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    Sausage Party

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    You’ve got to hand it to “Sausage Party”. It’s offensive and juvenile but it contains genuine intelligence and it never holds back. As the first R-Rated CG Animated film ever released in theaters, it’s impressive.

    In the Shopwell’s supermarket, grocery items can’t wait to be packed into a shopping cart by the gods (humans), who will take them to the “great beyond”. When a sausage named Frank (voiced Seth Rogen) learns the horrible truth, he must find a way to convince his girlfriend, a hot dog bun named Brenda (Kristen Wiig) and the other inhabitants of the supermarket of their true fate before it’s too late.

    There’s nothing this film won’t do. Racist jokes, offensive stereotypes, gags at the expense of religions or other animated films, cheap sex jokes that include rape, drug-induced, gross-out and suicide fuelled punchlines, they're all here. But the film's objective is not simply to troll the audience, there’s a solid plot here. I was very concerned that “Sausage Party” would get old fast, particularly since you expect the food’s lives to be quite short once the leave the grocery store, but there’s so much more. This film does not simply rely on the shock value of having animated character swear, die horrific deaths and talk about sex in vulgar details. What the trailer doesn’t show you is the journey Frank goes on or some of the other key characters involved. Along with Brenda we also follow David Krumholtz as a flatbread, and a bagel voiced by Edward Norton (I know, I’m as surprised as you are), all of which provide ample funny material. The biggest and most pleasant surprise for me was an antagonist, voiced by Nick Kroll. This inhabitant of Shopwell takes his grudge against our heroes way, waaay too far and you’ll be glad he does.

    This is a movie about what is admittedly a dumb premise, but it’s written intelligently. You’ve got a variety of jokes and food-related puns as well as many clever developments. Frequently, the picture takes things so far that you can’t help but laugh. That’s one of the things I admire about it. This film decided to really go for it and it’s pushing boundaries. Animated films are not taken as seriously as they should be. If this picture’s success helps move the art form forward, as I hope it will, then it deserves extra points.

    I have two main criticisms. The first is that any way you cut it this is not a very good-looking movie. Sure, looking at the budget it looks amazing for a picture made for under $20 million (more on that in a bit), but the humans are eye sores, only a few notches above what we saw way back in 1995’s “Toy Story”. At first, I thought maybe the film was deliberately animated in a manner that recalls crappy grocery store commercials, the kind that are made by people with talent that just don’t have the time to polish their work. I sincerely doubt that’s the case. Even when the film switches to a traditional 2D style, it does not look very appealing. It’ll help ensure the movie makes money, which is good but as time goes on, I think this will become another “Hoodwinked”, a film you wish had gotten a bigger budget, one to match the quality of the writing and the cleverness throughout.

    The visuals are not ugly, they’re just alright, with a few good-looking and inventive scenes. There’s no way it stands a chance of being recognized for any animation-related awards, which is too bad. Some extra competition in the “Best Animated Feature” category would ensure that we keep getting good quality products. Not that a film in which hot dogs excitedly fantasize about the day they’re going to get stuffed inside a bun would necessarily be recognized by the Academy, but one can dream, can’t they?

    My other criticism is with the ending. There’s a big joke that in my mind goes on for too long. Cut that, the prolonged sex and anti-religion jokes and instead, do more with your premise. If this film gets a sequel can we see how these food characters react to their compatriots whose expiry dates have long passed? What about having Frank and his friends go into the Fish Aisle and meet live lobsters or clams? How do animals that are also food fit into this world?

    And now, I come to a conundrum. The film’s very funny, I admire how it tries something new and despite some of my criticisms, I have to give it credit for the memorable moments throughout. I can’t get some of the outlandish scenes out of my head. Unfortunately, word has come out that there has been some foul play during the production of “Sausage Party”. Unpaid overtime, people not being credited for the work they did and threats of blacklisting? It makes it incredibly hard to endorse this comedy. The fact that it looks much better than any animated picture made for $19 million ought to leads me to believe, and this breaks my heart, that the claims are true.

    I recommend you see the profanity-laden, sometimes tasteless and offensive, but bold and ambitious “Sausage Party”. I think it’ a good film and I can guarantee you that you won’t see anything like it. This is a very funny picture that’s quite memorable. “Sausage Party” pushes the envelope and when a movie does that, you bet it’s worth paying attention to. (Theatrical version on the big screen, August 28, 2016)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  31.8.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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