Movie Review - Sausage Party

ALMOST AS MUCH FILLER AS FUN

Sausage Party

Review by Ray Schillaci

Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill have been talking up their Sausage Party for years, since the summer of 2010. When the trailer was finally revealed, it was probably one of the funniest and cleverest in a long while. The idea that the guys that gave us The Pineapple Express, Superbad and This is the End wanted to unveil their own brand of nasty Pixar for adults was very promising.

I could not help but think back to the days of Ralph Bakshi’s breakthrough X-rated films Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic. And though those particular films never had the guffaws that Sausage Party has, they did deliver a social commentary sting that endured long after viewing. Whereas the Party peters out now and then, eventually making up for it all in an orgiastic display of food fetish fantasies played for laughs in the end. But when the shock value is over, does it bear repeat viewings? I’m just not sure. And that’s the problem with an adult animated film that nearly caters to the lowest common denominator. Like some of its other predecessors, Heavy Metal (’81) and Hell and Back (2015), Sausage Party delivers some big laughs, but is unable to sustain interest for its nearly ninety minute running time.

The writers try to cram in every single dirty joke they can come up with regarding food, sex and drugs while insulting women, the gay and lesbian community, the Middle Eastern community, religion, and every stereotype you could think of. Yes, it could be labeled that it is all in fun, and like the legendary Don Rickles, everybody is fodder that is part of this party. Especially the viewers.

While swirling the swill, the writers skewer religious beliefs with a clever nod as to how the food world at the local grocery store came about placing their Gods on a pedestal, and how much they look forward to their afterlife. They also touch upon how we address each other with our strong beliefs, and how quick we are not to listen. Mind you, this is all good timely social commentary but it easily gets steamrolled by the persistent raunch fest that Sausage Party is, yet the creators eventually have the last laugh on us with a very clever reveal.

The party begins simply with a very amusing song about how all the food welcomes the shoppers, and how they hope to be picked as a chosen one. We eventually focus on a package of hotdogs, one in particular, “Frank,” the voice of Seth Rogen. He has his mind on two things: being picked as a chosen one, and slipping into Brenda’s buns. Kristen Wiig voices Brenda with a smarmy charm, and her timing and character is a lot of fun in the beginning. It only becomes funnier when she encounters Salma Hayek as a lesbian taco. In fact, all the voices are done very well and with some great comic zingers.

Due to an outrageous mishap, Frank, Brenda and a few of the other food items, and a douche (yes, a douche) leave the sanctuary of their packaging and are left to find the meaning of their life, and reunite with their friends. Unfortunately, that meaning turns into their nightmare when Frank discovers that the “Gods”, instead of sending them to a make-believe afterlife, actually cruelly prepare them in the most hideous of ways (microwave, boiling water, stabbing, etc) and eventually chomp down on them. Not sure how this effects the douche, but he’s the other villain sucking the life juice out of unsuspecting victims, seeking revenge on Frank, and searching for a place to insert himself (I kid you not). So, frankly nobody cares about this douche.

One cannot deny how clever this movie is, and how funny it can be at times, but the low brow humor wears thin after awhile, and truthfully, the animation is nothing to get excited over. It feels very flat compared to the computer animation we’ve seen over the years. But that would not matter if Sausage Party sustained its entertainment value like the South Park feature or Team America. The material of those movies went beyond just shock value, they truly had something to say along with giving us some of the most irresistible tunes that one could not get out of their head. Sure, Sausage Party’s whistle theme is a bit infectious, but it stops short there.

There is such a sense of bad-boy mentality going on in this film. It’s a frat house wet dream, and could easily be a stoner’s night terror with the wrong drugs. Speaking of which, the only thing that was offensive (to me) was a gag involving the designer drug, “bath salts.” It has been widely publicized how dangerous this drug is, and it’s used as a hallucinatory joke that enables the user to actually see the food and their feelings. I know what people are going to say, it’s a cartoon. A comedy, no less. But I could not help but think about the younger people in the audience who would consider trying it for the hallucinogen effect. The makers of Sausage Party could have used any other kind of drug; peyote, mushrooms. But, the idea behind joking about a drug that has had devastating consequences is hardly funny.

Also I have to add, what the hell was the MPAA thinking?! How did this movie not get an “X” rating? Was the ratings board high and found nothing wrong with the depiction of cartoon food characters performing cunnilingus, anal bead sex, along with everything we probably witnessed in Bob Guccione’s Caligula and more? I’m no prude, but I have marveled at the decision of the ratings board for years, and the decision makers at the Motion Picture Association of America anointing this film with an “R” rating has to have us question if they are at all relevant anymore.

Sausage Party had at least a quarter of the packed house laughing and applauding (at times). But, I could not help but feel that perhaps the party went on thirty minutes too long (at least for this critic). With a bit more editing, holding back on some of the real groaner gags, the sausage fest might have been beefier. As it is, Goldberg, Hill, Rogen and company can claim they might have made the filthiest adult cartoon ever as a feature film, just not the funniest.