Thanks to Seth Rogen, ‘Sausage Party’ is both poignantly funny and keenly aware of its surroundings.
What if I told you the biggest comedy of the summer (and, potentially, the year) was about a talking piece of produce that had the sexual urges of a puberty-stricken teen? With sharp-end animation, a voice cast too massive to even fathom, and stoner-gone-filmmaker Seth Rogen helming the script with comedy writer Evan Goldberg, Sausage Party makes that wild accusation shape into a real entity. And here’s the craziest part: It actually works.
This unconventional comedy stars Frank (Seth Rogen), a sausage at the local Shopwell’s with the high hopes of being brought to the “Great Beyond” (outside the store’s main entrance) by one of his so-called “gods” (humans). There, Frank believes that he will escape his packaging and finally be able to, as he describes himself, put his meat in the buns of Brenda Bunson (Kristen Wiig), an attractive hot dog bun across his shelf. However, when he and Brenda fall out of their shopping cart, they learn of the varieties of edibles that the store has to offer, as well as the awful truth behind why humans buy food from there store in the first place.
Sausage Party might be a satirical low-blow towards the imaginative efforts of companies like Pixar. Nevertheless, Seth Rogen has used the innocence of an animated realm to make his sense of humor even more outrageous. It carries a contradictory nature about itself, an underlying paradox between comfortable family values and uncomfortable explicitness. With the margin so spread apart, it’s difficult to hold back even the slightest smirk, and that’s the building blocks of its dexterity.
The film tackles heavy-hearted topics in such a light-hearted manner that you barely notice that it’s provoking a specific perspective. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and the rest of the team at Nitrogen Studios have created 88 minutes of non-stop food wordplay and sexual innuendos, while simultaneously guiding those very jokes into bigger themes about the contemporary world. Don’t believe me? Just ask Teresa (Salma Hayek), the bisexual taco. Or, better yet, think deeper into the relationship between Sammy (Edward Norton) and Kameesh (David Krumholtz), a Jewish bagel and an anti-semantic flatbread.
“Seth Rogen didn’t disappoint with his inappropriately crazy sense of humor,” said Julia Zang, a Garfield native with a strong appreciation of comedy. “I found it very entertaining, despite some very unusual moments, to say the least. For an animated movie, this one will leave you shocked from top to bottom.”
Yes, Sausage Party has the outward appearance of an all-out raunch-fest. And, I should warn you, it really does leave a mark on the faint of heart (or stomach, for that matter). Nonetheless, the personified hero goes on the journey of a lifetime with some moral lessons to be learned along the way. In other words, Seth Rogen fools the audience with the sneakiest trick in the book: giving his stoner-flick a heart of gold.
Sausage Party is now playing in movie theaters worldwide. Some local venues include AMC Clifton Commons, AMC Essex Greens in West Orange and even Bow Tie Bellevue Cinemas in the heart of Upper Montclair! For a list of even more theaters and show-times, visit fandango.com today.
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