Own Brand Comedy
I’ve been AWOL from writing for about 2? 3 weeks now? Like most people I find it hard to do everything I want to do, let alone need to do and some things fall by the wayside.
I’ve recently been learning french, trying to hit the gym a bit more, going climbing and learning more french but that’s only when I’m trying to buy a house or visiting friends/family. That’s where my head is right now.
If I was to make animated film right now it would have to be about a podgey French superhero – probably called Bernard or Frederique – whose super power is to have crusty callous ridden hands, suffers from constant fatigue and empty wallet syndrome.
If that is my brain leaking onto the silver the Sausage Party is Seth Rogen’s mind come to life in what is absolutely Seth Rogen and Co’s passion project.
This should serve as a warning for those who don’t like his style of humour. If, like me, you love his work this is not an immediate seal of approval because even though there is something immensely childish and likeable about Sausage Party I’m not sure I liked it.
The main problem is that the concept is much funnier than the execution. There are some good moments such as the main villain being a total bro, bro! or the food related puns are so natural well worked into the script that you feel like your brain is a few rows further back than your ears…………. oh, I get it now!
Then there are some epic moments such as the scene where “food” realises that humans don’t save food, they eat it. There’s also a hilarious scene where 2 trolleys collide to make a Saving Private Ryan-esque moment of shell shock as in the header image above but the very best scene is the end of the film. It’s puerile, it’s foul, it’s bizarre, it’s chaotic and it’s fucking hilarious!
Beat to beat though and the film just sort of trundles by with precious few hard hitting laughs, trying to rely on racial stereotypes rather than the winning formula that is the film’s concept of sentient food having to deal with the a vastly different world to the one it believes in.
Through this I think we could have had a better story but that’s inconsequential to the animation style which is pretty shitty. I get that they wanted to go for a sort of lo-fi look and that works well for South Park but this just looks like pre-rendered textures. I wasn’t a fan.
So it’s a bit of a mixed shopping bag. There is some really great stuff in here and I do like adult animations but too much of the film is too flat for too much of the film. To me that’s a real shame. After I watched the trailer I was ready to laugh so hard I would brown sauce my pants but no, this own brand of comedy, at times, also feels like own brand quality.
The Good, The Bad and The Outcome:
+ Trolley wallies
+ The after party
+ Food puns
– Animation Style
– Very few side splitting moments
– Avoid if you don’t like Seth Rogen’s style of comedy
Cine-Matix 