: (Christopher Lennertz/Alan Menken)
Offensive animated films aimed squarely at adults are a rare breed in
Hollywood, but 2016's successful outrage
proved the
idea not only viable but capable of perfectly merging ridiculously
adolescent humor and thoughtful socio-political commentary. The first
major animated movie ever to initially receive the NC-17 rating (before
the filmmakers removed depictions of pubic hair to achieve solely an R
rating),
was both a fiscal and critical success,
overcoming not only its sick, raunchy humor but the labor dispute that
resulted when nearly half of the animators on the project complained
that the directors forced them to work overtime hours without pay; all
of these artists were reportedly struck consequently from the credits of
the film and told they would be blacklisted. That unfortunate
circumstance aside,
is a surprisingly intelligent
commentary about religious tolerance wrapped into its overly juvenile,
sexual outer shell. The anthropomorphic food items of a supermarket are
revealed to all have their own cultures and interest in sex with each
other, most of them seeing the shoppers as gods that can take them to
the "great beyond." As the reality of their existence begins to dawn on
them, they decide to overcome their own differences to wage war against
the humans who they suspect might kill them in terrifying ways. The
soundtrack for the film is littered with amusing food-related songs of
varying fame, applied for purposes of satire conveniently throughout.
The original music in
is helmed by parody expert
Christopher Lennertz, veteran of some of the industry's most
accomplished genre scores of the prior ten years. His mastery of
providing totally serious dramatic scores for insanely stupid comedies
is perhaps his best calling card, and he is in top form in
. A pleasant wrinkle is introduced in an original song from
Alan Menken of Disney fame. The popular songwriter rarely wrote entire
scores for pictures in the 2010's, but he would occasionally lend a song
to a film, and his contribution to this one, "The Great Beyond," exposes
his own Marc Shaiman-like sense of humor and outwardly pilfers his
classic 1990's Disney song style in a profanity-laced environment.
Lennertz adapts the melody from Menken's song throughout his score,
adding a few more themes for specific characters along the way.
To dismiss the soundtrack for
Sausage Party as
mere comedic fluff will be tempting for most listeners, but the combined
work of Menken and Lennertz is really quite brilliant and deserves
recognition as a pinnacle of the parody genre. The personality of
Menken's song is specifically meant to plunder the aspirational,
religious tone of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, opening its sung
portions with passages that could very well fit into the mold of the
1996 Disney film. Of course, its initial lyrics are "Oh, shit!," and the
song is eventually reamed through a whirlwind of worldly and music genre
sidebars before achieving the type of show-stopping Menken finale anyone
would expect from him. Most importantly, the major-key demeanor of the
song's progressions and inflections keep it hopelessly upbeat, meeting
all your expectations of a usual Menken hero affair, and Lennertz
carefully extends this exact, piano-led personality in the theme
throughout the more hopeful character portions of his score. Look for
the adaptation of Menken's melody to exist everywhere in the score, from
the sentimentally sappy "Chosen," which emulates Menken's own
orchestrations in stride, to the opening of "Big Speech," which takes
the theme into noble Jerry Goldsmith territory with an openly defiant
fanfare. You can pinpoint a plethora of obvious parody nods by Lennertz
to other famous film composers, including Maurice Jarre, Bernard
Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Basil Poledouris, James Horner, Michael
Giacchino, and David Arnold, among others that might be missed upon
casual observation. Only occasionally, and usually in either the bridge
sections of his cues or the instrumental colors and their mixing (the
electric guitar passages, most specifically), do you hear pieces of
Lennertz own typical devices. Otherwise,
Sausage Party is a
potentially headache-inducing parade of inspirational references, some
of them a little more obtuse. These are all entertaining on their own,
but perhaps the best specific little moments in the score come when
Lennertz reaches back for his own propulsive action style, as heard in
the middle of "The Big Fight," though even this material is influenced
by Poledouris to an extent. The handling of percussion in
Sausage
Party is particularly notable, as its positioning in the mix is
outstanding and recalls the best of Alan Silvestri's more brutally
slapping and pounding environments. The later action cues in this work
are especially filled to the brim with enticing percussive mayhem.
As intelligently as Lennertz handles both Menken's
melody and the outward references to others' works in
Sausage
Party, his score does set aside time to develop its own set of
themes, including ideas for romance and horror. The human "villain" of
the story is provided a treacherous motif in "Darren, the Dark Lord,"
and the grocery item "villain," a woman's sanitary product, is presented
with an equally oppressive idea in "Douche Loses It." Look for
especially the latter to do battle with Menken's main theme later in the
score. The music's ethnic element, addressing all the world foods, is
highlighted by "Our Heroes," which follows the obligatory
Lawrence of
Arabia reference with a trip through Native American, Middle
Eastern, and East Indian motifs. In "He's Coming," the Latin influences
arrive with Robert Rodriquez-like attitude (and one of the two villain
themes in tow), and these are more frequently reprised later in the
work. A few standout parody applications are of such quality in
Sausage Party that they deserve special recognition. First is the
rousing David Arnold-inspired fantasy adaptation of the Menken theme in
"Food Massacre" before the cue abruptly transitions to Herrmann and
Goldsmith horror mode, the latter's
The Omen score poked with
Latin lyrics involving the eternal damnation of various food items.
There's a fair amount of
Star Trek love in this score as well,
the Giacchino fanfare style briefly stated in "Magical Sausage" and a
mixture of Horner and Goldsmith final frontier techniques exposed late
in "We're Home," a fantastic cue all around. Aside from the "Magnificent
Seven" portion in the cluster of action material between "Big Speech"
and "Finale," there is an abundance of more modern action devices heard,
including the bulk of the Goldsmith heroism, Poledouris rawness,
Silvestri rhythms, and Arnold fantasy. Unfortunately, the rip of Brad
Fiedel's famed theme from
The Terminator didn't seem to make the
soundtrack's album. Otherwise, however, the product is highly
entertaining even with its expected switches between cultural modes as
necessary. Like any parody work, it is head-spinning listening
experience, but listeners prepared for a little deconstruction along
with their enjoyment factor will appreciate just how funny and
intelligent this score's constructs really are. The previously existing
songs, most of which appear in the film, are appropriately food related
as well, making the entire product a strong souvenir from the concept.
From Lennertz, smart parody entries like
Sausage Party are no
surprise, but to hear Menken's own humor in the mix solidifies the easy
recommendation of this album.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
