Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Sausage Party'

Written by Mike Cervantes

In a strange way, I’m actually happy to see this film. If there is one genre that is completely unappreciated in the mass of mash-up categories that Hollywood provides, it is the R-rated, adult-targeted animated feature film. This is a genre that works better in other countries, particularly Japan, where the R is simply used to serve up a fair amount of violence, sexuality, and adult themes in an otherwise well-thought out and thematically sound film. But we Americans, with our perception of animation as a largely kiddy market, have always had the genre pigeonholed into niche, indy concepts, like those of the collected arthouse works of animator Ralph Bakshi, to make up our perception as a whole.

So here comes Sausage Party, another film from producer and lead actor Seth Rogen, a man whose only motivation is to take the concept of the stoner-buddy comedy and make as many films in that trope as humanly possible. The film, like many concept animated films, contains a branding by Sony/Columbia Pictures, but was completely animated in Canada with a staff that is a third of your typical Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks animated production. As it so happens, the lead animation director, Greg Tiernan’s only other major film credit is on a CG Canadian co-production of Thomas the Tank Engine.

And honestly, for what they were trying to accomplish, that is, to add Rogen’s frat-house shenanigans to a parody of the animated formula held by the current cartoon status quo, the film absolutely succeeds. It is amazing the notes that this little studio was able to hit. At one point, there’s even a song composed by Alan Menken. Yeah. No foolin’. The film’s entire runtime plays out through a cast of characters who, despite being almost endlessly potty-mouthed, sex-obsessed, and lending of themselves to near constant drug use, display the emotional range of your standard Pixar cast. It is an accomplishment that the concept of this film carries itself out that well, all the way through the picture.

Sadly, that’s really the only film’s accomplishment.

Sausage Party made its way through the indy rounds and into the mainstream cinema with one mission to accomplish, and it accomplished that mission, but what remains of the film beyond that is really nothing particularly special. A film containing this type of humor isn’t hard to come by. Hell, they’ve even made this film with a PG rating and called it The Angry Birds Movie. It’s not a spoof. It’s not a kindly homage. It’s 90 minutes of anthropomorphic food products, all with spindly black arms, white gloves, and Mickey Mouse shoes, toking, making entendre, and saying the F-word. At least you get what you paid for.

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Seth Rogen plays Frank, a leader of an 8-pack of hot dogs including a small deformed one named Barry, played by Michael Cera. Oh, actually, they’re called “sausages” through the film, in order to fit that many more penis jokes into the script. Frank’s only desire is to finally “seal the deal” with Brenda (Kristin Wiig), his white-bread hot dog bun girlfriend, once both their packages are bought together and taken out of the Shopwell’s supermarket into “the great beyond.” An incident with a severely shell-shocked jar of honey mustard (Danny McBride) causes Frank, Brenda, and several other food products to tumble out of the grocery cart, sending Frank on an adventure to discover the reason for Honey Mustard’s emotional and literal breakdown, and uncover the truth about what actually happens to food when it leaves the supermarket.

Along the way they come across further exiled food-things, all of which fill up the supposedly parodic but more-often offensive stereotypes this film has been accused of having. They make sidekicks in the form of Sammy Bagel Jr. (Ed Norton) and Kareem Abdul Lavash (David Krumholtz) a bagel and a naan who are in a border conflict caused by sharing the same ethnic-food shelf. Frank quickly encounters a set of shady characters called the “Non-Perishables,” Firewater (Bill Hader), a Native American bottle of liquor, Twink (Scott Underwood) a camp-gay piece of crème-filled sponge cake, and Mr. Grits (Craig Robinson) that’s…enough said there. Meanwhile, a momentarily displaced and confused Brenda finds a friend in Teresa Del Taco (Selma Hayek), who is not only a Mexican taco shell, but one interested in a hot dog bun in a way that’s, well, once again you can fill in the blank. I suppose this was where the humor was supposed to get offensive, but sadly, even the attempts to stick a pin in every potential non-white member of the audience tends to fall completely flat throughout the film’s brisk run.

Sausage Party, much like the singular food product that makes up its main protagonist, does everything it can to be a fulfilling food substance, but has too many randoms mixed in its stuffing to leave the audience affirmed that it is mystery meat. Frequently, it doesn’t even play by its own rules, and anthropomorphizes different objects at random, but only when it can be played for laughs, like with a roll of toilet paper voiced by Conrad Vernon imitating Ed Wynn. His only line: “You don’t even want to know.” Then there’s the film’s main non-human antagonist, a literal douche, voiced by Nick Kroll, who “juices up” and goes looking for revenge on Frank and Brenda for the crime of keeping him from his ultimate purpose. I had thought with the distinct look of some of the character animation, that some of the art in this film was designed by Ren and Stimpy director John Kricfalusi. His name never appears in the credits, but who knows? It happens John actually trained a lot of animators in Canada.

In the end, Sausage Party does what it sets out to do, and that’s admirable. There are a few funny moments, but in the same way Family Guy has them, in that the film is so in-your-face there are bound to be jokes that stick. However, it lacks the pathos of a good episode of Rick and Morty, the strong themes of an episode of South Park, or the outrageousness of an evening watching [Adult Swim]. A good amount of time watching truly good American adult animation on TV will help to wash down whatever this film will leave stuck in your craw. ​

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