Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Review of Sausage Party: We Eat What We Are




So far this year, we have seen a world where animals live together in harmony (more or less), what pets do when their masters are at work, and an absent-minded fish look for her family. It's been a typical year for animation, and there's still Animal American Idol, a kid with two strings and another Disney movie yet to premiere.

Yet this year may be remembered for Seth Rogen deciding to produce a movie that has one of the most bizarre premises ever: what do food think before we eat them?

Well, they have pretty strange ideas about what life is all about..and maybe their sex drives, too.
But first things first.

Sausage Party had a successful sneak preview at Comic-Con last month, and scored 34 million dollars last weekend, just behind Suicide Squad. It's an interesting try at making animation for adults. It was more strange than hilarious, but you can't help but think the edible characters are pretty much like us.

As the meat, bread and produce at the supermarket see it, the customers are gods, and they take the food to "The Great Beyond". Somehow, they don't know what the "Gods" do after that.
The story features Frank, a hot dog voiced by Rogen, who hopes the fill the bun of Brenda, voiced by Kristen Wiig. The way she's baked, she is the Jessica Rabbit of baked goods. A short weiner named Barry (Michael Cera) is worried that he'll be able to fill a bun.

Anyway, they're hoping to reach the Great Beyond when a crazy jar of honey mustard (Danny McBride) who was returned claims the Great Beyond is a lie. After a crash between two shopping carts, Frank and Brenda get separated from their friends. They do meet a bagel (Edward Norton) and and a lavash (David Krumholtz), who complain about shelf space in a familiar way, They also have to deal with a douche (Nick Kroll) who's mad that he lost his chance to reach the Great Beyond (or at least the woman who wanted to buy him).

As for the grocery items who do make the Great Beyond, they find out the hard way what the Gods really do. Barry tries to escape and winds up crossing paths with a guy that enjoys "bath salts" (James Franco).

Frank wants to know the truth about the Great Beyond, and learns it from Firewater (Bill Hader) and couple of non-perishable items (Craig Robinson and Scott Underwood). Brenda doesn't want to know because she thinks she's being punished for just touching Frank by the tips. She does get attention from Teresa (Selma Hayek), a lesbian taco shell.

So how can the food fight back against the Gods who buy them? There is a solution, but it's rather drastic. That's followed by an all-out orgy you can't unsee, and a pretty weird ending.

Seeing the secret lives of food is an unusual idea, and the movie pulls it off by making some comments about religion, and what we believe is the Great Beyond for us. The ending was weak, though. There were also too many stereotypes, especially how the Chinese and Mexican foods were portrayed. Then again, how can you come up with a happy ending for those whose destiny is being in our stomachs?

It's safe to say someone will come up with a better animated movie with lots of sex and profanities, but Sausage Party is a decent attempt at making Pixar After Dark.

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