SAUSAGE PARTY Blu-ray Review

SAUSAGE PARTY (Blu-ray + Digital HD)

Release Date: November 8, 2016

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Video: 1.85:1 1080p Widescreen

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

THE RATINGS

The Movie Itself - ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

Video Quality - ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

Audio Quality - ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

Special Features - ★ ★ 1/2

Overall - ★ ★ ★ ★ ✰

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THE FILM ITSELF Our Reviewer's Take

Reviewed by Gavin King

What is the most on-the-whole graphic movie you've ever seen? Now, when I mean graphic, I (as some of you probably guessed) don't mean graphic novel or comic or anything of that sort, but think graphic like ultimately gory and grotesque or simply no-holds-barred sexual content. Or it can just be a movie that focuses on weed and other stoner-friendly drugs. A few films that come to mind by a few movie buffs and general watchers alike are Mel Gibson's films. He's got a knack for taking mature, realistic subject matter and transforming it onto the big screen with oftentimes startling effect and pulse-pounding realism. The way he portrays violence in his films never seems Hollywood-ized, instead faring for an unsettling, edge-of-your-seat nail biter of a film that'll either make you leave the movie theater auditorium of utter speechlessness or just plain overwhelmed by how intense and gruesome the subject matter being portrayed on screen really is. But it's not just the Gibson violence that's protruded into R rated, intense territory. Think of stoner comedy, comedy that's crass and crude and altogether adds up to become something pervasive. And there's a lot of contenders for this spot. Seth MacFarlane. Trey Parker and Matt Stone. But what about Seth Rogen? He's had his fair share of laugh-a-minute, crass comedy - even if he's had some mild misses in a pile of largely hits. Think This is the End, the hugely controversial The Interview, or his newest, big, and arguably one of the most questionable films of the year so far, Sausage Party. The world's first R-rated CGI-animated comedy was a hit, scoring $33 million in opening day box office receipts and starring the big-name voice talents of Seth Rogen (predictably), Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, and Danny McBride, just to name a few. The movie works because it's a huge step forward for animated films when it comes to content. The film is never shy to expose food sex, sausages and buns saying "F**k", or a package of grits smoking weed. All hail the power of the R-rating!

In the supermarket Shopwell's, all of the food products, from the snacks to the meats to fruits, are led to believe a spiritual sort of belief in which when they are chosen (bought) by the so-called Gods (the customers), they will go to the outside world in which they call "The Great Beyond" and out of their bulky packages they are forced to live in inside the supermarket. In the market, a sausage named Frank (voiced by Seth Rogen) and a hot dog bun named Brenda (voiced by Kristen Wiig) both live in the same aisle (wait, shouldn't the hot dogs be in the freezer section?), and they are madly in love, but they are unable to escape their tightly-sealed packages, preventing them from truly "loving each other". Much to their delight, they are both chosen together and put into a shopping cart with a plethora of other partying food items, excited to experience the true greatness of The Great Beyond. However, when the stubborn Honey Mustard (voiced by Danny McBride), a product that was originally chosen by a customer but was returned to the store because his customer meant to buy regular mustard, and his since experienced the truth of The Great Beyond, tells all of the pumped-up foods and drinks that The Great Beyond is "bulls**t", and all of the foods that get taken to this so-called utopia will be chopped up and eaten by the customers, as us humans (shamefully) do. Now that Frank has figured out Honey Mustard's beliefs are actually true when he takes a look at a cookbook for humans, he sets out on a raunchy yet adventurous quest to convince all of Shopwell's products that The Great Beyond is a big lie, win the affection of his true love, Brenda, and ultimately try and stay away from a literally death-hungry douche, well, named Douche, who thinks that Frank has caused him to wither in a supermarket incident that has cost a lot of the food items' lives.

One of Sausage Party's strongest points is its often times shockingly thought-provoking storyline. It encourages us, as viewers, to think about the foods and drinks we put in our mouths to consume. It has us try to hilariously believe that foods can have feelings too and their lives should be accounted for, too. Basically, the movie's entire message is that food lives mater. That message is represented throughout a majority of the movie, whether the film's hilariously "graphic" sequences of food being squashed, destroyed, disintegrated, and/or eaten to death, or its more serious scenes involving Frank's big speech to the products of Shopwell's grocery store. Part of that works successfully due to the film's R-rating; it's a big plus in terms of what the film can really do in its storyline, humor, and animation, and it allows for the wild minds behind the crass production to really stretch their fragile little imaginations to what they can pull off to really overwhelm and make the viewer gasp in hilarious awe.

The film's animation quality isn't all that top-notch, but, then again; does it really need to be? Do remember that this is a film that is sort of making fun of the CGI-animation industry riddled with cartoonish flair, but the film's primary focus in on giving the audience that extra sense of, "WOW, I did not see that coming!". There's some excellent performances from the cast here, as there's not really one voice performance in the film that I can really say is really the best. Everyone is really great-sounding here. Seth Rogen delivers the predictably gravely yet seemingly charming voice as Frank very well. Kristen Wiig is equally terrific as Brenda Bunson (yes, that's her full name), a nervous but woman-like (hey, no stereotypes here!) personality that also fits her great. Even side characters, such as Danny McBride as panicky Honey Mustard or David Krumholtz as judgmental but funny Lavash show their off-color and ribald selves in small-but-no-less-important roles that help shape the film into what it is.

The film's only real chief complaint is towards the film's second act, during the scenes in which Frank and the gang search from place to place to find out about the truth of The Great Beyond. Pacing did seem a tad sluggish at the parts for me, although the scenes did have their moments, particularly Salma Hayek's character Teresa Del Taco, a lesbian taco who offers some funny one-liners and dialogue to help up those scenes. Hayek provides a strongly-hilarious performance in the role, and her natural accent accentuates the taco character extraordinarily well. Otherwise, there's really no room for true complaint. It's a winning film, not only due to its fun-loving voice performances, but a storyline that leaves the viewer to be thinking about long after said viewer fully watches the raunch-fest - and a totally outrageously gut-busting orgy celebration scene at film's end involving all of the food characters in the film performing sex acts that will leave all but the least tame viewers speechless with jaws fully dropped on the ground.


SAUSAGE PARTY Blu-ray - Video Quality
Sausage Party may not contain the fully-complex or expertly-detailed animation as studios like Pixar (and for good reason), but Sony's 1080p high-definition presentation of the R-rated animated film showcases the movie's mild and possibly even intentional animation limitations very well. Colors are a bit muted during the supermarket scenes, but things largely pick up quite a bit when our food characters enter to the hidden realms of the secret aisles. These sequences offer terrific, bright colors such as oranges, reds, disco greens, and tons of others to relish (pun intended!) in. Details are actually pretty great looking on some objects and textures, such as the chewed-up and sticky mass that is Gum, the odds and ends of a crowded supermarket, or the scratches and scuffs on our villain character in the film, Douche. Skintones on the human characters are, like the grocery store parts, a little bit muted, but it's understandable considering the dullness of the real life environments and, once again, Rogen and company's intentions for the film's looks. Black levels hold up fairly well, as do whites. The video equipment utilized for this review showed no significant signs of aliasing, banding, or other animated-movie-prone digital compression anomalies. Altogether, it's another strong, fantastic image from Sony and a great example of them not skimping out on less complex-looking movies like this.

SAUSAGE PARTY Blu-ray - Audio Quality

Much of the same praise can be said to Sausage Party's immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack, which cooks up some excellent surround activity and some deep, though never pounding, LFE. The opening song about The Great Beyond sets a nice example of what's soon to come of the surround mix, with the musical number offering strong front-end spacing and a healthy surround instrumental placement. Things pip up quite the great amount from there. The Shopwell's supermarket fully envelops the viewer from the couch to the inside the grocery store thanks to some fantastic surround activity supporting the ambience. Pop beats and score wrap the entire soundstage with faultless clarity and well-placed prioritization. The Saving Private Ryan reference sequence is an aural treat, delivering intentionally hyperbolic sounds like explosions, guns, and wind with wonderful bass support and precise stage placement of sound effects. Finally dialogue is always 100% clear and finely-prioritized, rounding out another nearly-perfect track from Sony.

SAUSAGE PARTY Blu-ray - Special Features

- Good Food Gag Reel is, as the title suggests, some bloopers of the cast's voice performances.

- Shock and Awe: How Did This Get Made? is an interesting look on the making of Sausage Party, the real trouble getting it pitched to Hollywood, and the biggest obstacles and challenges making such a shocking and outrageous film concept and getting it released to the big screen.

- Line-O-Rama is a compilation of the voice actors trying to perform their lines in different ways, with similar subjects.

- The Booth is a featurette mainly about the actors' voice performances, their importance in the movie, and the actors explaining being a voice in an R-rated animated movie.

- The Great Beyond takes a look at the film's music composed by no other than the one and only Alan Menken. Yes, that Alan Menken. Let that wrap around your head for a little bit.

- The Pitch is an odd, promotion-like piece on Seth Rogen's and Evan Goldberg's take on how to pitch something, the Rogen and Goldberg way.

- Seth Rogen's Animation Imaginatorium This one was featured on YouTube. If you begin this one and immediately know you watched this one on the online site, skip it. For the latter, it's a funny little parody of Walt Disney's old-timed behind-the-scenes programs.

SAUSAGE PARTY Blu-ray - Overall Recommendation

Sausage Party is obviously not for everyone. It's not for the easily offended, and it's definitely not for children. But no matter. It's a completely crass, no-holds-barred, and altogether shamelessly hilarious fest of strong language, drug use, and totally vulgar sexual content that's more than likely to overwhelm first-time viewers. But the film simply works because it's not afraid to kick the MPAA's ass and give the big screen honest humor that the bold R-rating is really known for. Sorry, parents who unintentionally took their kids to see this movie. Not sorry, parents who unintentionally took their kids to see this movie. Sony's Blu-ray package steams up some superb video and audio, with a fine amount of supplements to compliment it. Highly recommended.