Sausage Party Review

Sausage Party Review

The best way to describe Sausage Party is it’s Toy Story, Foodfight, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and Pineapple Express, and if you see the film you will know why. I was definitely interested in seeing this film because of the funny trailers but there might be a lot hinging on this film. It’s an R rated animated film and the last time an R rated animated film got this much of a wide release was maybe the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie which came out in 2007. I don't even remember the last time an original R rated animated film got a wide release. The reason R rated animated film or even PG-13 ones do not get a wide release is the stigma that animated films are just for kids. Unless it’s based off of a popular property like South Park or Aqua Teen Hunger Force it will probably never be greenlit. They will either get a limited release like Waltz with Bashir or underperform like Beowulf. If Sausage Party does really well it would possibly open the door for R rated and PG-13 animated movies that are original. So how is the movie? I ended up liking it but it does have quite a few issues scattered throughout the movie. 

First lets go over the premise of the movie. In a supermarket with talking food, everyone waits to be taken by the “Gods” (who are actually humans) to a paradise outside the store. Our main character Frank (Seth Rogan) is excited because he want to be inside Brenda (Kristen Wiig) who is a hot dog bun. Then when they fall out of the shopping cart after being bought, Frank and Brenda try to head back to hot dog stand with Sammy Bagel Jr. (Edward Norton) and Kareem Abdul Lavash (David Krumholtz) coming along. However through many unfortunate events Frank learns that the paradise story was made up and food are actually eaten. While Frank tries to warn everybody a character named Douche (Nick Kroll) is planning for his revenge on Frank and Brenda for knocking him out of the shopping cart.

The best thing about the film is the premise. When you here the premise you can tell it is a parody of Pixar since in Pixar films the audience get the perspective of something that human don't have a perspective of like Toys, Bugs, Fish, Rats, and even Emotions. In Sausage Party we get the perspective of food except a really dark perspective. The film even parodies Disney by having a musical number in the beginning and the movie’s score is composed by Alan Menken. Ya. The guy who wrote the music to films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. However the most intriguing aspect of the premise is that it’s an allegory for religion. The food see the humans as Gods and they believe that if they are good they will go to paradise or outside the supermarket even though it is not. Even though the film is pretty blatant  about it’s message about questioning religion and pushes it in your face, it does make the premise more interesting then just a dumb comedy about food being eaten.

There is even some funny voice casting. Seth Rogan and Kristen Wiig fit their character’s perfectly. Nick Kroll makes a great bad guy. Michael Cera plays Barry who is a a deformed sausage and is basically Michael Cera the insecure loser. Salma Hayek plays a taco because of course and Edward Norton unrecognizably plays a bagel. There are also fun performances from Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, and Paul Rudd.

The animation is fine. You can tell they didn't have the biggest budget for animation but the style works for the film.
To me the humor is kind of hit or miss. I think the funniest scenes are when we get jokes about the food’s perspective. When we get jokes like a Saving Private Ryan joke about food being dropped on the ground and jokes about food being eaten I think the movie is at its funniest. However when the movie resorts to sex jokes and puns I usually didn't laugh because I felt they were way to easy. I honest didn't find jokes about Brenda’s buns that funny. There were also some scene that were unnecessarily gross and just for shock. I will say that there is a pun in the movie that made me laugh really hard. Also the ending of the movie made me laugh really hard even though it was really disturbing. I do however wish that we spent more time out of the supermarket since some of the best jokes are out of the supermarket.

But my biggest problem with this movie was I didn't really care about any of the characters since they felt more like jokes then characters. Frank is an ok main character but it is hard to feel for a character whose main characteristic is he wants to get with Brenda. Brenda’s not that interesting since he characteristic is she looks fresh. Sammy Bagel Jr. and Kareem Abdul Lavash are just ok characters even though they aren't really that vital to the plot. The other food characters are just there to make jokes. The only character I really cared about was Barry because you feel bad that he is deformed so you did not want him to die. There is also a gum who is a parody of Stephen Hawking who was pretty cool.

Another aspect of this movie that I probably need to talk about are the stereotypes. Throughout the movie there are a lot of different stereotypes for different kinds of food. The Asian food are Asian stereotypes, the German food are Nazis, the Tequilas are Spanish stereotypes, a box of Grits that’s a Black stereotype, and many more. Sammy Bagel Jr. and Kareem Abdul Lavash, who argue all the time, also are a Jewish and Palestinian stereotype. They didn't bother me to much but I can understand how someone could be extremely offended by this.

There is a moment in which I wonder who can talk in this universe since non food can talk. However that is more of a nitpick. 

Watching Sausage Party is like watching a 14 year old immature food fan fiction with some ideas. Considering that this was written by the same guys who wrote Superbad and Pineapple Express I am not shocked at all. This is one of the most raunchy films I have ever scene. It makes Family Guy look like Spongebob. However I do feel this might have worked better as a short film instead of a movie. But in the end I did laugh quite a bit during Sausage Party so I would recommend people go out and see it. Just know what your getting into. Also this is definitely not a family animated film like Frozen or Inside Out. If you take a kid to this you will scar them for life. I would say this film is for people over the age of 17. Will we get more animated movies for adults because of this movie? I don't know. All I can say is I am never going into Stop and Shop the same way ever again. 

Grade: B-