Review of “Sausage Party”

In the Shopwell supermarket, the food is fresh…and alive. While the shoppers cannot see the smiling faces of the meats, produce, canned goods and other items, they are sentient creatures that have hopes and dreams for their future. The shoppers in the supermarket are considered gods by the food and being purchased means going to heaven where the gods will love and take care of the food for eternity. One of a 10 pack of sausages, Frank (voiced by Seth Rogen) is in love with a bun stocked next to him in a Fourth of July sale display. Brenda (voiced by Kristen Wiig) and Frank believe they are meant to be together in heaven where they can finally have sex. A bottle of honey mustard (voiced by Danny McBride) is purchased but returned to the store and tells the other foods that they’ve been told a lie all their lives. The gods don’t love and take care of them instead they consume them. When honey mustard is about to be purchased again by shopper Camille Toh (voiced by Lauren Miller), along with Frank and his fellow sausages and Brenda and the rest of the buns in her pack, he decides to kill himself by jumping out of the cart. Frank tries to hold on to him and nearly falls out himself. Brenda grabs Frank in an attempt to save her love. The cart is involved in a mishap and some items tumble out including Sammy Bagel, Jr. (voiced by Edward Norton), Lavash (voiced by David Krumholtz) and Douche (voiced by Nick Kroll) among others. Furious that he isn’t getting to go to heaven with the god that chose him, Douche vows revenge on Frank and Brenda. Meanwhile, Frank, Brenda, Bagel and Lavash try to get back to their respective aisles before the store opens again the next morning while avoiding the Dark God Darren the store manager (Paul Rudd) and being thrown in the dumpster. Along the way, Frank begins to question everything they believe about the gods based on what honey mustard said and starts a quest to find the truth.

“Sausage Party” is a very silly, filthy, raunchy and vulgar movie; but it uses all the smut to hide a deeper layer that questions blind belief, racial stereotypes and sexual classifications. It is on its surface a juvenile adult comedy. Given a bit more thought, it is an intelligent challenge to the preconceived notions many of us live by without a second thought. It is a film that will anger many people and could possibly be the target of misguided boycott attempts. Despite it being animated, “Sausage Party” might be one of the more subversive films I’ve ever seen.

While “Sausage Party” works on levels deeper than what is on the surface, that surface has to be funny to get the message across. Writers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir have packed their screenplay with plenty of jokes along with visual humor to coax the audience into taking the journey into deeper territory. There are food puns aplenty in the script along with a fair amount of drug humor (which turns out to be very important to the story later on). Dirty jokes run the gamut from mild comments about filling buns with sausages to more direct and vulgar remarks about the size of various types of produce and where they could and couldn’t fit. It is not a film for the easily embarrassed or those that consider themselves to be prudish.

The laughter eases what could be for some a painful trip into realms that give many people comfort. Is there a God? What happens after this life? Why are my beliefs any more correct than those of another person? Why should I care what happens to people that are gay, straight, trans, white, black, Asian, Jewish, Muslim, Christian or any other sexual identity, ethnicity or religion? These questions have been asked for centuries and continue to cause anger and division amongst us to this day. The film asks the simple question of why it matters to any of us what someone else believes. How does what someone thinks or who someone loves or what someone worships adversely affect anyone else? Why should we hate or try to change people simply because they are different? Maybe this is considered a hippie or humanist way to think and ignores the teachings of the Bible or the Koran or the Torah or any other religious text. But consider this: It’s ok to not share someone’s belief system. Live your life and don’t feel like you are the world’s moral center, responsible for the actions of others. That, in essence, is the story of “Sausage Party.”

“Sausage Party” is rated R for pervasive language, drug use and strong crude sexual content. The crude sexual content ramps up near the end of the film with an all-out food orgy. There are plenty of sexual jokes made throughout the film. Drug use ranges from smoking marijuana out of a kazoo to bath salts. Foul language is common from about the first sentence of dialog all the way through the movie. There are also incidents of violence against humans and food including a beheading.

Seeing “Sausage Party” with your brain turned off and just going in for the laughs is perfectly alright. It is very funny and there are plenty of points where you likely will laugh out loud. There are also moments where the deeper meaning of the film will shine through and you may actually have a serious thought. Don’t let that dampen your fun with the film; just know there’s more going on under the surface.

“Sausage Party” gets five stars.

This week theatres will be filled with an historical remake, an animated fairy tale and a couple of gun runners. I’ll see and review at least one of the following:

Ben Hur—

Kubo and the Two Strings—

War Dogs—

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