SAUSAGE PARTY
DIRECTOR: Conrad Vernon, Greg Tiernan
VOICES: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, Edward Norton, James Franco, Salma Hayek, Paul Rudd
CLASSIFICATION: PG16 DLSV
RUNNING TIME: 88 minutes
RATING: 1 star (out of 5)
BY DEBASHINE THANGEVELO
I NEVER planned on watching this movie. In fact, thanks to a preview change, which I missed, I was left at the mercy of this movie as I didn’t want to brave Jozi’s peak hour traffic. In hindsight, I'd have happily chosen the latter because now I can never look at buns, tacos, sausages or bagels the same way again.
While I found this adult animated mockery most unpalatable, the creators have got their fill of success from it. Penned by Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, they have created an interesting animated world where their foul-mouthed perishable and non-perishable characters are imbued with human characteristics.
They have taken regular food items like sausages, tequila, hot dog buns, honey mustard, lavash (a Middle Eastern flat bread), tacos, cookies, baby carrots, tomato sauce, toilet paper, Twinkies, candy, cereal and so on and given them distinct personalities. Some are foreign, lesbian, racist and overtly friendly, but whatever the personalities, each character is identifiable.
So what is it about? Well, it all goes down at a grocery story called Shopwell’s, where the perishables and non-perishables reside, albeit very territorially. According to legend (in the grocery world), the human shoppers are Gods and when they are picked, they are taken to a utopia known as “The Great Beyond”.
At the heart of the narrative is Frank (Rogen), a sausage, who is in love with Brenda (Wiig), a hot dog bun. They are planning to start a new life when their packages are chosen by a human. However, a jar of honey mustard points out that they have been lied to. However, a trolley accident sees Frank, Brenda, Kareem (a lavash), Sammy (a bagel) and a bottle of Douche fall out of the cart. What’s worse, the aggressive Douche seeks vengeance against Frank and Brenda after his nozzle is damaged.
And so begins an “interesting” journey, where they are determined to get to the truth as well attempt to rescue their other sausage friend, Barry. They visit many aisles, among them the liquor aisle, where Frank has an interesting chat with Firewater. Then they come across a lesbian taco, Teresa, who becomes infatuated with Brenda while helping them escape the wrath of Douche, who has put out a hit on them.
Meanwhile, Barry, who was purchased at the store, manages to escape being boiled alive. He stumbles across a bath salts junkie, to convince him to get Barry back to the store to warn everyone else. But when that plan goes pear-shaped, he is helped by Gum, which heavily parodies Stephen Hawking. And so begins the great revolt against humans, which is celebrated by a food orgy that is most disturbing. This will probably be better as one of those stoner movies. At least, then, you can laugh off the absurd premise.
If you liked South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and The Simpson Movie, you will enjoy this.