Review of Sausage Party (2016) by Carfan1999 — 12 Aug 2016

Sausage Party is a decently good, fun movie. The appeal for this is that it's an R- rated animated film with the feel and story of a Pixar film. As you know, even though animation is an art form, you'd think this is a kid's genre. Pretty much every animated film released is a PG- kid friendly film. There are adult animated films, like the recent Anomalisa or Japanese Anime, but they never get wide releases. Now this is not to say that all these kid- friendly animations are bad. Recent films such as Finding Dory, Zootopia, and The Secret Life of Pets all show that you can tell a fine story that appeals to anyone of any age, despite that PG rating. Even G- rated Pixar/ Disney films can tell great stories for all ages. Nonetheless, having a R- rated wide release is quite rare.

The story of Sausage Party basically uses the Pixar formula, complete with social commentary. Think Toy Story, but with food. There are allegories and stereotypes for every single race of people from the Israeli- Palestinian conflict to illegal "Mexican" food. These themes are shown in a very not- so- subtle way, unlike Pixar. There's even a joke in here that takes a direct jab at Pixar. The main theme here is whether to believe in God or not. Rather surprisingly, this topic is presented in a nuanced manner that shows the pros and cons of believing in a religion. This intelligence makes the story very smart and improves the overall film. Not to mention a good song at the start from the guy that did the music for Beauty & The Beast.

Now if you think that this seems unusual for a Seth Rogen movie, than that's where the R- rating comes in. There is constant cursing, violence, drugs, and many sex scenes. There is the shock value of seeing all this raunch, but after a while it gets old and there's too much of it. The animation is decent considering the low budget, but the designs are rather lackluster. The characters are fun to watch, but they don't convey any emotion. There are a few laugh- out- loud moments, but a lot of jokes fall flat. This satirical movie won't make you guilty of eating food, but the ending is insanely cool. All in all, Sausage Party is forgettable, not as funny as it should have been, and the raunchiness goes a bit too far. However, fun characters and a very intelligent, Pixar- esque story make Sausage Party simply a fun time at the movies.