"The Happytime Murders" premieres August 24, 2018

MWoO

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 21, 2005
Messages
1,676
Reaction score
1,636
They made Goofer out to be some major character and he had almost no screen time.

Without the background story of the Happy Time Gang and some juxtaposition of how they were to how they are the movie just doesnt make a whole lot of sense.
 

antsamthompson9

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
3,386
Reaction score
1,684
To quote Muppet podcaster, JD Hansel: "I don't know why Goofer didn't get more screen time. He was in all the trailers and he was on screen for like a minute. Drew Massey did a great job, I don't get it."
 

CBPuppets

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
1,710
Reaction score
364
Hi CBP -- Did you see Happytime's "True Hollywood Story" short on YouTube? I've always wondered whether a big chunk of that short was supposed to be in the movie itself.
I have but I don't think it really explained why the show got cancelled in the 1st place
 

BeakerGirl94

Active Member
Joined
May 1, 2019
Messages
33
Reaction score
38
Actually just rewatched it on 123Movies


I really like the film

The puppetry is unbelievable- how Phil manages to blow smoke amazes me.


Mellissa was extremely funny

Kevin, Drew, Victor and Dorien are all fantastic with their characters. Larry is a really likeable character (when I originally thought he was the murderer) Victor did a great job with him. So good to see Kevin puppeteering again he was a great Lyle and Mr Bumblypants

But bill was MVP HE WAS FLIPPING BRILLIANT

I did feel Joel Mchale and Elizabeth Banks were underused. And I thought Maya did a fantastic job as bubbles


Good thing is that the rotten cotten girls didn't have a role. Their only lines were the ones seen in the trailer.


Overall fantastic film
I enjoyed it too granted I did find some parts a bit gross but it wasn't enough to ruin the whole experience I can't tell you how happy I was to see Kevin puppeteering again I really thought that his career was ruined by those allegations
 

MWoO

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 21, 2005
Messages
1,676
Reaction score
1,636
The movie had a ton of potential, but was ruined by the studio. I'd like to see a directors cut with much of the original story intact, but we didnt get that.

It took so long to make and paled in comparison to the hype. Plus it came out in a time when it's core audience doesn't find this kind of thing funny.
 

Princeton

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2006
Messages
1,030
Reaction score
154
For a movie that was 20+ years in the making, 'Happytime Murders' was a huge disappointment. The premise can have holes poked in it in an instant: puppets are a minority. First of all, Avenue Q did this waay better. Also, the ‘puppet’ characters aren’t really even by definition puppets because they walk around freely without any hint of being manipulated by an actual person. The real insult of this film can only be seen by looking at subtext: had Brian Henson not wasted 20 years making this film, he would have made Muppets Robin Hood and the world would be better for it.
 

MuppetSpot

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
2,727
Reaction score
1,682
For a movie that was 20+ years in the making, 'Happytime Murders' was a huge disappointment. The premise can have holes poked in it in an instant: puppets are a minority. First of all, Avenue Q did this waay better. Also, the ‘puppet’ characters aren’t really even by definition puppets because they walk around freely without any hint of being manipulated by an actual person. The real insult of this film can only be seen by looking at subtext: had Brian Henson not wasted 20 years making this film, he would have made Muppets Robin Hood and the world would be better for it.
It was 10 years.
 

MWoO

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 21, 2005
Messages
1,676
Reaction score
1,636
For a movie that was 20+ years in the making, 'Happytime Murders' was a huge disappointment. The premise can have holes poked in it in an instant: puppets are a minority. First of all, Avenue Q did this waay better. Also, the ‘puppet’ characters aren’t really even by definition puppets because they walk around freely without any hint of being manipulated by an actual person. The real insult of this film can only be seen by looking at subtext: had Brian Henson not wasted 20 years making this film, he would have made Muppets Robin Hood and the world would be better for it.
No Muppet projects were shelved for Happy Time murders because the Jim Henson Company did not own The Muppets when they started production. As was pointed out, the film had a 10 year production time line.

To be honest, I do agree with you. The film we got was a shell of what we were promised. I think some parts of it were actually quite good. There were parts of a good story there that got ruined by the studio. It is what happens when the creative team doesn't actually have creative control. I believe the E True Hollywood story parody that was put on YouTube prior to the films release was done purely to give context to the movie due to the studio chopping it out. When even the basic premise of a movie doesn't make it into the final film, you know the studio messed stuff up.

If some of these ideas had been expanded on then I would have liked it much more. I liked the part where we find out Edwards was hurt due to a mistake made by Phil and that she ended up with a puppet liver which in turn changed how she metabolized sugar. It was quite clever. Plus the way the revealed the villain and who she was in relation to Phil... I didn't see it coming. There was a lot of good there. But when you chop out the story you no longer care about what is happening and all we were left with was a bunch of crude jokes. Some story in there to give space between the jokes was greatly needed. I am still upset that we never got a directors cut on dvd or bluray. I would really like to see what Brian had originally intended.
 

MuppetSpot

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
2,727
Reaction score
1,682
No Muppet projects were shelved for Happy Time murders because the Jim Henson Company did not own The Muppets when they started production. As was pointed out, the film had a 10 year production time line.

To be honest, I do agree with you. The film we got was a shell of what we were promised. I think some parts of it were actually quite good. There were parts of a good story there that got ruined by the studio. It is what happens when the creative team doesn't actually have creative control. I believe the E True Hollywood story parody that was put on YouTube prior to the films release was done purely to give context to the movie due to the studio chopping it out. When even the basic premise of a movie doesn't make it into the final film, you know the studio messed stuff up.

If some of these ideas had been expanded on then I would have liked it much more. I liked the part where we find out Edwards was hurt due to a mistake made by Phil and that she ended up with a puppet liver which in turn changed how she metabolized sugar. It was quite clever. Plus the way the revealed the villain and who she was in relation to Phil... I didn't see it coming. There was a lot of good there. But when you chop out the story you no longer care about what is happening and all we were left with was a bunch of crude jokes. Some story in there to give space between the jokes was greatly needed. I am still upset that we never got a directors cut on dvd or bluray. I would really like to see what Brian had originally intended.
I hope Brian Henson gets to do another feature film, he knows how to direct puppets and story. I think it would be good if he got to direct some familiar characters like the rock that’s musical or a street with sunny days.
 
Top