SAUSAGE
PARTY
Seth Rogen as Frank (voice) / Michael Cera as Barry (voice) / Jonah Hill as Carl (voice) / Salma Hayek as Teresa Taco (voice) / Kristen Wiig as Brenda (voice) / Edward Norton as Sammy Bagel Jr. (voice) / Nick Kroll as Douche (voice) Directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan / Written by Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg |
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The fact that
it’s an animated movie – and one that’s aggressively lewd and potty
mouthed, pushing the boundaries of its R-rating and nearly tip-toeing into
NC-17 territory – is also noteworthy…noteworthy in the sense
that its characters are food items. An animated film
that goes out of its way to be adult themed is hardly anything novel…at
least not as novel as the makers of SAUSAGE PARTY seem to think.
The works of Ralph Bakshi shocked audiences and pushed the envelope
of accepted decency for the animated film genre decades ago, not to
mention that more recent efforts like SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT
also beat SAUSAGE PARTY to the punch.
There’s a somewhat pompous, self-congratulatory tone that
permeates SAUSAGE PARTY, often to its detriment.
The film is uproariously funny at times, yes, but it sometimes
thinks that being chronically vulgar and crude is automatically
funny. There
are instances when it sure seems that these superficially cute and cuddly
characters drop F and C bombs with such frequency that it would make the
mobsters from GOODFELLAS flee for the
hills. Once
the initial novelty of seeing produce curse like sailors wears off, the
raunch factor of the film evaporates really fast.
Having said all
of that, though, SAUSAGE PARTY has a real ace up its sleeve that made it
endlessly fascinating: it’s a rather unadvertised piece of satirical
social commentary on the nature of religion, blind faith, and modern day
race relations.
This has the positive side effect of making the film feel a hell of
a lot more perceptively and intelligently scripted than its trailer
campaign led on (which ostensibly honed in on the film’s scatological
shenanigans).
Co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg provide for some
surprisingly nuanced mediations on theology and the tenuous
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the latter taking the form of two characters
– one a bagel and one a piece of flatbread – that endlessly debate
their respective and differing ideologies.
It can be argued that some of the characters could easily be
perceived as crude racial caricatures that strain political correctness
(sauerkraut, for instance, makes some decidedly Nazi-inspired gestures,
venomously vowing to “eliminated the Juice”), but the subtext buried
deep beneath them is razor sharp and joyously goes for the satirical
jugular.
SAUSAGE PARTY
also works splendidly as a not-so-thinly-veiled mockery of animated film
conventions and clichés, especially with its gloriously deranged and
amusing opening sequence, a lavishly choreographed song and dance number
that involves all of the food items at Shopwell’s Supermarket praising
to the virtues of their human "gods" and "The Great
Beyond” outside of the store.
The blatant skewering of Walt Disney film iconography here is an
infectious hoot.
Once the film settles down we get introduced to many key
characters that reside within this grocery story microcosm (it should also
be noted that unless humans are seriously tripping on drugs then none of
them can see the food items speaking or engaging in very human-like behavior).
Seemingly everyone that resides at supermarket desires to be chosen
by the gods to be whisked away to the heavenly destination that awaits
them outside.
This is very important for one sausage named Frank (voiced by Rogen)
and a hot dog bun named Brenda (Kristin Wiig): being chosen together means
that they will finally be able to – ahem! – procreate.
This film gives a whole new meaning to the process of taking the
wiener to the bun.
One jar of
mustard has journeyed to the Great
Beyond and has been returned to the store with a hellish horror story of what really happens to food
while there (not being able to live with his new knowledge, he commits
suicide).
Of course, one of Frank’s buddies, a deformed sausage named Barry
(Michael Cera) learns first hand that the human gods – gasp! –
cut, slice, impale, decapitate, boil, fry, and – double gasp! –
eat food…even children!
Concurrent to this is Frank's and Brenda’s accidentally ejection
from their packaging while being chosen, which leads to them grouping
together with Sammy the bagel (Edward Norton, channeling his inner Woody
Allen) and Vash the flatbread (David Krumholtz) and they all decide to pursue
some real answers as to what happens beyond the store shelves.
Complicating matters severely is a rather vengeful minded feminine
hygiene product (Nick Kroll, sounding an awful lot like Rocket Raccoon
from GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY)
that wants…to...ummm…suck the juices of others to fuel his power and
desires to make everyone around him as miserable as possible.
What. A. Douche. This is an
exceedingly silly movie.
There’s simply no questioning that.
It’s also incredibly R-rated fare, especially considering its
ravenous appetite for delivering perpetual profanity, sexual innuendo
(revolving around indescribably pornographic situations involving some food
items penetrating others), and all other forms of crassly juvenile hijinks
that comes off like it were penned by pre-pubescent boys.
SAUSAGE PARTY occasionally struggles for new ideas and gags the
longer it progresses, and
for every one that wholeheartedly delivers there’s an equal number that
fall flat.
Momentum issues plague the film’s scripting as well, and after
the film shifts away from its wondrously realized opening sequence it
struggles to find ample and secure footing to keep the proceedings swiftly
moving forward.
Perhaps SAUSAGE PARTY would have worked better as a concept/idea
that would have lent itself better to an animated short than a feature
length film.
Even when the film reaches some semblance of storytelling finality
there’s a needlessly shoehorned in bit that’s too distractingly meta
for its own good.
Still, SAUSAGE PARTY is undeniably hysterical in key moments, even when it seems to be grasping for new ways to tickle our funny bones as it runs out of ideas. The film’s allegorical elements are ultimately what won me over. In particular, I appreciated the way Rogen and company slyly comment on real world racial segregation by mirroring that with how the grocery store community is organized, often against one another. And again, this animated film clearly and obviously speaks towards the inherent dangers of blind spiritual faith, and not too many other Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks animated films have the gutsy wherewithal to engage in sarcastic indictments of organized religion. Granted, there’s an awful lot of weed, booze, bodily function, and intercourse jokes thrown in here as well, staple elements of the Seth Rogen-ian comedic milieu. SAUSAGE PARTY, at its best, is quite winning when it lets its razor sharp satiric talons loose. At its worst, the film offers up filthy minded dime-a-dozen debauchery that’s not really all that cutting edge and innovative. However, the film does have a noble-minded message: if a bagel and flatbread can overcome their respective differences and learn to love one another, then why can’t people in general? Granted, humanity is guilty – as this film points out – of mass food genocide on a global scale. After watching SAUSAGE PARTY I’ve never felt more sorry for baby carrots in all my life.
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