“Blu-ray or Bust” - SAUSAGE PARTY

“Blu-ray or Bust”

SAUSAGE PARTY (R, 2016, 89 minutes, SONY/POINT GREY PICTURES)

Comedy has changed quite a bit over the years. When I was younger, the comedy of Mel Brooks used to push the limits; there was a big wink behind those edgy lines, a hint that there was much more to the joke, and it set your imagination to work. You read into what Brooks was implying, and the comedy worked so much better because of it.

Decades later finds that subtle art left bleeding and dying in aisle twelve. The comedy of today is all about shock and awe-did-they-really-just-go-there?, where you don’t even get a wink and a nod to your own imagination—you are a slave to the inner workings of the filmmaker’s own brains. This overwhelming brand of shock comedy can sometimes leave you shaking your head—other times, it works wonderfully.

SAUSAGE PARTY knows there is a line there between the genius subtlety of Brooks and every bad word not in the dictionary, and at times goes to great lengths to gleefully pounce right over that line and obliterate all of your safe zones. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a prude—I enjoy inappropriate language just as much as the next a-hole. And there is a lot that works in this R-rated cartoon FOR ADULTS. The music, the voice acting, the animation itself; even the opening musical number, it all screams PIXAR and DISNEY. These are all wonderful and brilliant strokes: Salma Hayek as a lesbian taco, Edward Norton as a Jewish bagel, and Nick Kroll as an angry feminine hygiene product (I was gonna write “angry douche”, but I didn’t want it to sound insulting…) are all amazing and mature casting choices that lend credence to the filmmakers’ vision.

But the first most important casting choice (and this was tough, because Norton does an amazing job)? Bill Hader. The man should use this film as his calling card. Seriously. He voices three distinctly different characters, and his ad-libbing is nothing short of comedic brilliance.

The plot itself is simple enough: a jar of Honey Mustard (voiced by Danny McBride, who is responsible for our first waaaaay over-the-top moment) returns from The Great Beyond, the place where all the food in a supermarket believes they are taken to. Honey Mustard knows the truth of it all, and it is his knowledge of the outside world that spurns a food rebellion. There are some genuinely funny moments here, and then there are times when Seth Rogen and Company take things just a wee bit too far. What starts off as a funny joke (look, there’s no subtle way to say it, so: FOOD ORGY) goes about forty-five seconds too long. There are several laugh-out-loud moments in this film, and then there are others that make you wonder if they were purposely trying to make something that you’ll never see on the ABC Sunday Night Movie (yeah, that used to be a thing, bite my old butt). Then again, if you commit to the first thirty minutes, you’re in it for the long haul, kids.

Which reminds me—DON’T LET THE KIDS WATCH THIS. Again: this is an R-rated adult cartoon, and for damn good reason. The animation is top notch, and there are several careful touches to the proceedings that make this more of a serious endeavor than the script would sometimes have you believe.

You kind of have to get this one on Blu-ray. The animation and sound are that good, and you lose some of the detail with the regular DVD format. There are several funny and informative docs in the Special Features; the best is “The Great Beyond” (a short on how seriously they took the composing of the music in the film) and “Shock and Awe” (which illustrates how difficult of a pitch this film actually was). The worst is “The Pitch”, a poorly yet thankfully short MTV interview with Rogen.

As SAUSAGE made quite a bit of money at the box office, I would not expect this to be the last adult animation film ever made. Duplicating the skill of this particular cast and crew may prove to be a bit difficult, however, and any future undertaking has little chance of matching the crude and oftentimes hilarious vulgarity of this movie.

Film Grade: B-

Special Features: B

Blu-ray Necessary: Recommended

-- T.S. Kummelman