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Review: Seth Rogen’s ‘Sausage Party’ is One Sour Dish

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No movie this year will make you feel more like you need to take a shower than the adult animated comedy, “Sausage Party.”

The film takes place in a supermarket, where the many food items believe humans are Gods that choose them to live in a world of eternal happiness and care. One of these food items is a hot dog named Frank (voiced by co-producer-co-screenwriter Seth Rogen) who dreams of going to a place where he and his girlfriend, a hot dog bun named Brenda (voiced by Kristen Wiig), can live happily together. However, they soon find out about the horrible things that happen to food in the clutches of humans and must try to protect the rest of the grocery store items before it’s too late.

So what worked about this film? The premise is very clever and goes full force with what it’s trying to do. The exaggerated horror element when viewers see the movie from the food’s perspective is very funny and is when the comedy works best. It is also fun to see when the food actually fights back. The end battle, in particular, was a highlight and contains several over-the-top antics that offer great fun.

Also, the voice acting is outstanding. All of actors truly bring these eccentric characters to life. But what surprised me even more was just how well the voice actors did at not seeming recognizable, which is difficult to do. In particular, Kristen Wiig as Brenda, Edward Norton as Sammy Bagel Jr., and Bill Hader as Firewater all work phenomenally well and mesh naturally with their characters. The animation is very colorful and cartoony, which works well with the exaggerated tone this film is trying to accomplish. Even though not all the character designs work and it is easy to see that this is not Pixar quality CGI animation, the style wouldn’t have worked as well if it was too sophisticated.

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sausage-partyHowever, the film does not work as an R-rated adult comedy. The film’s premise works well by itself; when a sex joke or curse word is shoved in every five seconds, it feels out of place and rather awkward at times. I wouldn’t have minded if it was only thrown in here or there, but unfortunately, this raunchy style of humor is constant throughout the film. Almost every other line is an opportunity to drop an F-bomb, and practically every other character is an offensive racial or ethnic stereotype.

Ultimately, the raunchiness feels incredibly lazy, and it clashes with the film’s otherwise clever concept. If the film wanted to accomplish this style of comedy, it should have had a premise that worked with it, but sadly, the premise here does not mesh well with the style of humor. If the film had taken out all the adult humor and toned down on the food violence, it could have been a much more clever and funny animated family film that would have probably worked better. The ending, in particular, drags out way too long, and it almost feels like the film is giving up on itself.

I really wish I could have enjoyed “Sausage Party” more. The premise is incredibly hilarious, the voice acting is well-executed, and the animation is very fun, which could have worked just fine. But the raunchy humor has no premise to support its place in the film and is present way too much to be considered a nitpick. This movie is definitely not for everyone, especially if you’re someone who can be easily offended by this kind of excessive dirty humor. But if you’re ready for an animated experience truly like no other, than I’d be lying if I said that “Sausage Party” is not just that.

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“Sausage Party,” which opens in theaters today, Friday Aug. 12,  is rated R for strong crude sexual content, language and drug use.

Mikael Trench, 18, is a freshman at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He is an aspiring filmmaker who specializes in working with stop motion animation. His latest stop motion animated short film, “The Tree That Refused To Fall,” just won viewer’s choice award at the It’s My Life Atlanta Youth Film Festival.

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