Sausage Party review: “Rude, but really rather unfulfilling”

Sausage Party review: Sometimes funny, though as a whole, an instantly disposable comedic effort that doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

Sausage Party review by Paul Heath, August 2016.

It takes some balls to put an R-rated animated comedy in production, so hats off to the makers of Sausage Party and indeed Sony Pictures for actually following through with the Seth Rogen-led movie, which finally arrives in UK cinemas this week.

Made for a rather paltry $19 million, the film is largely based in a suburban supermarket where its inhabitants, the food, eagerly await being selected to be taken through the checkouts and on to ‘The Great Beyond’.

Amongst them is Frank (Rogen), a sausage who is packed together with the likes of Jonah Hill‘s Carl and Michael Cera‘s deformed, though rather well-girth-ed Barry. They all hope for selection, though Frank also has his eyes on neighbouring shelve-inhabitant Brenda (Kristen Wiig), part of a packet of buns who crave to be paired together when they are eventually chosen. There’s also Teresa Taco (Salma Hayek) and Sammy Bagel Jr. (a stand-out Edward Norton), and a catalogue of other, very politically incorrect food and beverages who simply can’t wait to go home with a happy customer. However, their feelings change when Frank discovers that The Great Beyond may not turn out to be that great when his fate is revealed – that they will ultimately become meals of the Gods.

Sausage Party starts out with a wonderful opening sequence involving singing corn, camp-fruits, racist Sauerkrauts (who declare that they hate the juice), and many others. It’s a great start with an amazing track composed by the legendary Alan Menken, one we would absolutely love to see nominated for an Oscar next year. Sadly, after a superb opening few minutes, it’s all a little downhill from there.

The jokes are crass and beyond risque as you may imagine, and while I started watching the film having a mild-titter here and there, those jokes soon wore thin. While food uttering the ‘f’ and the ‘c’ word in an animated movie is unexpected, it’s a novelty that wears off after the initial 15 minutes, and there was a huge gap in the middle section before I found myself even smiling again. Sure, Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s script is clever in places, and while I’m usually a huge fan of the latter two, I had had enough pretty much after the first twenty minutes. That said, there are some pretty neat segments towards the end, but this isn’t enough to save proceedings.

The cast look like they’re having tons of fun and directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2) and their team have crafted a very high-quality CGI-animated movie that is always pleasing on the eye, though I felt empty and supremely unnourished as I left the screening room, which I’m really rather sad to report.

While some will lap this up for its novelty, and with a budget as low as it is, it will turn a huge profit, but Sausage Party is largely a feature that probably would have been better suited confined to an extended short. It is sometimes funny, though as a whole is an instantly disposable comedic effort that loses pace very quickly and ultimately doesn’t quite cut the mustard.

Sausage Party review by Paul Heath, August 2016.

Sausage Party is released in UK cinemas on Friday 2nd September 2016.