Staring into insanity, or, Sausage Party review

Watching “Sausage Party” had me thinking on the subject of ‘adult’ animation. For me, when it comes to the sub-category of mature storytelling within the animation medium, there are two distinct sides: the mature side and the ‘adult’ side. The mature side to animation are films that deal with themes and content well-beyond the capabilities of most works aimed at children; you have your “Persepolis”, “Grave of the Fireflies”, “When the Wind blows”, and (my personal favorite) “Mary and Max”, which are centered around mature topics other than sex and violence (I.e. mental health, war, persecution, etc.). On the opposite side are ‘adult’ animations, which heavily surround adult content. Films that come to mind are stuff like animated movies of “South Park”, and “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America”, but it also independent projects like “Fritz the Cat” and “Heavy Metal”; these types of films aren’t exactly concerned with telling stories with mature themes, but instead with content like sex, nudity, and violence that wouldn’t be seen in most animated features. There isn’t anything wrong with these films, in fact I honestly love most of the work I’ve listed here. A film can tell what story it wants and however it wants to. The problem, in my opinion, is the way it uses said adult content. A good film sets the content secondary to the story, whereas a bad one would often build itself on just the content. It is the difference in presentation seen in the two animated series of “Family Guy” and “South Park”: the latter is provocative, yes, but it doesn’t get in the way of delivering its story and themes. Meanwhile, with the former, the story is placed in the background when the focus is centered heavily on the content (I.e. the sex and violence), so much so that in recent seasons it has grown more and more extreme. Both series’ have adult content, but they have different objectives in why they include them.

To put it simply: one tries to force a reaction, while another tells a story.

Now, the point of all this is to give the reason as to why I’m so surprised about this film. “Sausage Party” seems to attempt at being that adult animated film telling a story… but it keeps falling back into the content-focused side of that genre. In some moments it’ll tell a story that is surprisingly interesting, but then dives straight into some real messed up stuff that can divide some audiences on whether they like it or find it uncomfortable.
But in the end, what do I feel about it? Well, here is the review:

SUMMARY:

Sausage Party follows a world where food is sentient. All food has emotions and personalities, from individual grapes to even a bag of chips, and all of them live a blissful life, hoping to one day be chosen by the “Gods” who will take them from the aisles and carry them out of the supermarket and into the “Great beyond”. One such hopeful is Frank, a sausage, who has a great love for a hot dog bun named Brenda. The two are excited to be picked together as they are whisked away on the carts, now realizing that their dreams may finally come true. However, a returned jar of Honey Mustard says that the “Great Beyond” is not what it seems, and in fact may be a nightmarish existence of torture and death. Before they could ask further, they’re accidentally pulled off the cart in a big accident, and now may lose their chance at being saved. With the help of a lavash and a bagel, the group must now journey back to their aisles so that they can reclaim their chance at salvation, all while Frank tries to piece together what this “Great Beyond” is and why is it not as glorious as once believed.

STORY:

First, the light stuff. The film has some good comedy spread around what feels to be a nicely paced story. You’ve got a good variety of jokes that fit to some tastes. If you can’t laugh at the jokes about race or references to real life people or situations, then you could laugh at the collection of food puns that have a surprisingly nice evolution spread throughout the film. It’s the sort of dirty though clever humor you’d expect with most Seth Rogen/James Franco comedies, like “The Interview” and “This is the End”; it fits the stoner/college student taste, and may fit yours as well if you’re open to it. There is also some good character specific comedy, and furthermore the characters themselves can, at times, be written as being just a walking joke-machine. Sure, you’ll probably feel like all they do is spout humorous one-liners to each other, but there are times when they can surprise you with how much character and personality they possess. Even the villain, a literal douche, is not only extremely funny and has some believable motivation (at least for this film), but he is capable of coming off feared and threatening whenever he appears on-screen. The characters are well-written and tell some great jokes, and I have little to complain about with them.

But the jokes and comedy isn’t exactly why people know this movie, or why I had to open up with my talk about adult animation. Now we have to address the more harder stuff with this movie.

The film steps the line between being interesting and being ridiculous, and often times it steps way over the line of ridiculousness. While at some points it introduces a clever scenes with themes of religion, faith, and atheist commentary, it also has about 4 along with that that hammers in the points for you: the very obvious terminology and allusions regarding religion and the belief of the afterlife; a whole character arc connecting to Israel and Palestine, done with a very obvious Jewish and Arabic characters; a discussion on faith vs evidence that sounds like something from an actual debate about atheism; and the argument of not wanting to step on people’s beliefs. It’s the type of stuff that may have been smarter, subtler, and perhaps even funnier when done by other animated shows like “South Park”, but in this movie it often comes off as Seth Rogen trying to stand on a soap box. It’s not to say that it doesn’t make for a story that can surprise you with its more subtler moments, or that the comedy it makes from it isn’t effective (I dare say that the Jewish Bagel and Arabic Lavash are almost my favorite characters from the jokes alone), but it’s certainly not raising the bar when compared to more experienced works.
Another thing that pales in comparison is the adult content. Scenes like the ‘massacre’, where the food are finally getting cooked, chopped and eaten is hilarious from how serious and horrific they make it out to be; the clashing bits between the food reacting in horror and the humans just casually picking up carrots, is surely going to get a laugh out of you. At the same time, the moments with extremely sexually suggestive content can really make you feel uncomfortable. I don’t normally have a problem with sex and suggestive material, but “Sausage Party” really pushes it into your face with what they can do with animated food. If the obvious sexually suggestive acts and innuendos don’t affect you, then surely the orgy will. No joking, there is an orgy scene with all of the main food characters, occurring minutes before the end, but lasting long enough to drill the imagery into you. It goes beyond what you’d expect and rapidly goes away from something comedic to outright pornographic. Again, I don’t have a problem with it, but I have to admit when it’s way too much for me.

I can’t say that the film would’ve been better if it had stuck more with its comedy and taken out the sex stuff, especially the orgy scene, as it’s clearly what Rogen and company wanted to make. At the time though, I feel like those scenes get in the way from truly liking and recommending this movie. There inclusion can often times ruin the moment and make me feel more uncomfortable than I do generally entertained. Still, what does work is highly effective, and I can’t knock on the film when it does succeed in making me burst out laughing at times.

In the end, when it comes to story, it’s an almost great product that is sadly possessing some harsh flaws.

ACTING:

Not much to add after talking about the characters, but I’ll be brief.

The voice acting is well done, with no complaints to be had on their delivery and acting ability. The celebrity voice actors are fine in their roles, and sometimes really fit the characters perfectly, like Bill Hader as Firewater or Salma Hayek as Teresa the taco. The lines, like I said with the comedy and adult content, are effective at times but do have moments where they can cause some eye-rolling. It’s a lot of pun humor being said here, and for the most part they are good.

ANIMATION:

The animation is really good. It’s flashy, smooth, nicely modeled, and is capable of showing off some great action. It’s also effective when it needs to be dark, like the aforementioned massacre scene and a lot of the more violent stuff that happens in the film’s final third. The animation is just as effective when showcasing cute and cheery material as it is when showing the dark and messed up stuff.
Often times it feels like the animation is too good, at least for this movie. While not Pixar levels of artistry, the motion and colors are still effective when presenting a scene, and at some moments they go beyond the comedy and story of the film itself. I’m probably gushing over the work too much, especially since I honestly didn’t expect the level of work to be associated with a movie like “Sausage Party”, but I have to give praise where it’s due.

If there is one minor complaint though, it’s probably the human models. The proportions appear extremely stylized, and works for a select few characters when fitting into the film. They’re not bad, but they do feel like they don’t have much of a theme, with some characters being more cartoonish than others. It’s a minor complaint though, and doesn’t really lower the quality of the film since they aren’t shown for much of the movie.

CONCLUSION:

I focused a lot more on the story for this review, but that’s because it is the bigger selling point when recommending this film. If you’re the type of person who loves the sort of comedy associated with James Franco and Seth Rogen, and now want to see it done in an animated work, than I can definitely recommend this movie to you. If you aren’t that type of person, then I think I can only tell you to watch this movie if you’re in a group. Seeing it with friends can really improve the experience, especially when you want to witness the reactions to the more hardcore moments of the movie. Though, really, by that point you’re just watching a movie to be entertained by what others feel about it, which honestly feels to me to be the best sort of experience.
I wouldn’t buy this movie, but don’t take it to mean that I hate it. I enjoyed the movie despite the moments where I felt it went too far, but it feels like it’s better to rent for the odd night-out with friends than it would to buy and see it alone. The movie is meant to be shared and experienced with a group of people, mostly for those unaware of its content, which is probably why it’s gotten so much attention. Even my sister saw it just for that reason: wanting to see how her boyfriend, someone who doesn’t usually see that sort of stuff and isn’t truly aware of what’s in the movie, react to something that’s quite insane.

“Sausage Party” is a stupid, messed up, horrific animated film with some good comedy spread throughout it all. While the message is hammered in and it can push far into being uncomfortable, it is by no means a bad movie. A shocking film, but not a bad one.