Sausage Party (**)

SAUSAGE PARTY is a good movie in the same way someone might describe McDonald's as being a satisfying meal. There are laughs, you get what you paid for, but in the end you leave feeling a bit sick for enjoying it and vow to change your eating habits before next time. I mean viewing habits. Seth Rogen's stoner homage to Disney & Pixar is surely filled with moments that will make audiences gasp and laugh, but if we are going to watch an R-rated animated film about talking food, is it bad for me to ask for better quality?

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was unaware it was an adult-themed movie until about midway through. We see a hot dog weiner flirting with a feminine-looking bun, and I recall thinking this was a bit risque even for a kid's movie. Then came the carnage and I understood. The basic premise is that food is alive. When we purchase it at grocery stores, they know little of the horrors that are soon to come. Humans are merely gods who are here to take food into the glorious afterlife. They even have a song welcoming our arrival each morning.

It's the Fourth of July so Bun and Weiner (I forget their names, but wouldn't that only confuse you?) are excited to finally get to spend time together. They are packaged near one another, and dream of the day they are finally selected to go to the great beyond. As plot would have it, they are purchased, but by a strange twist of fate, they esape their packaging and roll away in a deadly two-cart collision. The rest of the hot dogs go home to discover the true horrors of dinnertime, while Bun and Weiner meet some friends at the store (a Jewish bagel (complete with Woody Allen's accent) and a Middle Eastern flatbread, complete with beard). Their plan is to return to packaging to be sold tomorrow.

Remember "The Interview" and the buzz that was built up prior to its Netflix release? What a disappointment the film ended up being, and in many ways this movie measures up just as well. A sort of passion project for Seth Rogen over the past 10 years, it's sad to think this is the end result. The plot is meandering and the situations these foods find themselves in uninteresting. The dialogue is a barrage of the "f" word if for no other reason than the film is rated R. There's also an extended sequence where Weiner and some other non-perishables get high (what can we expect) and an ending that is quite literally a grocery store orgy.

There are laughable parts (a piece of chewed up gum as Stephen Hawking was brilliantly done) and some unfortunate parts (the film spends a large chunk of time joking about the political and global status of Israel), not to mention a barrage of racial jokes that are at times off-putting. The movie is an admirable effort to make animated features more for adults. Apparently adults can't get enough potty humor. Watch the trailer  - the funny parts are there. The rest of the movie is fluff.