If superheroes, dinosaurs and spies aren't your thing, there are plenty of other theatrical offerings this summer season. One of the more unusual movies hitting the silver screen is The Happytime Murders, which sticks Muppet-like puppets into a raunchy comedy. STXfilms dropped the first (and definitely NSFW) trailer for The Happytime Murders with the release of Deadpool 2, and a week later, the studio was hit by a lawsuit from the Sesame Workshop, which alleged that using the tagline "No Sesame, All Street" in the preview for the R-rated movie "tarnishes" the Sesame Street brand. Well, rather than this case being dragged on for months, it's already been resolved, and a judge has ruled against Sesame Workshop.
As reported by THR, New York judge Vernon Broderick ruled that The Happytime Murders can keep using the "No Sesame, All Street" in its marketing. Sesame Workshop had claimed that the trailer "deliberately confuses" people into thinking that Sesame Street is in any way connected to The Happytime Murders or that Sesame Workshop has endorsed the comedy. However, after listening to oral arguments, Broderick stated that Sesame Workshop hadn't demonstrated that moviegoers expressed such confusion, nor was there evidence that parents or sponsors had complained about the tagline. So for the remaining three months until The Happytime Murders is released, STXfilms won't have any issues with featuring that tagline in the movie's marketing.
The puppets in The Happytime Murders may bear some design resemblance to the characters in Sesame Street and The Muppets (Brian Henson, Jim Henson's son, is the director), but that's definitely where the similarities end, and needless to say you should keep the kiddies far away from the August release. Set in a world where puppets live alongside humans as second class citizens, The Happytime Murders follows Melissa McCarthy's Detective Connie Edwards reuniting with her ex-partner, private investigator Phil Phillips (pupeteered and voiced by Bill Barretta), to track down the serial killer who murdered Phil's brother and is now targeting the cast members of the 1980s TV series The Happytime Gang. The movie's human cast also includes Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale, Elizabeth Banks, Leslie David Baker, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Gaul and Mitch Silpa. If you haven't already watched the movie's bizarre trailer, check it out below.
The Happytime Murders hits theaters on August 17, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for any major updates concerning the comedy. If you're interested in learning what other movies are coming out later this year, head to our 2018 release schedule.
