An Hour and a Half Long Assault on Food and Fun

Rating: 2/10 (15 May 2020)

Animation geared toward adults can be enjoyable. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut comes to mind, along with the show that it is based on. But when the quality of the animation far supersedes the quality of the script, characters, and story...then you've gone terribly wrong. Such is the case with Sausage Party, Seth Rogen's first foray into the world of theatrical animation. As with many of Rogen's outings, this one falls short in a number of areas.
But, as always, I like to begin with the positive, and this movie did have a couple. For one, the antagonist in the movie is always making an admittedly funny food pun, followed by the appearance of the product he's referring to. This product will then ask why he was calling them, to which he gets progressively frustrated as the movie continues. There's also a pretty good scene where a literal package of meatloaf arrives and sings, "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)," and there's a nice analogy of the conflict in the Middle East when the Jewish and Islamic foods cannot learn how to share the same aisle.
Other than that, this movie was a travesty from beginning to end. The script is one of the worst I've ever heard. All of the profanity and "adult humor" is forced and contrived beyond belief. The difference between South Park and this is that pretty much all the swearing in South Park comes from immature fourth grade boys who don't know any better. In Sausage Party, it's coming from characters we're supposed to take seriously. Throw in a lot of Rogen's ridiculous jokes in support of getting as high as possible, and you have the makings of a terrible film.
The story is absurd. A sausage having an existential crisis? So...what about the pig, beef, and/or chicken he came from? Did they have existential crises before him? What about the packaged foods? Also, how the heck did Firewater and the rest of the non-perishables manage to get their story of "The Great Beyond" to every item in the store? Do they tell it to the new items when they come in on the supply truck? The entire thing leaves you with more questions than answers.
I won't be watching this ever again. It's stupid at its best and diabolically asinine at its worst. Sure, there's a semi-clever food pun every now and again, but when your dialogue is 95% curse words, weed jokes, and sex puns, then you've gone terribly wrong somewhere. So yes, this is a Seth Rogen film...and it's made me realize that the greatest character he's ever played was that little mantis in Kung Fu Panda.