Fun Food

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2016)

This is my review of Sausage Party (spoiler free)
**** (4/5)
Cast: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Bill Hader, Edward Norton, Salma Hayek, James Franco, Paul Rudd.
Plot: Shopwell's supermarket is full of happy groceries, waiting to go to the 'Great Beyond'. But one day they discover evidence to suggest there is a much darker future in store for them.
In the original Shrek, the Gingerbread Man is tortured by the malevolent Lord Farquaad. Dunked in milk with his legs ripped off, he's threatened with even worse bodily harm. "No, not my buttons!" he squeals. "Not my gumdrop buttons!" It's apt that Conrad Vernon, the man who both created and voiced 'Gingy', is also one of the directors of Sausage Party. Because, like the scene described above which is arguably the most violent that movie can get apart from the beer fight. This unlikeliest of summer-season animations is a weird hybrid of cutesy cartoon and horror flick, a tale in which awful things happen to sentient food products. It may be a weird hybrid between the two but it's both very very rude but very very funny in its use of random rudeness but that particular influx of randomness pulls through in what could be the greatest animation ever. It's arguably an intended spoof for the creators of Superbad Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen to make a mockery of all the animations that they love/loved as either children or adults. Our hero Frank (Rogen) who has unimaginable feelings for his bun-friend Brenda (Wiig, on top form once again, and also more confident than ever) and he shares his packaging with Barry (Cera, in his bravest role ever), and Carl (Hill, in possibly his shortest role ever as he doesn't last very long) see that life in the supermarket isn't quite what it seems, as Frank goes off in search for the truth. There is one point in this cutesy animation that makes it a creepy horror flick, because this also uses violence not the slapstick you normally get in films like this but guts out violence, in what could be described as the most violent scene in any animation ever. Beyond all the Pixar-like feelings this film will give it is nowhere near child friendly but with its charm and vulgarity it shows that adults can love animation too.
What if the premise of a film like Toy Story, in which inanimate objects come to terms with the meaning of their existence, was pushed to its logical dark-as-hell conclusion? There is an increasing amount of glee in Sausage Party (a tale about pork that is more sex-obsessed than Porky's) as it heads towards its demented denouement. Brought to life by sub-Pixar but decent CGI, as it bustles with anthropomorphic edibles. There is a tomato voiced by Rudd, a sultry taco with the tones of Salma Hayek and even a Hitler-esque sauerkraut shouting "exterminate the juice." In case how man food based puns there are; the answer is a lot. At first though it seems that, that is all this seems to offer, with enough raunch to make a beetroot blush. Gradually, though, this reveals itself to be a bold piece of work with some rather big ideas. The return of a panicked jar of honey mustard (Danny McBride) to the store, raving about the abuse meted out to food items by humans, triggers an existential quest for Frank to go on and he goes to extreme lengths (pun intended) to search for the truth. There is a concept of organized religion that is explored, as the lone sausage tries to convince his blissed-out companions they not be headed for a glorious after life, but rather a knife-assisted oblivion. Even the Israel/Palestine conflict is riffed upon, through the unlikely medium of a relationship between a lavish (David Krumholtz) and a bagel (Edward Norton, doing a big, goofy impression of Woody Allen and just about stealing the show).
There are smarts to Sausage Party that are well-concealed between layers of utter filth, which ramps up and up until a late set-piece that will likely make you choke with laughter: think Caligula re-enacted by condiments. Bringing to mind a go-for-broke vibe of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the final reel unleashes debauchery and mayhem of a kind that makes you wonder if a studio exec ever checked in on the production. There are some barren bits – there is a villain that is an actual douche (Nick Kroll) who's more loud than funny, and some of the gags have the feeling that the writers got them from a box of Christmas crackers – but Rogen and Goldberg have succeeded in cooking up something truly original. Also in its incredibly short run time it delivers laughs out the whazoo, rudeness and food related violence and sex. The finale, meanwhile, suggests yet another Meta sequel could be on its way. It leaves us to believe what these sausages could get up to next. You may even forgive it for being incredibly short. It's nice to see Seth Rogen on top form once again.
Verdict: It sounded like the dumbest movie of all time, but it's actually smart, subversive and packed with famous voice, saying wonderfully unspeakable things. In fact, it's a banger.
8/10 balls out entertainment.