If Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, have proven anything in the last decade, it’s that (for whatever mental reason) people are far more comfortable with ‘offensive’ comedy when it’s in the form of animation. They’ve continually pushed boundaries with an incredible work ethic, turning episodes around in less than a week to keep the show feeling fresh and on-the-money with current topics.
I personally don’t understand the difference between a real person saying something and a cartoon that’s been written, animated and voiced by a real person, but it’s a difference that undeniably exists in the minds of a public increasingly hell-bent on closing down anything that offends anyone.
You have to assume that this was in the mind of Sausage Party creator Seth Rogan (with long-term writing partner Evan Goldberg) when they turned their hand to the unashamedly juvenile project about a multi-pack sausage on a journey of discovery through the aisles of his supermarket, desperate to learn the reason for his existence.
I use the word juvenile in the most complimentary way possible, as Sausage Party is unapologetically, gloriously stupid. Parodying Pixar beautifully, anthropomorphized food products see human shoppers as gods whose selection of them means passage to “the great beyond”, a Nirvana-like world past the confines of their supermarket shelves.
Frank (Seth Rogen) is part of an 8-pack of frankfurters, whose only mission in life is to be selected alongside his hotdog bun girlfriend, Brenda (Kristen Wiig), and enter the great beyond together. With 4 July beckoning, it looks like their dream is set to become a reality when a shopper selects them together. However, when a suicidal jar of honey mustard who has learnt the truth about life outside the supermarket threatens the stability of their purchase, Frank and Brenda (alongside a talking douche) are separated from the rest of the trolley.
From both the trailer and my attempt at a description above, Sausage Party sounds like the dumbest movie ever made. And after watching an animated frankfurter see a human shit filled with zombie sweetcorn, I couldn’t really argue otherwise. But it’s also incredibly subversive, smart and, most importantly, hilariously entertaining for its entire 89 minute running time.
As well as enthusiastically embracing the juvenile with both hands, it tackles issues of religion, race, sexuality and, perhaps best of all, the delicate situation in the Middle East. This is achieved with the presence of Woody Allen-esque bagel (Ed Norton) quarrelling with a vaguely Middle Eastern flat bread, before they end the film in a five-minute long sexual orgy that would have been cut out of Salo on decency grounds. If this doesn’t solve the West Bank situation, I’m not entirely sure what will.
Sausage Party is brave, ballsy and franticly funny. Yes, it’s stupid, yes, the humour is infrequently lazy and, if you find the idea of a group of German food products (led by their furiously charismatic, mustachioed leader) trying to exterminate all the ‘juice’ unsettling, than it might not be for you. But Sausage Party is surprising and strange, delirious and different and entirely worth watching for its satisfying uniqueness.
Sausage Party is on general release now.
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