You know that SyFy is entering the comic book-to-television arena, but before Krypton hits the air, presumably next year, their first entry adapts an Image Comics miniseries.
Happy!, then, is not based on the Pharrell Williams hit from a couple of years back. Instead, the title character is a blue CGI unicorn, an imaginary friend to a little girl who's been kidnapped. Realizing his friend needs help, Happy (voice of Patton Oswalt) recruits ex-cop-turned-assassin Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni, ex-Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) to do his legwork for him.
Happy! comes from the whimsical, warped pen of Scottish writer Grant Morrison, who, with artist Darick Robertson, produced the miniseries for Image a few years back. No, he's not crossing Dr. Seuss with Looney Tunes in developing the title character, who gets lost in the midst of all the splatter and violence. I thought the producers were being clever (Morrison & Meloni both get an executive producer credit) by using what looked like a dated photo of a clean shaven Meloni from his SVU days on a mock front page of the New York Post in the opener. Like, that trenchcoat looked awfully familiar, for starters.
I'd show you the opener, since SyFy has a YouTube channel, but because of coarse language, we'll settle instead for a trailer.
Oswalt (also heard on Cartoon Network's Justice League Action) wasn't the first choice to play Happy. Bobby Moynihan (Me, Myself, & I, DuckTales, ex-Saturday Night Live) had recorded the pilot, but the producers made a change once the series was green-lit, probably after Moynihan had landed the other series.
At least Happy! takes Meloni down a familiar path, but he doesn't have the morals of being a police officer holding his character back this time.
Rating: B--.
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