Not long into Sausage Party’s 88 minute run time, you get the feeling that this filthy, foul mouthed ‘anti-Pixar’ animation could only be told through the weed smoke fogged lens of co-screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The juvenile, stoner humour is exactly what you would expect from the pair that brought us This is the End and The Interview, shot through with some unexpected social commentary you wouldn’t expect from a movie where a food orgy is by far the least weirdest thing to dance in front your eyes, but for the most part it works incredibly well, delivering hands down the weirdest, most entertaining animated movie you will see this year.
Set in a supermarket days before the Fourth of July celebrations kick off, we're introduced to the concept of Sausage Party quite succinctly with a lavish opening number that delights in taking the piss out of Disney’s back catalogue of upbeat musical numbers (it actually comes courtesy of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid composer Alan Menken). All the food is alive, unseen by the humans (or Gods) around them, and they all live for one purpose: to be chosen and brought to the Great Beyond, where they will live the rest of their days in peace and harmony amongst the Gods. But when hot dog Frank (Rogen) suspects everything he’s been told about the Great Beyond is a lie, he sets out to discover the horrible truth.
From the opening frame, Sausage Party fizzes with a manic, giddy energy that makes the bonkers concept a bit easier for audiences to swallow, and make no mistake, this piss take of Toy Story and a million other kids movies goes some strange, weird places. We’re talking monstrous douches that act like massive douches, lesbian tacos, and drug addled humans lifting the veil on the hidden world of food thanks to bath salts. Working from a script they co-wrote with Rogen and Goldberg, directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan delight in skewing the usual animated movie tropes, ladling thick dollops of R-rated humour onto proceedings. The animation can be absolutely beautiful at times, and the pair add some nice details, like the human world been a lot duller than the colour filled world of the food, that make it really pop at times. The food, from Frank to a pot of honey mustard (which looks oddly stop motion for some reason) to Frank’s girlfriend, and hot dog bun, Brenda (Kristen Wiig), are unbelievably expressive and animated, sometimes at the expense of the human characters, who look hastily put together. The animation is complimented by a massive voice cast, including Rogen, Wiig, Nick Kroll, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, James Franco, and Edward Norton, doing a pretty spot on Woody Allen impression, who go a long to adding more life to the characters.
But the novelty of the premise soon wears thin, and while the movie still raises it’s fair share of chuckles, the humour we’re saddled with is of the lowest common denominator, complete with racial stereotypes, from Jewish bagels who have serious issues Middle Eastern flatbread to didly i Irish potatoes, sex gags, and a series of food puns that seriously outstay their welcome. Which is a shame, because underneath all the potty mouth and sexual humour, the movie has some smart things to say about belief and atheism, but it just becomes lost in all the noise of whats going on. You have to admire how crazy the story gets a times, but sometimes it feels a bit too much, and often you feel, especially near the end, the weird shit is happening for the sake of weird shit happening.
There’s a lot of fun to be had here, but it feels like a bit too much at times. Even if the humour seems to be written by giggly teenagers, Sausage Party is still worth your time as an incredibly entertaining distraction.
Set in a supermarket days before the Fourth of July celebrations kick off, we're introduced to the concept of Sausage Party quite succinctly with a lavish opening number that delights in taking the piss out of Disney’s back catalogue of upbeat musical numbers (it actually comes courtesy of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid composer Alan Menken). All the food is alive, unseen by the humans (or Gods) around them, and they all live for one purpose: to be chosen and brought to the Great Beyond, where they will live the rest of their days in peace and harmony amongst the Gods. But when hot dog Frank (Rogen) suspects everything he’s been told about the Great Beyond is a lie, he sets out to discover the horrible truth.
From the opening frame, Sausage Party fizzes with a manic, giddy energy that makes the bonkers concept a bit easier for audiences to swallow, and make no mistake, this piss take of Toy Story and a million other kids movies goes some strange, weird places. We’re talking monstrous douches that act like massive douches, lesbian tacos, and drug addled humans lifting the veil on the hidden world of food thanks to bath salts. Working from a script they co-wrote with Rogen and Goldberg, directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan delight in skewing the usual animated movie tropes, ladling thick dollops of R-rated humour onto proceedings. The animation can be absolutely beautiful at times, and the pair add some nice details, like the human world been a lot duller than the colour filled world of the food, that make it really pop at times. The food, from Frank to a pot of honey mustard (which looks oddly stop motion for some reason) to Frank’s girlfriend, and hot dog bun, Brenda (Kristen Wiig), are unbelievably expressive and animated, sometimes at the expense of the human characters, who look hastily put together. The animation is complimented by a massive voice cast, including Rogen, Wiig, Nick Kroll, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, James Franco, and Edward Norton, doing a pretty spot on Woody Allen impression, who go a long to adding more life to the characters.
But the novelty of the premise soon wears thin, and while the movie still raises it’s fair share of chuckles, the humour we’re saddled with is of the lowest common denominator, complete with racial stereotypes, from Jewish bagels who have serious issues Middle Eastern flatbread to didly i Irish potatoes, sex gags, and a series of food puns that seriously outstay their welcome. Which is a shame, because underneath all the potty mouth and sexual humour, the movie has some smart things to say about belief and atheism, but it just becomes lost in all the noise of whats going on. You have to admire how crazy the story gets a times, but sometimes it feels a bit too much, and often you feel, especially near the end, the weird shit is happening for the sake of weird shit happening.
There’s a lot of fun to be had here, but it feels like a bit too much at times. Even if the humour seems to be written by giggly teenagers, Sausage Party is still worth your time as an incredibly entertaining distraction.