Sausage Party (Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon, 2016)
Imdb
Date Watched: 03/06/17
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: I was bored and it was on Netflix
Rewatch: No
I went into this movie fully expecting to hate it. My history with the work of Rogen and company is spotty at best and this sort of in-your-face vulgarity isn't usually my cup of tea. I like sexual humor, but I generally prefer it to be a little more subtle than this. And while I'm a fan of animation, I'm typically drawn to films that are funny in a much more innocent way and to films with a great emotional impact.
There's nothing innocent here and the story isn't exactly touching, but it is actually surprisingly clever. Yes, the endless sex jokes and rapid-fire profanity grew rather tiresome (We get it, you earned that R rating. Congratu-f***ing-lations), but it actually served as interesting social commentary and satire. Aside from a little chuckle at the villain being a
literal douche, most of the amusement that I got out of the film came from the parallels between the belief system of the food and that of certain religions and also the interactions and prejudices of the various food "ethnicities." And to that end, the various vocal performances were pretty solid and I was perhaps most surprised by Edward Norton, especially since I had no idea going in that he was amongst its cast and still didn't know until the end.
On a more technical level, the animation was also surprisingly good. Obviously this is nowhere near the level of Pixar or any of the other major animation studios, but I thought the main character designs were interesting and the crudeness of the film's artwork was actually pretty fitting considering its content.
Ultimately, this is not a great film and I do wonder if I will still find it amusing on rewatch. My suspicion is that I won't, but in this particular moment, in this particular mood, I found it to be a rather pleasant surprise.
-