Entertainment & Technology

Sausage Party Review – Who Knew Food Could be Both Hilarious and Subversive?

Do you remember when all you could think about was an animated film about food in supermarkets realising their destiny? Me neither. Sausage Party has came out of nowhere but from its first trailer it was destined to be a hit.

The film revolves around the food in the Shopwells supermarket, and their dreams of the ‘Great Beyond’ (us buying them and taking them home). However, the dark truth about their future starts to become apparent.

Copyright: Columbia Pictures
Copyright: Columbia Pictures

 

The plot mainly focuses on the relationship between Frank the hot dog (Seth Rogen) and Brenda the bun (Kristen Wiig), and their desire to well, ‘get together’. This whole idea culminates in a lengthy finale that brings back memories of Team America, only much more graphic as well as hilarious.

For those who aren’t aware, this comes from the minds of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who also wrote This is the End. So as you can expect, it’s 100% not for kids. It’s unapologetically rude and crude, packed to the brim with sex references, and exaggerates every social, sexual, racial and ethnic stereotype it hints towards. My favourite example features a Jewish bagel and an Arabic flatbread (voiced by Edward Norton and David Krumholtz) bickering about their locations on the aisle, and laughing off the suggestion that they could ‘co-exist’.

 

Copyright: Columbia Pictures
Copyright: Columbia Pictures

Of course there are jokes that don’t quite land, and the main villain is a literal douche, but these are forgotten amongst the many huge laughs to be had. The mixture of pure filthy humour and lines that will bring out a shameful cackle (a tub of sauerkraut declaring intent to exterminate the ‘juice’) is spot on.

Rogen and Goldberg have served up a film which has a plethora of fantastic voice acting, relentlessly raunchy puns and wittier, satirical humour – all of this, and the main character is a hot dog. It is undoubtedly the funniest film of the year, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make hot dogs with a straight face ever again.

 

Release date: 2/9/16