Zany, irreverent, and foul: an all-star voice cast more than delivers

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2017)

"Sausage Party" (2016 release; 88 min.) brings the story of a group of grocery store food items. As the movie opens 9with a glorious opening song), we get to know Frank Wienerton, a sausage, and his friends. They are all hoping that today will be the day that a customer will choose them, so that they can 'go to the great beyond" (i.e. leave the grocery store). Then one day, indeed Frank and a bunch of other food items are picked and tossed in a grocery cart, only to see things go wrong at the last minute. Is Frank stuck in the grocery store? To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this movie is the brain child of Seth Rogen, who has for years been trying to bring this story to the big screen. Now finally a studio decided to fund it, and Rogen and his circle of friends came up with this zany, energy-jumping, extremely raunchy adult cartoon. "We keep our wiener in our packages", screams one of the sausages, and that's one of the more benign sexual double-entendres that pepper the movie. I assume you know yourself better than anyone else, so if this is going to bother you, do yourself a favor and stay away from this. I don't understand the many screaming headlines in other reviews that this is not for kids. The movie is rated R, so why would anyone even think about having kids watch this? The movie sports an incredible all-star voice cast: besides Rogen himself (in not one but two voice roles), there are Kirsten Wiig (as Rogen's girlfriend Brenda), Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, James Franco, Paul Rudd, Edward Norton, Salma Hayek, and many more. I mentioned the rounding opening musical number, and as it turns out the music is from none other than multiple Oscar and Grammy award winning composer Alan Menken, as well as Christopher Lennertz.
Bottom line: "Sausage Party" is not for everyone. But if this is something that you think you might enjoy, it doesn't get much better than this this. The movie did much better than expected at the box office, and Rogen has already been quoted as saying he's been thinking about a sequel. Can't wait for that: "Sausage Party 2: The Wiener Works"?