The movie is a buddy cop comedy told from a unique perspective. The buddies will be one male puppet private investigator and his former partner: a human female detective played by Melissa McCarthy. It’s up to this duo to stop a serial killer who is murdering the cast members of a former TV series The Happytime Gang.
Also, in this world, humans and puppets live together, work together and do other things together. Puppets are treated as inferior to humans. Most puppets in the trailer are either gangsters or prostitutes. This is not a children’s film.
This trailer is very uncomfortable but that’s its purpose and it succeeds masterfully.
The video begins by reminding people of the decades-long history of puppets entertaining children. This is very fitting because one of the producers of The Happytime Murders is Henson Alternative, a branch of the company that created the characters for Sesame Street and produced The Muppets and other puppet TV shows and movies intended for younger audiences.
The director of the movie is Brian Henson, one of the children of the couple that created this puppet empire.
This film is for adults and the first line of dialogue makes this clear since it’s a male prostitute asking to suck McCarthy’s male genitalia (which she reminds the puppet that she doesn’t have).
The trailer also reveals a tagline that fits this move perfectly: No Sesame, All Street.
The trailer also has a ridiculous moment when McCarthy at gunpoint sniffs what looks like candy powder using licorice. Actually, the powder is pure ecstasy and McCarthy passes out, seemingly dying and then seconds later wakes up energetic.
One of the best laughs in the trailer is when a pair of female puppet prostitutes also mistake McCarthy for a man. She tells them she’s a woman and they pause (for comedic timing) and then reply, “That’s okay. That’s even better. We got a good time for you.”
But the moment that people will probably talk about the most before this film opens and that also best shows how this is not a kids film is the final footage of this trailer. An easy way to describe it is puppets having sex. The only thing that can give these 27 seconds justice is watching them yourself.
The Happytime Murders open in theatres on August 17th and also stars Elizabeth Banks as a dancer (potentially a stripper who can be seen in the trailer). The movie also includes Maya Rudolph, Jole McHale, Leslie David Baker, more humans and of course the countless puppeteers that will bring this film to life.
This restricted trailer earns it’s restriction and hopefully The Happytime Murders has even funnier and more uncomfortable moments that weren’t utilized for this video.
Watch the trailer down below, just not around any children please:
