‘Sausage Party’ Reviews: Is Seth Rogen’s R-Rated Animated Movie Worth Seeing?

Not everyone left “Sausage Party” satisfied. Before the movie’s Friday release, critics have shared their thoughts on the R-rated animated flick, and the responses have been mixed.

“Sausage Party” is not a cartoon for kids. The CGI-animated movie follows food in the grocery store, but the humor and themes make it a very adult movie. Frank (Seth Rogen), a hot dog, can’t wait to be bought by a human shopper because they’re considered gods. However, Frank and his fellow food products eventually learn that the humans are just devouring them. It leads to a discussion of religion and devotion that are unexpected in a movie that’s heavily reliant on food-related sexual puns.

For the most part, it doesn’t seem like the reviewers hate the film. While some have mixed feelings about “Sausage Party,” many felt it was a great time.

AV Club: Jesse Hassenger gave the film a C+, noting that the jokes weren’t always smart enough. “Some of these jokes are very funny; the integration of bath salts (the drug kind, not the retail kind) into the movie is a particularly demented inspiration. But sometimes the movie’s visual gags are just vulgar for vulgarity’s sake. The fake food names, for example, sacrifice clever satire in favor of a bunch of sex puns that barely qualify as puns.”

New York Times: Critic A.O. Scott was surprised to discover that he enjoyed the comedy and the themes. “And with, I have to say, quite a bit of respect for the intellectual rigor of a project that probably didn’t require it. I went in expecting an earnest critique of the industrial food system, or an impassioned plea for ethical vegetarianism. O.K., not really. But I certainly didn’t anticipate a movie so full of … thought.”

Nerdist: “Maybe if the movie employed a bit more subtlety on all fronts, it’d be a far more successful outing. But subtlety seems like it was one of ‘Sausage Party’s’ chief adversaries from the ground shelf up,” Michael Arbeiter wrote before giving the movie three out of four burritos.

Rolling Stone: The magazine gave the film three out of four stars. “You leave the f----d-up funhouse of ‘Sausage Party’ thinking: Did I see this movie or hallucinate it? I mean that as high praise,” critic Peter Travers raved.

MTV: The music network was thrilled with the film. “‘Sausage Party’ is ballsy and dumb and brilliant all in one bite,” Amy Nicholson stated.

Entertainment Weekly: Leah Greenblatt noted that some of the humor fell flat, but the commentary on race and religion (and the jokes other films wouldn’t dare to make on those two subjects) are what makes “Sausage Party” worth watching. “As outrageously un-PC as these scenes are, they’re far sharper than the aimless, scatological stoner humor that pads out so much of the script. That’s the movie’s real food for thought; the rest is just munchies,” she wrote, giving the film a solid B.

“Sausage Party” hits theaters Friday.