Sausage Party, directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, is centered on grocery store food like hot dogs and follows one fearless sausage who strives to discover the truth about his existence.
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It’s happened. Someone has outdone the “Team America” puppet sex scene and even made it look somewhat quaint in comparison. This is a R-rated toon about grocery store foods and products facing an existential crisis, one that explores and satirizes everything from the politics of the Middle East to religious dogma and sexual mores.
Yep. One of the only things that was holding Sausage Party back from the dreaded NC-17 label was an unshaven scrotum on a pita voiced by David Krumholtz. All you have to do is jump on our Instagram account and tag a friend you want to see the movie with.
Sure enough the first act suggests that Sausage Party has little more to offer than this idea weaved together by a series of increasingly diverse food puns (clever and hilarious food puns, but puns all the same).
Horrified by this newfound knowledge, a sausage named Frank (Rogen) looks to save himself and his friends, voiced by the likes of Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, and many other great talents, from meeting such a bad end.
Things go awry when they are chosen.
Thus begins the great adventure of Frank and Brenda to discover the truth. But after a traumatized Honey Mustard warns his fellow items that all they believe about the Great Beyond is a lie and only death and horror are in store, Frank finds himself on a quest for answers.
As in all Rogen and Goldberg films, no matter how raunchy, there is a big heart at the center. Edward Norton (who rarely gets to show off his sense of humor) channels early Woody Allen as the bagel, and Selma Hayek is, um, a lesbian taco shell. There’s also another smaller, misshapen hot dog named Barry (Michael Cera) who has his own adventure involving a drugged-out slacker (Franco) that leads to some of the movie’s most subversive gags. It’s what distinguishes them from the anything goes satire of Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
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Directed by veterans of many (maybe, finally, too many) harmless animated features, “Sausage Party” starts like any normal, family-friendly cartoon – right down to the Broadway Lite opening number, courtesy of Disney fave composer Alan Menken. “And we lost like an eighth of one of them”. It’s the sort of douchey comedy (literally thanks to Kroll’s roided-up Douche who’s just looking for a good time in any orifice) that will resonate with the crowd it’s intended for, but may ultimately disappoint at some point during its condensed 90-minute runtime. Three and a half stars out of four.
