The sensibility of this animated comedy can be summed up by a car bearing a bumper sticker for “Dixar”: It’s CGI formula as filtered through unapologetic raunch-comedy. In a suburban supermarket, a hot dog named Frank (Seth Rogen, who co-scripted) and a bun named Brenda (Kristen Wiig) are among the foods who believe that glory awaits them in “The Great Beyond” when human “gods” purchase them—and evidence of the real fate that awaits them may be too much to accept. Turning this into an allegory about religion may be a bit ambitious for a movie so determinedly built on vulgarity and broad stereotype, though it is hard to resist the Alan Menken-composed morning hymn encapsulating the foods’ theology. And it’s nearly as hard to resist the zero-f**ks-given energy to the comedy, which somehow melds dick jokes with turning a spilled shopping cart into a parody of
Saving Private Ryan. Maybe five years from now, the irreverence will hold up as a mix of vintage Mel Brooks and
South Park. Or there’s a 50 percent chance I’ll feel more than slightly ashamed at how much I laughed for 90 minutes.
By
Scott Renshaw