Yes, “Sausage Party” means exactly what you think it does. Metaphor is subtle in this film. Subtle in the way that, say, Batman represents bats. With a Seth MacFarlane-like irreverence for taboos of all kinds, Sausage Party would be an easy film to hate – it’s crude, tasteless and might just scar your prudish child or inner-child for life. OTOH, it would be an easy film to love as well — it’s crude, tasteless and might just scar your prudish child or inner-child for life. I’m somewhere in the middle — my inner-child is not yet scarred, but I’m keeping an open mind for the possibility.
Frank (voice of Seth Rogen) is a sausage. Not a hot dog, a sausage. And part of a ten pack. Brenda (Kristin Wiig), the bun, is his main squeeze. The film never explores why dogs are generally sold in ten packs while buns are too often sold in units of eight. What is up with that? Like all products in the supermarket, Frank and Brenda cannot wait to get to the great beyond – the magical eden that awaits beyond the market doors. When not discussing the Elysian Fields of the food world, however, Brenda and Frank mostly talk about sex – it starts with “touching tips” outside their wrappers. Oooooooo. This is what happens when your main characters are a hot dog and a bun. Brenda and Frank both have tiny arms and legs, cause, otherwise, that would just be silly, right? Like most hot dog buns, Brenda is split down the middle, but that isn’t enough – her (for lack of a better word) midsection has distinct breast-like lumps. Her halves are separated and curved at both top and bottom so from the back it looks like she has two asses. Brenda‘s lipstick-lined mouth is vertical. Want to guess what that resembles?
I don’t mean to sound prudish here; you know how I loathe America’s Puritan roots. People, my fellow Americans, you’d be so much better off if you embraced love instead of hate. Just sayin’, Sausage Party has gratuitous sexual overtones and makes no bones about it. One subplot I truly enjoyed, however, went in a completely different direction. Kareem (David Krumholtz) the lavash has issues with Sammy Bagel, Jr. (Edward Norton); the shelf just ain’t big enough for the competing Middle Eastern foodstuffs.
At a film like this, the only real question is, “how much sex chat do you enjoy?” I mean, sure, there’s some religion busting and a fair amount of drug humor, but the meat and potatoes of this flick (so-to-speak) is an actual douche (Nick Kroll) preparing
to jam his nozzle in all sorts of personal places. In fact, I think Sausage Party encounters its biggest fail when a debate arises between the believers of the great beyond and those who have experienced life beyond their given aisle. Hold up. Empirical evidence? Faith v. Science arguments? Are you really trying to introduce philosophy into an animated mock-porn about supermarket food? Tell me, are you going to delve in some Platonic discourse about “The Allegory of the Cave” during the big orgy scene?
Sausage Party stars an entire cast of people who have worked together already —Danny McBride, Michael Cera, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson … You just know these guys all collectively dreamed this idiocy while fooling around between takes of This Is the End. I’ll give it this much: it beats the heck out of the idea for Pineapple Express 2.
♪I like big buns and I cannot lie
Line ‘em up by a side of fry
When some meat slips in that itty bitty place
And some dijon for the taste
On your tongue!
Want to sample the stuff
Carbs, you know, I can’t get enough
Deep in that pocket munching
Dinner, lunch or brunching
Oh baby, this ain’t gonna tickle
When I include my fat Dill pickle
My homeboys, they all gonna follow me
Cuz none of ’em need to be gluten free♫
Rated R, 89 Minutes
D: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon
W: Kyle Hunter & Ariel Shaffir & Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg
Genre: Guilty pleasure
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Boys living out immature sex lives on screen
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Foodies
♪ Parody inspired by “Baby Got Back”
