If there's one secret that I have, it's that I am very much a Seth Rogen apologist. Going back to his breakout film Knocked Up, I have enjoyed his highbrow approach to stoner humor. While I cannot claim to have loved everything he has done (This is the End), his involvement seems to be a genuine stamp of approval. With his latest and first foray into R-Rated animation called Sausage Party, I find myself finally admitting something. He isn't a genius. This trailer looks terrible and I have a lot of complaints to be made about the trailer that has nothing to do with mistaking it for a children's movie. In fact, I'd argue that it may have been better if they tried to make it marketable to an audience beyond the cussing stoners who considered Deadpool a masterclass piece of art. Sausage Party is just abominable as a trailer.
Like some people, I was aware of this film for years and knew that its big gimmick was that it would be an R-Rated animated film about food from the writers of Superbad and The Interview. Speaking as I liked the latter more than its World War III-starting fearers did, I was willing to think that maybe this would turn out to be halfway decent. I thought that the title was a stretch and that attempting to make food products raunchy would be an inevitable waste of time. I have seen the trailer, and feel confirmed about most of my initial hesitations.
Yes, it is being put out by the highly trustworthy company Annapurna. However, I have to argue that appearance is just as important as content. Considering the limitations by which R-Rated films can make their work look like Pixar, I was already accepting that it would look subpar. However, there's still something that feels flimsy and grotesque about this. It may be in its attempt to subvert cutesy animation, but it also just has a cheapness to it that takes away from its overall potential to be a great parody of family films. It almost looks like it's vulgarly telling audiences that it isn't the same. Say what you will about Deadpool's edginess. At least it tried to look appropriate.
Then there's another issue at hand. Beyond the asinine concept, there's the approach to it. While the cast is strong and has some of the most reliably funny names currently working (though when was Salma Hayek assigned to do nothing but mediocre comedies?). As I said, Rogen leads the pack and I would hope that following The Interview's secretly political through toilet humor approach that he would continue to challenge comedy with a bigger message. Instead, it looks like a series of gags where all food participate in a genocide.
It's not just that, which could only be scratching the surface of what's underneath. However, what is underneath is a whole lot of characters parodying doomsday movies with a whole lot of yelling and noticing that "children" (a.k.a. baby carrots) are being killed. If there was supposed to be a hook, it is found in the panic of the characters, of whom rely on profanity over any actual punchlines. There's not really a whole lot of food puns in this introduction to a movie that's already a hard sell. There's not much to it beyond profanity and the belief that food has feelings, too. Unlike Toy Story (which it feels to be aping), there's no way around Sausage Party's dilemma. Food will be eaten.
I know it seems wrong to put a lot of grief on a first trailer for anything, but just know one thing. It is your introduction to the universe of the film. It has to hook you, even with a few seconds of appetizing scenes. Even if the trailers expand on the mythology and lead you to appreciate it more, you have to care from the beginning. It's a problem that teaser trailers (or the more preposterous teaser for teaser trailers) have suffered with for some time. While I get the gist of what Sausage Party is about, it still has nothing really to offer beyond cursing food.
The truth is that I want to believe that Sausage Party is better than this. Of course, I want to believe that Rogen is better than this. I do believe that he is a funny fellow who has done a lot of good for comedy over the past decade. Even his other recent comedies like Neighbors has shown that he has a deeper intellect to make a commentary on modern culture within his familiar persona. I am sure that, as the title suggests, there will be plenty of lowbrow humor. I just wish that the story was a lot more interesting and that maybe, just maybe there would have been one joke here that wasn't just food characters screaming. I may be able to get around the ugly animation in time (though I likely will never love the film because of this), but I need something more to convince me that this is good and not just one of the most stupid things that I've seen a trailer for in 2016... which is only three months old.
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