Sunday, June 4, 2017

Cartoon Corner- Sausage Party

Originally posted at the DL August 2016

In which Alan Menkin did the opening song number.



So I don't feel like this ever got truly laugh out loud funny, which is a shame.  So despite not quite landing for me I do like this in the abstract.  It's essentially billed as a classical parody of Pixar, as told in the comedic voice of Seth Rogen.  Which are both good ideas: a proper all-in parody of Pixar is something that should have happened years ago (but couldn't because essentially the entire genre just kinda... died after Mel Brooks stopped making movies), and Seth's style often goes into human cartoon territory anyways, so just actually animating him is a great idea.

And it's not that the movie is unfunny, it just never quite makes that jump from "This is amusing" to "and I just cracked up in the theater".  I think in some ways it might be a victim of its own success as a parody.  Basic knowledge of Pixar plot structure and Seth Rogen's brand of comedy lets you guess too many of the gags in advance.  And in comedy it's hard to tell the same joke twice, and that still applies to some extent when you can successfully guess the punchline to a joke even before the setup is finished.  And in that sense I don't want to go into too much detail on the moments that worked?

But I'll say that actually the best bits for me were all Selma Hayek.  Nailed it!

And that opening song.  If you don't plan to watch the movie, still maybe look up that bit sometime.  It's delightfully surreal.

Rating- 6/10

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