Adult-aimed animated films are few and far between here in the states. In Japan, anime runs free, existing in any genre it pleases, satisfying both young and old on different levels. There is no need to dumb down and add fun things for kids in the anime world. In some ways I wish that existed here in the states; then maybe Sausage Party, the new Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg comedy, wouldn't feel compelled to litter the script with so much profanity and could instead focus on being a little more clever.
A Pixar parody, Sausage Party poses the question "what if food had feelings the same way the toys in Toy Story (1995) did?" The food in a supermarket dream of being taken by the "Gods" (a.k.a. humans) into the great beyond where they will enter nirvana. In one of the movie's funniest scenes, food quickly realizes that the great beyond is not so pleasant.
A feisty sausage named Frank (Seth Rogen) learns the truth through other means, and sets out on a quest along with his sweetheart Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a hot dog bun, and two foods named Lavash (David Krumholtz) and Sammy (Edward Norton), a bagel. They come across several other food items, and slowly Frank realizes he must try and spread the truth to the other foods.
The movie is often pretty funny, providing a surprising analogy to real world religion and atheism. Lavash and Sammy both clearly represent Palestinian and Israeli relations, and several other ethnic stereotypes are on display, including a taco voiced by Salma Hayek, and tubes of sauerkraut dressed like the SS that are determined to exterminate the "juice."
It also takes full advantage of it's R rating and goes places I didn't fully expect and was surprised and shocked by. There is a final montage near the end that I won't dare spoil that definitely pushes the bounds of taste and will leave your audience in stitches or in disbelief.
But, on some level, I wish the movie had been cleverer with it's R rating. The first word uttered is "Shit" and the opening number, written by Alan Menken (who has written his fair share of Disney songs), is surprisingly profanity laden. On one level, it is probably Rogen and company simply stating to any foolish parents who wandered in with their child "leave now, while you still can, because this movie is going places."
But, I dunno, to really do the religion parallel it would have been interesting to see the food actually have language befitting a Christian (at least at church), and then as the veil is lifted, their language is also corrupted. I don't really know how that would work, but it also gets a little numbing hearing a "hot dog" say fuck a lot, and less would be more.
It's also troubling to hear reports coming out about the animators on the film supposedly working tons of overtime for no pay, to keep the film coming in at an amazingly cheap $19 million (for comparison, June's Finding Dory cost an estimated $200 million). All the characters are well rendered, although the backgrounds and feel of the world leave something to be desired. It's understandable that adult animated movies are not a sure thing, but that doesn't excuse abuse of workers.
Controversy aside, the final product is overall a very fun, funny time. You'll probably know within five minutes of the movie if you are in or out. Rogen and Goldberg, along with co-writers Ariel Shaffir and Kyle Hunter, and directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon have delivered a raunchy sex-comedy about food that offends in the right ways and pushes the boundary of taste beyond what I thought was possible. It doesn't outdo South Park, but it comes close.
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