Sausage Party
Short description
Sausage Party is an animated comedy set in a large American supermarket, where the groceries live in joyful anticipation of being chosen by shoppers and taken home. Frank, a hot dog, and Brenda, a bun, believe this is the path to a happy afterlife, until a returned jar of mustard warns them that the truth is far grimmer. Frank sets out to learn what really happens to food once it leaves the store, hoping to bring the warning back to the shelves before it is too late.
The film was directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan. It came fourth in the chronological order of Vernon's directing work, following Shrek 2, Monsters vs. Aliens and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and it was Tiernan's first feature as director, ahead of the two Addams Family films. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Kyle Hunter wrote the screenplay, and Rogen, Goldberg and Vernon produced. The voice cast includes Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera and James Franco, with 36 credited cast members and 180 credited crew.
Made for a modest budget of 19 million USD, the film took about 141 million USD worldwide, a strong return on its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.1 out of 10 from around 226,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.8 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of voters. The critics' rating stands at 6.8 out of 10 from 237 reviews, higher than either audience score.
What's left behind the scenes
- Screenwriter and producer Seth Rogen claims that the film owes its voice cast to his friend, actor Edward Norton, who also participated in the voice acting. Many actors, when approached with offers to voice a character, agreed after learning that Norton was already part of the cast.
- David Krumholtz, Seth Rogen, and James Franco starred together in 'This Is the End' (Seth Rogen, 2013) and the television series 'Freaks and Geeks' (1999-2000).
- Director Conrad Vernon and actor Seth Rogen collaborated on the full-length animated film "Monsters vs. Aliens" (2009) from "DreamWorks Animation".
- When work on the film began, director Greg Tiernan frequently forced animators to work overtime and without days off, and without additional pay. He consistently cited the film's meager budget and threatened to blacklist anyone who opposed him and remove their names from the credits. There is no animators' union in Vancouver, Canada, where Nitrogen Studio is located, so the animators had to comply.
- The events in the film unfold on Independence Day, July 4th.
- To avoid a release date coinciding with “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,” the premiere was postponed.
- Initially, Mark Osborne was appointed as the film's director.
- To avoid being released on the same day as 'Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping' (Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, 2016), the film's release date was postponed.
- Most animated films produced by "Pixar" and others cost around $100 million, while "Sausage Party" cost less than $20 million to produce.
- According to Seth Rogen, the filmmakers wanted the film to receive an 'R' rating (under 16s must be accompanied by a parent) rather than an 'NC-17' rating (no one under 18 admitted, may contain explicit content, slang, and violence), so they deliberately inserted several scenes they knew would attract the censors' attention. This practice is used regularly, distracting censors with overtly problematic scenes in the hope that they will overlook less risky content. To the filmmakers' surprise, the censors only asked them to remove hair from the genitals of a character voiced by David Krumholtz and gave the film an 'R' rating.
- The orgy scene was originally planned to be eight minutes long, but Seth Rogen and producer Evan Goldberg gave the animators complete freedom. The resulting twelve-minute scene was so explicit that it had to be cut and edited to be included in the film. The frames at the very end of this scene are more explicit than originally intended in the script.
- Work on the computer-animated film began on July 23, 2010.
- Seth Rogen worked on the film for 10 years.
- Nick Kroll had previously played a character nicknamed "The Schmuck" in the series "Parks and Recreation" (2009-2015).
- Nick Kroll recorded all of his character's lines in 4 hours.
- Despite the involvement of Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill as creators of the film, many studios refused to produce it due to its dark plot and risky humor. It took Rogen eight years to find a film studio willing to take on the project.
- Jay Baruchel is the only one of the six surviving characters from the film "This Is the End" (Seth Rogen, 2013) who did not participate in the making of "Sausage Party." Paul Rudd, Michael Cera, and David Krumholtz from the cast of "This Is the End" also took part in the creation of "Sausage Party."
- A sticker with the inscription Dixar adorns the car of the drug addict who drives Barry away – a nod to the animation studio Pixar.
- The scene where the sausage Frank (a character voiced by Seth Rogen) begins to cough from smoking inevitably reminds the viewer of a similar episode from the film "Pineapple Express" (David Gordon Green, 2008). The screenplay for that film was also written by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen.
- The first computer-animated film with a screenplay by Seth Rogen.
- The first American computer-animated film since the release of 'Foodfight!' (Matt Maellaro, 2007) to be given an 'R' rating by the American Film Association (under 17 requires accompanying parent or legal guardian).
- This is Conrad Vernon's first film to receive an "R" rating (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
