Sausage Party

About

Sausage Party is a 2016 American adult computer-animated adventure comedy film about a group of anthropomorphic grocery food products as they try to find the truth about their existence and escape their fate. Upon its release in August 2016, the film was met with commercial success and positive reviews from the critics.

History

The idea for the film was originally conceived by its co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as an adult-themed parody of Pixar and Disney animated films that are often centered around the anthropomorphic lives of inanimate objects. As Rogen and Goldberg began looking for a studio to get their project off the ground, their pitch was repeatedly declined by several studio executives in Hollywood, mainly due to its unconventional combination of CG animation and adult-themed humor, until Annapurna Pictures' Megan Ellison agreed to finance its production. As the production went underway, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Point Grey Pictures joined on the project as partners. In September 2013, the project was formally announced as a raunchy R-rated computer animated film.

Cast

The film was directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg serving as screenwriters and producers, and an ensemble voice cast comprised of Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton and Salma Hayek.

MPAA Rating

In early 2016, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) initially assigned the film with an NC-17 rating, mainly due to the visible depiction of pubic hair on one of the characters' scrotum, though it was subsequently reassigned with an R rating following the digital removal of the visual element in question. Sausage Party is the first CGI-animated film to be rated R by the MPAA.

Reception

Upon its release on August 12th, 2016, the film debuted at second place in the box office, right behind Suicide Squad, after grossing $13.5 million on the day of its premiere and $33.6 million in the opening weekend, outperforming all initial projections made by the studios. As of August 21st, Sausage Party has grossed $65.3 million in North America and $6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $73.5 million.

Controversies

Trailer Mix-Up

In June 2016, a movie theater in Concord, California accidentally ran a red-band trailer of Sausage Party before a screening of Disney's PG-rated computer-animated film Finding Dory, which prompted enough complaints from the moviegoers for the theater company to issue an apology for the incident. Following the news coverage of the story, Seth Rogen tweeted that the story "made his day."

Working Conditions

On the eve of Sausage Party's box office premiere, Cartoon Brew ran an interview article with the directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan, in which they discussed their own surprise at completing the production significantly under the budget. Shortly after its publication, several anonymous readers, who identified themselves as uncredited animators and crew members of the film, complained how they were forced to work under poor conditions and unfair wage arrangements in the comments section of the article. In the following days, the allegations received media coverage from several Hollywood and entertainment news outlets, during which multiple animators who had worked on the film anonymously corroborated the allegations made in the Cartoon Brew article.

Search Interest

External References