Film Review – Sausage Party

Sausage Party

Sausage Party

Ever wondered how Toy Story 3 would have ended if instead of an emotional catharsis between friends we got an extended orgy scene between Woody and Bo Peep? Me neither. And yet here we are.

Sausage Party, the Pixar “inspired” filth fest written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad, This Is The End), imagines a world in which sentient grocery food items dream of a life outside of Shopwell’s, the Walmart Superstore of this other world. Frank (Rogen), a pre-packaged hot dog, yearns for the affection of Brenda (Kristen Wiig), the curvaceous bun of his dreams. All are led to believe that once they’re purchased, they’ll travel to “The Great Beyond,” a spiritual homeland promising near constant post-coitus moans.

Sausage Party Movie Still 1

After a jar of honey mustard (Danny McBride) is returned and relays the horrors of the outside world, complete with human (?) sacrifice and a Saving Private Ryan spoof both spot on and horrifying, Frank begins to question the community’s beliefs and sacrifices. Is this idea of heaven a mere mirage? Or something tangible? Heavy material for a purported cartoon but one the creators handle with welcomed aplomb.

There are a lot of recognizable voices throughout, leaving the familiar stench of an Apatow stamp, whether he was involved or not (he wasn’t.) Michael Cera is at his most endearing as Barry, the misshapen weiner of the pack. He manages to return to Shopwell’s after a near-death experience with a real life human tweaker and lives to tell the tale. Nick Kroll, on the other hand, plays a literal douche and all that that entails. And so it goes.

Sausage Party Movie Still 2

As a lark, Sausage Party is *almost* wholly effective. After all, what’s more secretly satisfying than an R-rated animated comedy in which the eventual, central plot point surrounds the dangers of recreational bath salts? I can’t say I wasn’t surprised.

Just when I thought I’d gotten a grasp on its eccentricities, this damn thing threw me for a loop. It’s as hard-hitting as Ratatouille but without all that overrated emotion. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw it a week ago.

If you’ve read even a single review of this movie before mine, you’ve probably made your decision. This is a film that casts Edward Norton as a very Jewish bagel named Sammy Bagel Jr. for gods sake. But for all it’s supposed racial stereotypes (I haven’t even touched on Salma Hayek as a horny lesbian taco), Sausage Party is a treasure. If and not only because you’ll never see anything else quite like it.

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Nick's eyes were opened to a film's capabilities with his first viewing of L.A. Confidential and he's spent every day since then doggedly pursuing impactful movies big and small.

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