My entire life, I’ve been fascinated by puppets. Of course, this started with The Muppets, as it did with most kids. However, I never grew out of it, and still continue to love (and perform!) puppets to this day. THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS, from Brian Henson, son of the late Jim Henson, is something I’ve been waiting for. I know it was stuck in development hell for many years, but the star power of Melissa McCarthy finally pushed it into production.

While I missed seeing it in the theaters, I have plenty of friends who did. Their response was…not great. I was disappointed, but still wanted to see the film for myself. When the Blu-ray showed up last week, I had decidedly low hopes for it. However, as the opening credits began to roll, and the film began, I noticed I was laughing. More and more, as time went on, I was laughing hard. Though my fiancée wasn’t finding it as funny, my friend was also laughing her ass off. We were both pleasantly surprised!

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS is a vulgar, raunchy journey into a world where humans and puppets co-exist. Puppets are treated like second-class citizens, and humans are the crème of the crème. We start with Phil Philips, a disgraced ex-cop turned private investigator, whom gets pulled into an extortion plot. While investigating more about it, he runs afoul of a murder of a porn-addicted Happytime Gang cast member. Soon, other members of the beloved television show get knocked off one by one, all in a ploy for someone to earn a bigger paycheck. Phil has to team up with his ex-partner, played by McCarthy, in order to solve the case.

Look, guys, this is not high art. It never was going to be. It’s an R-rated sleezefest filled with puppet sex and incredible violence. It is what it is and doesn’t aim to be anything more than that. If you’re looking for some terrible jokes and puppets doing naughty things, this is for you. If you’re looking for an Oscar contender, you’re in the wrong place.

Honestly, I found the movie to be quite enjoyable, and laughed out loud quite a bit. My sense of humor may be a bit off from yours, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. It’s a mindless way to spend an hour and a half, especially with puppets.

Especially from a technical standpoint, it’s amazing. The puppets are fully realized here, and they are an everyday part of the world. There are no people hiding below to make them move; we see them talk and talk just like real people. It’s pretty amazing.

The Blu-ray comes with a handful of extras, which will delight or not, depending on your mileage. The deleted scenes don’t add much to the proceedings, but the Gag Reel and Line-O-Rama are perfect if you actually did enjoy the film.

There are a few great breakdowns of technical achievements, including virtual environments and VFX breakdowns, which gave some context as to how they delivered some of the effects, and made the puppets real. Finally, the audio commentary with Director Brian Henson and Puppeteer Bill Barretta as pretty funny as well, but again, mileage may vary.

Overall, if raunchy puppets are your thing, you’re going to dig THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS. If not, go watch Citizen Kane again.