We have seen a fair number of comedies debut so far in 2018, with R-rated romps like Blockers, Deadpool 2, and Game Night standing out as some stellar examples. However, the genre is about to get odder later this summer with the release of The Happytime Murders, which will take seemingly family-friendly puppets and inject them into the hard-R world of a Los Angeles detective story. Melissa McCarthy is headlining the affair, and as the actress explained to CinemaBlend and other outlets during a visit to the set last year, she has no intention of letting her kids watch it, even with the puppets. McCarthy explained:
It's definitely a grown-up movie. My kids are like, 'We can't wait to see this!' And I'm like, 'I can't wait to show you, when you're 40! It will be so wonderful, when you're 110 and you can see this!' I think it's part of the fun of it. Somebody was saying that there's always that thing, when you watch something from The Muppets, one of the movies, or Sesame Street, there's always that inkling of, when the lights go off, somebody says cut, and they walk out the back door, do they go into the real world and have a life? This is really seeing behind the curtain. When the lights are off and they're not having to perform for people, you see the real grind of their lives, and there's something really cool about it. There's a weird, edgy coolness, and it's really funny.
So, don't let the puppets fool you; this is not a Sesame Street-esque movie that Melissa McCarthy thinks kids should see. The Happytime Murders may include puppet characters and some colorful personalities, but it's still very much an R-rated movie that pushes the envelope in terms of content. The film will actively acknowledge that these puppets have a collective legacy as children's entertainers, but it will depict the "edgy" nature of their lives when the cameras aren't rolling.
Elsewhere in Melissa McCarthy's remarks about The Happytime Murders, the actress continued and explained how the film is specifically aimed at older audiences, with the puppets merely serving to accent the more mature material. She said:
This is not like a raunchy kid's movie. It's not. It's really just a straight up gritty comedy that happens to have puppets. And I only say it like that because somehow, at least in what we've seen and what we're working on every day, it really does make it what I dreamed that it would be, in that it's just a good, gritty crime movie that happens to be really funny. And there's this side note that there's puppets in it.
The Happytime Murders centers its story on veteran detectives Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) and Philips (Bill Barretta), who are forced to team up when a series of murders start taking place in the puppet underworld. Along the way, they find themselves embroiled in a massive conspiracy full of drugs, sex, and gratuitous violence. Based on that description alone, it makes perfect sense to know that Melissa McCarthy thinks the kids should wait to see this one.
The Happytime Murders will premiere in theaters later this summer on August 24. Make sure to keep it here for more updates related to the bizarre buddy cop comedy, and head over to our movie premiere guide to get more information on all of the other films that are set to premiere this year!
