Sausage Party

This review may contain spoilers!

This is both pretty messed up and pretty entertaining all at the same time. I would give Sausage Party a 6.5/10.

It was astounding to me that this film was able to present an animated feature that completely took the conventions of something you'd see in a film like Toy Story and turned it around to suit a restricted rating. I mean beyond a doubt some of the jokes and scenes in here are brilliant, I was truly stunned by how some of this film actually played out. Not to mention that for the most part just like any animated film this has a rather clear story that you can get entertainment out of as it goes along. The animation looked pretty good, I really liked seeing how the different aisles within the supermarket looked and how food characters were constructed. The soundtrack for the film is incredible, even having a brilliant use of a Meat Loaf song and it's own original song for the film.

Bill Hader, who voiced Firewater, presented a rather entertaining parody of a Native American role; I loved seeing how worked up he got over how his song had been twisted and changed over the years. Salma Hayek, who voiced Teresa, was a really likeable role; I actually really enjoyed the lesbian/bi-sexual storyline that was playing out between her and Wiig's characters. Jonah Hill, who voiced Carl, brought his usual confident presence to the film; I liked the banter Hill delivered and his death scene was a rather intense moment within the film. Nick Kroll, who voiced Douche, made for a great psychotic antagonist; his really hyped up persona and manic voice while killing other food made him memorable. Danny McBride, who voiced Honey Mustard, was perfect as the unhinged introduction to the truth about 'becoming a meal'; McBride did a good job of escalating his performance to the moment where his role throws himself in front of a shopping trolley. Craig Robinson, who voiced Grits, was a minor role who really made his presence felt in this film; I enjoyed his very casual delivery of comedic lines. Seth Rogen, who voiced Frank, made for a great protagonist; his drive to discover the truth about the 'Gods' and subsequent horror upon finding the truth is delivered really well by Rogen. Greg Tiernan, who voiced Potato, kicked off one of my favourite scenes of the film; his joy turning to horror when his the first victim of the 'Gods' is really interesting. Scott Underwood, who voiced Gum and Twink, brought out a nice parody of Stephen Hawking through his portrayal of Gum; however his camp performance when it came to Twink was also quite entertaining.

However the best performance came from Kristen Wiig, who played Brenda. Wiig is a performer who I've seen in a variety of films over the past couple of years and she's never really been the role to stand out; that changed with this film. Wiig crafts a character who's just as funny as any of her cast mates but is also interesting from the number of different discussions about actual problems in real life she creates. Wiig knows exactly what she's trying to get across and achieve in each scene and you hear that in her performance. She constructs a role who can be wickedly fierce when she wants to be but who also has her own insecurities about her life within the supermarket. This is Wiig's best comedic performance to date in my opinion.

This film doesn't shy away from taking the comedy a bit far, several scenes are damaged by the direction the comedy decides to go. This film was also let down majorly by it's ending; the giant food orgy at the end is revolting and the meta-awareness of being cartoon characters was a stupid decision to end the film upon, it felt as if the writers had just given up.

Michael Cera, who voiced Barry, is a performer who I've never really liked and certainly doesn't make his mark upon this film; frankly I felt like the film focussed too much upon Cera's rather forgettable role. James Franco, who voiced Druggie, gives the film one of it's worst scenes; yet beyond this Franco just didn't seem to have the voice talent to create a significant character. Bill Hader, who voiced Tequila, did a poor job with this role in contrast to what he did with Firewater; this was a character who was a bit too zany and over the top in Hader's delivery. Anders Holm, who voiced Troy, gave a really stereotypical performance in this film; his generic bully role was quick to forget. David Krumholtz, who voiced Lavash, seemed to be in this film just to remind us that Hollywood has about another million Arabic jokes still to go; I was honestly so tired of the jokes around this role by the end of the film. Edward Norton, who voiced Sammy, was one of the blandest voice actors of the whole cast; his rivalry and then romance with Krumholtz's role seemed extremely forced and weighed the film down. Paul Rudd, who voiced Danny, was a pretty weak minor antagonist; the final 'mash-up' between him and Kroll's role just felt awkward and unnecessary.