SAUSAGE PARTY
Directors: Conrad Vernon, Greg Tiernan
Cast: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton, Salma Hayek
Rating: (R16)
Three and a half stars (out of five)
It’s part of a long tradition of raunchy animated movies dating back to Fritz the Cat, although 1999’s South Park full-length remains the high-water mark for this kind of thing.
Continuing the bong-soaked humour of previous Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg bromedies (Pineapple Express, The Interview), the film wastes no time re-establishing itself as a crude, highly profane and generally pretty funny spoof of production line CG kids’ flicks, complete with Alan Menken-penned opening musical number.
Frank and Brenda, voiced by Rogen and Kristen Wiig, are a sausage and bun who fall in love on the supermarket shelves.
They yearn to be freed by one of the many "gods" who come through the store every day, until a returned jar of honey mustard tells of the true horror that awaits beyond the automatic doors.
With superb characters ranging from a neurotic Jewish bagel (Edward Norton) to a lesbian taco (Salma Hayek), as well as a villain who is literally a douche, it somehow culminates in a gratuitous, extended orgy that is plain nuts, but until then it’s surprisingly clever, with potent jabs at religion and politics to complement the cunningly inserted innuendo.
- Jeremy Quinn
