An Adequate R-rated, Vulgar, CGI Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (26 August 2016)

Realizing this is the first full-length, CGI animated R-rated flick, I just had to see it for myself. Since Seth Rogen and his crew admitted this movie is an intentional spoof of Pixar and DreamWorks films, it left me further curious on what was to expect. When it ended, I thought to myself, "Past animated movies went the R-rated route before, so is this a step further?"
The story revolves around Frank (Seth Rogen), a sausage along with his friends wanting to be chosen by human shoppers or as the foods call them "gods" to find a new life in what they call home. Though it's not all what it seems when they find out the horrific truth of their fates, so he and his fellow foods must band together to follow their own destinies.
The concept of personifying inanimate objects is something that existed many times before, but by giving it the R-rated treatment, there's no holding back with sexual content and foul language. My nitpicks of it were the lack of proper depth in the human characters (save for the druggie) and the excessive cursing just to be funny wears thin easily after a while, though the food puns sure had me laughing especially its shock value in the various predicaments each of the food characters face (albeit forced and a tendency to be predictable that I sometimes turned away out of embarrassment).
In the past, I've watched a handful of R-rated animated films of different genres whether of domestic or overseas origin (some of which were milestone pieces that broke ground or shaped the medium much differently compared to the ones for younger audiences), but marking the first CGI-animated in this category is something that's not often done. Story-wise, it toys with themes of existentialism, religion and even reality-bending material. Among the various Seth Rogen comedies I've seen ("Paul" still one personal favorite), it's like "This Is The End: Food Edition." With the voices of Rogen, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and other Judd Apatow regulars, they sure sounded like they had a riot lending their voices to these characters on screen, not to mention the irony of involving Disney veteran Alan Menken composing the music and the opening number. On another note, it's like it's trying to follow in the footsteps of the last R-rated, animated box office success that was South Park back in 1999 (which coincidentally parodied Disney animated musicals of the 90s). Although it wouldn't be fair to compare Rogen's brand of humor to Trey & Matt's South Park, I'd say it's wanting to reach similar ranks in terms of violent, vulgar humor if not exactly high standard. This is a rarity in this current era of CGI animation, check it out and don't expect your kids to watch it anytime soon since it's obviously not for them.