For many years, the thought of a successful R-rated animated movie was unthinkable. You’d be hard pressed to find any movies that come close to being an example of one. You wouldn’t even be wrong for thinking that trying to make one would almost be considered a career suicide (let alone risky). That is, until Sausage Party arrived in theaters last weekend to the tune of critical praise (83% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and a mind-blowing opening weekend of $33.6 million on a budget of $19 million. That’s simply incredible, so much so that I’m still baffled as to why there aren’t more people talking about what was potentially a breakthrough moment for feature animation.
That is, until I discovered that the most divisive/negative reactions to the movie are coming from the animation community and for various reasons. The recent controversy over alleged claims of unpaid artists on the film has definitely rubbed some people the wrong way, but so did the film’s approach to equal-opportunity offensive humor and its portrayal of organized religion (praised highly by most critics). There’s also the fact that, at least to them, it took a Seth Rogen movie in order to tell Hollywood that R-rated animated movies can work. That thought process naturally leads to the fear that, at least in the short-term, Sausage Party is only going to encourage more animated films like it (a fear that’s not entirely unfounded).
Those are just a few of the reasons for why a large chunk of the animation community is running scared from Sausage Party. Heck, some of those reasons above are why the Rotoscopers team collectively decided not to do a review/podcast of the movie. But then I had a thought: at least some of you had seen the movie and wanted to voice opinions somewhere on our website. Well, that’s where this article comes in.
I want to try something new this time. Instead of simply seeing the movie and doing a review for the website, I will instead use this article as an open invitation for you (the reader) to post your own review in the comment section below! This will be a non-spoiler forum, so please discuss the movie with little to no spoilers as possible. You can, however, discuss the themes of the film, what you thought the strengths and weaknesses were, the quality of the voice acting and dialogue, the animation, and other such stuff that you would see in a non-spoiler-ish review!
One final note before I hand it over to the comment section: yes, there will be a spoiler-friendly discussion article for Sausage Party. I can’t say when, but I’m hoping that it’s early next week.
Have fun!
Did you see Sausage Party? If you did, tell us what you thought of the movie down below! Remember: no spoilers!
Edited by: Kelly Conley