I answered the following question honestly but now I’m having second doubts. A Dad asked me if Sausage Party was appropriate viewing for his 7 year old. Think he and the kid were confusing it with various Pixar movies: talking fruit and all that.

(It’s an odd service I provide…recent questions from diligent parents include: Can I take my kids to Guardians of the Galaxy 2? and is there a lot of talking/exposition in Wonder Woman?)

So I said no…Sausage Party is rated R; Dad said cool and went on his way. I feel like I sold the kid out.

Our first movies were some of the Star Wars trilogy; or Superman I or even better II. James Bonds or Raiders of the Lost Ark. We saw scoundrels, galaxies, lotharios…we didn’t always understand what was going on we were just happy to be at the party. And it made our imaginations better; stronger. When I talk to people of my generation I can hear it in their sarcasm; you can see it in their work; even on Facebook some people write truly imaginative posts (thankfully it’s not all vacation photos and memes).

Sausage Party is by no means a great movie…I just want to give a kid a break from Pixar cars and Disney princesses. To have that jolt when you end up in a different world: you ain’t in Kansas anymore son.

Your work and your life is defined by your imagination and your imagination is fueled by your pop culture diet.

These kids are the ones that’ll be making movies for us when we’re older. I’ll gladly pay for imagination and quality; those metrics matter more than any trending hashtags. But how are these future creators gonna provide it?

We’re on a bogus path of literal representation; risk-averse filmmaking etc. if everybody consumes the same diet we lose out. Predictability and safety replace imagination. I ain’t willing to pay for that.

It doesn’t feel fair to the kid denying him a visionary world.

Hopefully he befriends that one kid with extremely liberal parents who don’t monitor viewing habits. Grateful shoutout to the kid with the rated R Robocop on VHS.

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