When Food is Rude: A "Sausage Party" Review
Just when I thought The Simpsons and Family Guy have already
prepared me for the worst (or best?) kind
of profanity in animated films and TV shows, Sausage Party comes along and smashes
expectations. In what is essentially a Disney and Pixar parody, you’ll get all
sorts of drugs, sex, racial, and even religious references you never thought of
seeing in an animated film.
Frank is a sausage (yes,
A SAUSAGE!) being sold at a supermarket called Shopwell’s, who dreams of
finally being bought by humans who they consider as gods. Just like the other
grocery items in the store, Frank believes that being picked by the gods will
mean that they will get to the Great Beyond, which is the foodstuff's own version of heaven. However, when a Honey Mustard sauce who was previously purchased and
returned to the shelf, claims that the Great Beyond isn’t the paradise that they thought it
is, the supermarket briefly plunges into panic. Now Frank is determined to find out the
truth, and he embarks on a journey along the shelves and the aisles to uncover
what fate lies before them in the hands of the gods.
Sausage Party Trailer
Don’t be fooled by
the colorful animation and the seemingly harmless characters – Sausage Party is
definitely not a movie you’d want to watch with your parents or kids. Just a
few minutes into the film and you’d already be thrown into a barrage of
profanity, which to be honest still caught me off guard despite already
expecting such from this film. I guess it’s just strange to hear animated
characters telling each other to f*ck off but frankly, that’s part of what
makes Sausage Party interesting.
The bad language though, is only the tip of the iceberg. As
the storyline progresses you’ll be treated to sexual innuendos (the lead character is a sausage who wants to
get inside his bun-girlfriend), racial stereotypes (Nazi sauerkrauts wanting to get rid of the “juice”), covert
religious references, and even actual use of illegal drugs. At some point, I’m
confused whether I was feeling disgusted, amused, or maybe a mix of both
because apparently, I’m part of the Sausage Party’s niche target audience who,
despite the offensiveness, would still find the film to be loads of fun.
One the surface, it may look like a stupid stoner film but I actually found Sausage Party to be surprisingly smart and creative. Not only is the script riddled with witty food puns, there is also an underlying subversive theme in the storyline that throws jabs at how some people blindly follow beliefs set by established institutions. At some point in the film, the reality of the Great Beyond has been revealed to the grocery items in the supermarket, yet despite the having the truth right in their faces, they still chose to believe in the lies taught to them, simply because the truth is too hard to swallow and too inconvenient to consider.
Sausage Party is a fun ride but only to a certain mature audience.
Nope, despite being an animation this one’s not for the kids, but is actually
something I would watch with my group of friends. Try to keep an open mind and
you may actually end up loving this film like I did!
Credits to the images and videos used in this post go to "Sausage Party" and/or to their respective owners. We do not own these materials. No copyright infringement intended.
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