Zootopia...with Sex Jokes

Rating: 6/10 (19 August 2016)

The element of surprise is the cornerstone of comedy, and Rogen's crew has proved more than capable of catching us off guard with their brand of childish-adult humor (ie Knocked Up, This Is The End). Their latest venture, a bawdy animated-food comedy, finds them in an undeniably original medium. While much of the surprise in the individual jokes is gone in favor of broader concepts, Sausage Party still works, thanks to its comedic thoughts on faith and prejudice. It's a mixture of foody and racist puns that, while far from consistent, provide plenty of easy laughs. Sausage Party is the story of a gang of grocery items who go on an adventure of self-discovery and terrifying revelations. Its surprising main ingredient is its interest in social pigeonholing; think Zootopia without the cute animals and family-friendliness. Thoughtless religion and selfish bigotry are on abundant display, including a hilarious opening song (akin to the worst of modern evangelical music) and a straight-up explanation of our tendency to compartmentalize people with religion and race. Even with that self-awareness, its stereotypes are pretty tired (the bagel is a scared Jew, the taco is a sex-crazed Latino). Its racial typecasting isn't the only thing that pushes the envelope in this hard R. Cartoon parodies of violent horror and war films, drug-trip scenes, and a finale so hilariously / offensively vulgar I'm not sure I can even mention it; it's like these guys knew they could get away with more in an animated world. So while Sausage Party's inventive ideas never quite cook the jokes to their full transcendence, it's still pretty dang funny.