The Happytime Murders tests the limits of subverting nostalgia
There’s something undeniably intoxicating about subverting concepts and ideas imbued with the warm comfort of nostalgic purity just for the laughs. Seth Rogen’s Sausage Party transformed the idea of a cute, animated children’s movie into a just-for-adults gagfest. The Deadpool franchise has built its success on turning the established framework of the four-quadrant superhero movie into the raunchiest of R-rated comedies. When it does work, it breathes new life into aging ideas while often letting audiences look at the things they love through a different, sometimes more critical, lens. When it doesn’t work… it’s The Happytime Murders.
Directed by Brian Henson, son of late Muppets creator Jim Henson, the film is an attempt to give the...