Sausage Party

Sausage Party is a 2016 adult computer-animated black comedy film directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon and written by Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg from a story by Rogen, Goldberg, and Jonah Hill. It stars the voices of Rogen, Hill, Kristen Wiig, Anders Holm, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton, and Salma Hayek. A parody of Disney and Pixar films, the film centers on an anthropomorphic sausage named Frank living in a supermarket, who discovers the truth about his existence and goes on a journey with his friends to escape their fate while also facing his nemesis, a psychopathic douche who wants to kill him and his friends. The film's animation was handled by Canada-based Nitrogen Studios.

It is the first computer-animated film to be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America, as well as the second animated film to receive that rating, after South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). The film's rough cut premiered on March 14, 2016 at South by Southwest, followed by its general theatrical release in the United States and Canada on August 12, 2016 by Sony Pictures Releasing.

The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised the film's humor, animation design, voice acting, screenplay and direction. It was also a box office hit, grossing $140.7 million against a budget of $19 million and topping South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) as the highest grossing R-rated animated film of all time.

Plot
Unbeknownst to humans, a supermarket named Shopwell's is filled with anthropomorphic grocery items that believe that the human shoppers are gods, who take groceries they have purchased to a utopia known as the "Great Beyond". Among the groceries in the store is a sausage named Frank, who dreams of living in the Great Beyond with his hot dog bun girlfriend Brenda and his friends Carl and Barry.

Frank and Brenda's packages are purchased by a woman named Camille Toh. On their way out of the supermarket, a returned jar of honey mustard tries to warn the groceries that the Great Beyond is a lie, but nobody listens except Frank. Before committing suicide by falling onto the shop floor, Honey Mustard tells Frank to seek out a bottle of liquor named Firewater. Honey Mustard's suicide creates an accidental cart collision that causes Frank, Brenda and several groceries to fall out of the cart, including a bagel named Sammy Bagel Jr., a lavash named Kareem Abdul Lavash (who hate each other) and an aggressive douche whose nozzle is bent on impact; Douche swears to get revenge against Frank and Brenda.

Seeking to verify Honey Mustard's warning, Frank leads Brenda, Sammy and Lavash to the store's liquor aisle. There, he meets Firewater, with whom he smokes marijuana from a kazoo pipe and learns that Firewater and the other non-perishables invented the white lie of the Great Beyond to assuage the foods' fear of being eaten. Frank vows to reveal the truth to the groceries and is encouraged to travel beyond the store's freezer section for the proof, while Brenda, Sammy and Lavash are brought by a bottle of tequila (who is revealed to be working for Douche) to the Mexican food isle, until a lesbian Taco shell named Teresa del Taco (who is in love with Brenda) helps them escape Douche.

Meanwhile at Camille Toh's house, Carl and Barry are horrified to witness the murder of other purchased foods being cooked and eaten by Camille. Carl is sliced in half by Camille, but Barry manages to escape and encounters a human drug addict who becomes able to communicate with his groceries after injecting himself with bath salts. However, the bath salts soon wear off and the addict prepares to cook Barry. The addict accidentally burns himself and Barry yanks his shoelaces, making him slip and causing an axe to fall and decapitate him.

Frank's friends disapprove of his skepticism of the Great Beyond. He discovers a cookbook behind a freezer and reveals its contents to the rest of Shopwell's groceries. The groceries panic and refuse to listen until Barry and the other groceries from the addict's home return with the addict's severed head, proving that the humans are mortal, not gods. Frank, Barry and the others drug the human shoppers and employees with toothpicks laced with bath salts, whereupon an epic battle begins. Several humans are gruesomely killed while Douche takes control of Darren, the store manager. He confronts Frank about becoming a god due to his constant consumption, then takes a bite out of Frank's torso. Barry and the other foods catch Douche and Darren in a pail filled with explosives. They are then launched out of the store and killed in a massive explosion.

The groceries celebrate their victory with a store-wide orgy. Later, they meet Firewater and Gum, a wad of chewing gum resembling Stephen Hawking who had a psychedelic experience and discovered that their world is not real; they are merely cartoon characters voiced by famous actors in another dimension. Gum has constructed a portal to this dimension, and the groceries decide to travel there to meet their creators.

Voice cast

 * Seth Rogen as Frank, a sausage who sets out to discover and expose the truth of his and his fellow groceries' existence.
 * Kristen Wiig as Brenda Bunson, a hot dog bun from an 8-bun package of Glamour Buns who is Frank's love interest.
 * Jonah Hill as Carl, a sausage who is friends with Frank and Barry.
 * Bill Hader as Firewater, an old Native American bottle of liquor and the leader of the immortal Non-Perishables.
 * Michael Cera as Barry, a deformed sausage who is one of Frank's friends.
 * James Franco as the Druggie, an obese drug addict who is the first human to see food as sentient beings after injecting himself with bath salts.
 * Danny McBride as Honey Mustard, a jar of Bickle's Honey Mustard who is returned to his Shopwell's shelf upon the shopper mistaking him for regular mustard, and tries to warn Frank and the other products of the reality of the "Great Beyond" before committing suicide by falling onto the store floor.
 * Craig Robinson as Mr. Grits, an African-American box of grits who is one of the immortal Non-Perishables. He has a grudge against crackers (a pun on the pejorative term).
 * Paul Rudd as Darren, the manager of Shopwell's who is nicknamed the "Dark Lord" as he disposes of expired food and spilled items.
 * Nick Kroll as Douche, a foulmouthed feminine hygiene product and Frank's archenemy who seeks revenge on Frank for accidentally breaking his nozzle and preventing him from reaching the "Great Beyond".
 * David Krumholtz as Kareem Abdul Lavash, a Middle-Eastern lavash who has an on-and-off rivalry with Sammy Bagel Jr.
 * Edward Norton as Sammy Bagel Jr., a Jewish bagel who has an on-and-off rivalry with Lavash.
 * Salma Hayek as Teresa del Taco, a Mexican lesbian taco shell who has a crush on Brenda.

Rogen has an additional minor role in the film as Sgt. Pepper, a red pepper sergeant. Hader similarly has two additional roles as a bottle of tequila and a guacamole gangster named El Guaco. Rogen and Norton also appear as the uncredited live action faces of themselves at the end of the film. Anders Holm voices Troy, one of the sausages who picks on Barry. Rogen's wife Lauren Miller voices Camille Toh, a woman who purchases Frank and Brenda's packages and a tampon who absorbs Darren's spilled blood. Harland Williams voices Baba Ganoush, a drug dealer from whom the drug addict purchases the bath salts, and a bottle of ketchup who tries to comfort Honey Mustard upon his return. Directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan have various cameo appearances throughout the film: Vernon as a roll of toilet paper, an Adolf Hitler-like sauerkraut, Ralph, a catcalling sausage who does the jackrabbit in front of Brenda, a grape, a beer can and a pop bottle, and Tiernan as an Irish potato and a can of noodle soup. Storyboard artist Scott Underwood plays Gum, a Stephen Hawking-like wad of chewing gum; Twink, a homosexual Twinkie who is one of the Non-Perishables; and two groceries owned by the druggie: a bag of Krinkler's chips and a half-eaten slice of pizza.

Production
Rogen has said that he worked for eight years to get the film made but the content worried most film studios. Noting that the film came from "an innocent place", Rogen stated that "'What would it be like if our food had feelings?' We very quickly realized that it would be fucked up." Goldberg revealed the project to Indiewire in July 2010, stating it was a "top secret super project". Initially, Indiewire was skeptical that the project was real and not a hoax on Goldberg's part, but after vetting, it did confirm that it was in the works. In November 2010, Hill independently confirmed to MTV News that he was working on an R-rated 3D animated film.

The film was formally announced in September 2013 as a partnership between Sony Pictures Entertainment, Annapurna Pictures and Point Grey Pictures. On May 29, 2014, it was announced that the film would be released on June 3, 2016, but the release date was later revised to August 12, 2016. In January 2014, Rogen, Hill, James Franco and Kristen Wiig were announced as the leads in the film. The other cast includes Edward Norton, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz and Nick Kroll. On April 9, 2014, Salma Hayek was set to lend her voice to the film as Teresa the Taco. It was also announced that Paul Rudd, Danny McBride and Anders Holm would voice characters in the film.

The film received an R rating for "strong crude sexual content, pervasive language and drug use”,however, when Rogen first submitted the fim to the Motion Picture Association of America, they originally gave the film an NC-17 rating due to the visibility of pubic hair on Lavash's scrotum during the climactic food orgy scene. Once the pubic hair was removed the film received its R rating.

Soundtrack
The film's score was composed by Alan Menken and Christopher Lennertz. The soundtrack was released on August 5, 2016, by Madison Gate Records and Sony Music Masterworks.

Premiere and release
A rough cut of the film was shown at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 14, 2016. The final cut of the film screened at Just for Laughs on July 30, 2016. The film was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on August 12, 2016. The film was released in the United Kingdom on September 2, 2016.

Home media
Sausage Party was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on 4k Blu-Ray, Blu-ray, DVD and digital download on November 8, 2016.

Box office
Sausage Party grossed $97.7 million in North America and $42.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $140.4 million, against a budget of $19 million. The film is the highest grossing R-rated animated film of all time, replacing South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (which held the record for 17 years), and made a net profit of $47.06 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

In the United States and Canada, Sausage Party was released on August 12, 2016, alongside Pete's Dragon and Florence Foster Jenkins, and was initially projected to gross $15–20 million from 2,805 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after grossing $3.3 million from Thursday night previews (more than the $1.7 million made by Rogen's Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising in May) and $13.5 million on its first day, weekend projections were increased to $30–35 million. The film ended up grossing $33.6 million in its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office, behind Suicide Squad.

Outside North America, the biggest markets are the United Kingdom, Australia, Spain, Germany, Russia and Israel, where the film grossed $10.2 million, $6.8 million, $4.1 million, $3.5 million $2.6 million and $2 million respectively.

Critical response
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 83% based on 223 reviews, with an average rating of 6.81/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sausage Party is definitely offensive, but backs up its enthusiastic profanity with an impressively high laugh-to-gag ratio – and a surprisingly thought-provoking storyline." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Vince Mancini of Uproxx wrote that "Sausage Party's most charming quality is that it feels exactly like a group of 13-year-olds trying to entertain themselves, with excessive C-bombs and constant groan-worthy food puns. Richard Roeper gave the film three out of four stars, saying: "Despite all the cursing and envelope-pushing and bat-bleep crazy sexual stuff, Sausage Party isn't mean-spirited. It's just… stupid. But also pretty smart. And funny as hell." Lindsey Bahr of Associated Press gave the film a positive review, writing: "There is no one out there making comedies quite like Rogen and Goldberg. They are putting their definitive stamp on the modern American comedy one decency-smashing double entendre at a time."

Work conditions
After the film's release, controversy emerged after anonymous comments attributed to the animators on a Cartoon Brew article suggested that the animators at Nitrogen Studios worked under poor conditions and were forced by co-director Greg Tiernan to work overtime for free. A total of 36 of the 83 animators were blacklisted and went uncredited in the film, believed to be due to their complaints; comments made in anonymous interviews by some of the animators involved in the project by Variety, The Washington Post, and The Hollywood Reporter alleged that the comments were accurate. All the animators in the film were reportedly told outright that they would be blacklisted if they did not work overtime without pay. In late March 2019, the British Columbia Employment Standards Branch ruled that workers were entitled to receive overtime pay for their work on the film.

Rating in France
The film was granted a certificate by France's film classification commission. Jean-Frédéric Poisson, president of the Christian Democratic Party, criticized the decision and said: "An orgy scene for 12-year-olds! Everything remains to be done to combat early exposure to pornography".

Possible sequel
Rogen has expressed interests in making a sequel to Sausage Party and more animated films aimed for adults. When asked about the possibility of a sequel, Rogen stated: "It's something we talk about, yeah. That's one of the reasons why we took away the [original] ending because we thought, well, if that was the first scene of the next movie it's probably not what you would want it to be, with them just seeing us and finding us basically. But the idea of a live-action/animated movie, like a Who Framed Roger Rabbit-style hybrid, is also very exciting, mostly because Who Framed Roger Rabbit is one of my favorite movies of all time."

Video game
Frank and Brenda, the two main characters of the film, made guest appearances in the mobile fighting game Sausage Legend, released by Milkcorp for iOS and Android, as part of a limited special event that ran from March 6 through July 31, 2017. As this game involves dueling with sausages, players in this game can unlock and control Brenda, who swings Frank around to battle other sausages.