Animation doesn’t always have to be for kids.
The idea that it is has been disproved since the early days of The Clangers, Charlie Brown, and Pingu (even if it’s not staring you in the face). With modern classics such as Shrek, The Lego Movie, and Despicable Me, the level of humor is thickly layered – resulting in one hell of an enjoyable experience for both parent and child. Of course, when Team American darkened our puppet-y memories the bar was moved so high, it seemed nothing would be able to top it. And thankfully Sausage Party comes dangerously close, but doesn’t quiet put the sausage in the bun.
Silly, stupid, sleazy sausages. Big sausages, skinny sausages, frankfurters in all sorts of meats and shapes. It truly makes you wonder what on earth was going through these people’s heads when they came up with this one. Essentially, this is Toy Story in a supermarket. Where the peppers party with the tequila, the sausages are gagging to get into the buns and the sweetcorn sings a pretty tune in order to praise the human Gods in the hope of being chosen and released into the ‘Great Beyond’. Yet, if they knew what fate held for them once they are away from the safety of their plastic packaging, they would probably think twice.
When Frank (Seth Rogan) the sausage gets chosen alongside his Glamour Bun (Kirsten Wigg) of a girlfriend Brenda, all seems to be fine and dandy until a honey mustard who has seen the outside world commits suicide right before their eyes instead of being unleashed outside the doors again. In a fruit, condiment and douche (yes, a douche and an angry one at that) kerfuffle Frank and Brenda embark on their long journey through the aisles to get back to their shelves. With Sammy (Edward Norton) the Jewish bagel and Lavash (David Krumholtz), the Iranian flatbread constantly at each other’s throats, and a lesbian Taco, Teresa (Salma Hayek) who can’t keep her eyes or hands off of Brenda – it seems they are all going to have to work together in order to get back to their friends and escape this juiced up douche.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how utterly stupid or overtly silly this entire venture is – it’s bloody smart. Look past all the jokes that a 12 year old regurgitates in the playground and pay attention the bigger picture. Intertwined with copious amounts of swearing and sexual innuendoes, the writers have succeeded in pointing out what is wrong with our current state of affairs. Every piece of animated supermarket produce has it’s own thoughts and views, regardless of any sort of proof. Digs at the ludicrousness of humans; the many arguments about gender, religion and politics are all addressed here. Ok, they are pretty much outright slammed, but someone has got to do it, right?
The vomit worthy message of, let’s all start living together in harmony produces itself and quite frankly (no pun intended) it’s about time we all did. The pace is so rapid and jokes are delivered effortlessly, one simply can’t take offence – gasps and chortles are virtually impossible to hold back with this one. There is no doubt about it – Sausage Party overuses and utterly annihilates the use of immature, crass, and overtly silly comedy. Albeit, the message they are drilling home is so prominent that without the repetitively mindless antics they probably wouldn’t have got past the first production meeting.
By the by, the cast here are what makes this film. The familiar boom of Rogan’s voice, Franco basically playing his role in Pineapple Express and the ensemble of actors whom make up the rest of these misfits must have had such fun doing this one. The cherry on the cake, however, is Ed Norton doing his best Woody Allen impression as Sammy the oh-so-Yiddish bagel and David Krumholtz as Lavash who can’t wait to get to Paradise and be rewarded with 72 bottles of extra virgin olive oil he can drizzle over himself. A shout out to Kristen Wigg shouldn’t go a miss either – she gives it her all whilst voicing the Glamour Bun that has female genitalia as a mouth.
Film references galore, if you can accept what you are watching then you will leave the cinema untouched by the gratuitous, out right pornographic sausage sex montage that emerges before our very own eyes. It’s surprising how much you can do with a sausage animation. Well, you be the judge of that! If this isn’t your bag, Sausage Party is sure to make you peck-ish.
SAUSAGE PARTY IS OUT 2ND SEPTEMBER!