sam Nicholson said the film had many VFX challenges, specifying, "It's some of the most complex work that we've ever done because, in one shot you could have a combination of principal photography done at 8K and then puppets on greenscreen being puppeteered by four puppeteers for each puppet. So if you have, say, six puppets in a scene, you've got 24 puppeteers operating them, 15 voice actors voicing them and these are all people dressed in green suits. And then you have all the rod removal of  those puppets, and then you have avatars or CG puppets that are standing right next to the real puppets." Release. "The Happytime Murders" was released to cinemas by STX Entertainment on August 24, 2018. The film was originally scheduled for August 17, 2018, but was pushed back a week. The first official red-band trailer was released on May 18, 2018, with select screenings of "Deadpool 2." Home media. "The Happytime Murders" was released on Digital HD on November 20, 2018, and on DVD and Blu-ray on December 4, 2018, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Reception. Box office. "The  Happytime Murders" has grossed $20.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $6.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $27.5 million, against a production budget of around $40 million. In the United States and Canada, "The Happytime Murders" was released alongside "A.X.L.", and was projected to gross $13–15 million from 3,225 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $950,000 from Thursday night previews, better than the $700,000 made by McCarthy's "Life of the Party" three months prior. It went on to debut to $9.5 million, marking  the lowest opening of McCarthy's career as a lead. It fell 54% in its second weekend to $4.4 million, finishing eighth. Critical response. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""The Happytime Murders" wastes its intriguingly transgressive premise on a witless comedy that blindly pushes buttons instead of attempting to tell an entertaining story." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 27 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave  the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale, the lowest of McCarthy's career as a lead, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an "awful" 58% overall positive score. Jess Fenton for "Switch" wrote: Andrew Barker of "Variety magazine" wrote: The film received a positive review from William Bibbiani at IGN, who wrote: "Entertainment Weekly" Chris Nashawaty gave the film a C+, stating that "the cognitive dissonance of kiddie characters dropped into extremely adult situations should set off taboo sparks like they did in "" ... but mostly it feels like a promising idea poorly executed." Lawsuit . In May 2018, Sesame Workshop, the organization behind the production of the television series "Sesame Street", filed a lawsuit against STX Productions for using their trademark in a film they have no involvement with, including the tagline "No Sesame, all Street". They alleged that associating a children's program with an adult comedy would smear the former's reputation as well as confuse individuals. In response, STX issued a statement indicating their persistence to keep the marketing for the film unchanged. On May 30, 2018, the lawsuit was rejected by the presiding judge for the case, with STX issuing a  brief statement soon thereafter: Some subsequent television spots for the film made references to the lawsuit by starting the ads with "From the studio that was sued by "Sesame Street"...".