“One time when I was little, I was riding in the car with my mom. There was a commercial for some Chippendale type show. “”It’s gonna be a sausage buffet!”” the announcer exclaimed. “”Ew, sausage buffet? That doesn’t sound very appetizing”” replied my sweet innocent and conservative mother. That’s one of the things that comes to mind whenever I see the Sausage Party poster. The other is that my brain insists on singing “”It’s gonna be a sausage party”” to the tune of Eminem’s WTP.
None of that really has anything to do with the movie, where Seth Rogen (who also cowrote) voices a sausage named Frank that lives in a local grocery store. All he dreams of is being taken out of the store by the “”gods”” where he can live out his days in happiness and hopefully form a hot dog with his bun girlfriend Brenda (Kristin Wiig). However, Frank learns some unfortunate truths about what exactly goes on in that great beyond he’s been waiting for.
It’s hella traumatizing. Like really really messed up. And I loved it. A major part of the premise is the food discovering that they’ll be eaten, which is disturbing (and hilarious) enough. But we go to some other pretty dark places that I wouldn’t dream of beginning to spoil. Throughout the film I kept on uttering things like “”WTF am I watching?!”” or “”I can’t believe this is happening”” or various other exclamations of disbelief.
But I’ll tell you why I was happy to be traumatized, nearly to the point of nightmares. I like being shocked by a movie. Between how half-assed most recent releases have been and how jaded I am from seeing way too many films, it’s hard to shock me. So first off, points for pulling that off. And for the creativity in general. This continues the trend of having some of the most unique and bizarre films I’ve ever seen being buried between all the sequels and superheroes. But yeah, traumatizing is good. It’s memorable and effective. Whodda thunk that a talking sausage would bring me one of the best movie experiences of the year so far?
Oh side note, look (listen) out for Edward Norton as Sammy Bagel Jr. Yeah, that Edward Norton. I’m guessing that the appeal in the film was similar to most of the animators who wanted the chance to do an adult animated film. Either way, his nearly unrecognizable voice (if it wasn’t for his Brian voice in The Score, I’d have never caught on) is a definite highlight, and further elevates the status of the film. Because somehow this movie has an elevated status. Which it totally deserves!
Sausage Party – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/”