[FILM] Sausage Party

I talked a little about Sausage Party in a previous post about Ethel and Ernest, however I want to delve deeper into why I feel this film relates to my research.  The film is a huge mock at all CGI films out in contemporary cinema, and ridicules the equilibrium of Pixar and Dreamworks' animation work.

The film has a simple premise; all the food in the grocery eagerly await the "great beyond" however, they fall out of their shopping trolly and have to find their way back to be resold. This is a very similar structure to Pixar films; projecting emotions onto different everyday objects and going through their day-to-day lives, for example; cars, pets and toys. However in Sausage Party's case; food. Although Sausage Party has the same ingrediants to create a very similar film to a Pixar animated feature, it uses vulgar language, racist jokes, sex crazed characters and a giant food orgy to make it something completely the oposite of a Pixar film.

The film is silly, but fun. However, what should have been a shameless stoner film tried to have themes that wanted to be taken seriously, such as religion, race and philosophy, but was greatly overshadowed by the filthy humour and satirical jokes. The problem with Sausage Party's humour is that it knows its an adult film, it felt like it was rubbing the fact that it's an "adult animated film" in our faces, from the constant swearing to the giant orgy at the end.

But there is one key thing about the film which makes it good, is the underpinned theme throughout which is that 'animated mainstream films can deviate from the norm'. As said before, Sausage Party was inspired by Pixar animation, however Pixar and many other mainstream animation companies are limited because they don't want to take risks with animation, which is why no hand-drawn animation has emerging with the market share being so low for it. Sausage Party diverted from the norm, and although didn't make nearly as much as Finding Dory (2016) and The Secret Life of Pets (2016), it broke the all-time opening weekend record for an animated movie with $33.6 million and has grossed $136.8 million so far at the Box Office.

I feel that this is a small step towards animation diverting from the norm, something that doesn't follow the Dreamworks or Pixar formula and creates something unique, we saw this with Sausage Party, and I feel that with time, hand-drawn animation will come along and create something truly unique aswell.

"Sausage Party is an existential mock-Pixar movie, and we are very, very proud of it. It's our opus. It's like Mr. Holland's Opus! It's our take on a Pixar movie. It is very, very R rated. I wish there were fifty Pixar movies every year. But listen, someone should take those motherfuckers down a notch. Those high and mighty bastards. We're mocking all animated movies, with a special eye on Pixar. It is about a sausage in a supermarket. He goes on an epic journey to get back to his isle before the 4th of July, and reunite with his pack of sausage friends." -  Evan Goldberg

 Alan, B. "Sausage Party Trailer: Seth Rogen's R-Rated Animated Pixar Spoof". Movieweb.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.