- DB
Movie Review | Sausage Party
Movie Summary: A sausage strives to discover the truth about his existence. (IMDb)
The first thought I had about this film having seen the trailer was: “looks pretty funny, like a cross between South Park and Pixar.” Yeah right, South Park wishes it could be as filthy as this film is while still getting across a fairly serious point.
That’s not to slam on South Park, which I do like a lot. Rather, it shows that while South Park was pushing at the boundaries of what adult animation could get away with, Sausage Party decides to ignore the boundaries completely, skip right past them, then keep on going until it can’t even see the boundaries anymore.
There’s one particular scene at the end which is so incredibly, explicitly smutty that someone actually got up and left during it when I went to see it. No, they weren’t going to the toilet – coat and bag were picked up and they quickly made their way out of the room and never came back.
How did this film receive only a 15 rating from the BBFC? Seriously, if this had been live-action, it would’ve been an 18-rated film inside the first few minutes. God only knows what the rating will be for the German cut after the Nazi sauerkraut out to exterminate the juice appear very early on (say that sentence out loud if you don’t see why that might be an issue).
The basic story is that all supermarket products are secretly alive, much like the toys in Toy Story, although the various food and home products view the customers as gods who take them to the promised land of the great beyond – outside the store.
Things quickly start to unravel after a jar of honey mustard is returned as an accidental purchase and is traumatised by what he has seen. He quickly commits suicide by jumping from a shopping trolley and sparks the seeds of doubt about the gods in Frank, a hot dog sausage.
Frank is soon separated from his pack-mates, as is his girlfriend, a hot dog bun named Brenda, after the two of them try to prevent Honey Mustard’s suicide. Their efforts result in a collision between two trolleys that leads to a fantastic recreation of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan (honest!).
From that point on, Frank ends up on a quest to find out the truth about the gods, while Brenda keeps to her faith in their benevolence and just wants to return to her aisle and squeeze into a new pack. The pair split, but the film’s message is already being put across.
A whole series of very funny and very dirty situations and set-pieces unfold (including a pack of meatloaf who actually sings a Meatloaf song) before Frank discovers that Honey Mustard was telling the truth, vowing to reveal the reality to all of the other products.
An uprising ensues and war is declared by the supermarket products on the humans, with a huge battle breaking out that eventually results in the amazing scene mentioned above that I absolutely will not spoil because you really have to see it unspoiled.
Despite the dirty jokes and even dirtier language is a serious point, that simultaneously condemns all major religions as something needlessly dividing people when there are bigger things to worry about. However, the film is also smart enough to condemn militant atheism at the same time, pointing out that just because someone might believe something you don’t isn’t a justifiable to be an arsehole or treat them as less than you.
Who would’ve guessed that an animated film called Sausage Party would be capable of making more than one serious point, never mind doing it so damned well despite its crude and immature exterior?
