Sausage Party: Foodtopia | |
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![]() Promotional poster | |
Created by |
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Based on | |
Developed by |
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Directed by | Conrad Vernon |
Voices of |
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Music by | Christopher Lennertz |
Country of origin |
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Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 8 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Running time | 23-28 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network | Amazon Prime Video |
Release | July 11, 2024 present | –
Sausage Party: Foodtopia is an adult animated television series created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter, and Ariel Shaffir and developed by Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir for Amazon Prime Video.[a] A sequel to the first film Sausage Party (2016), it features an ensemble cast that includes Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton and Scott "Diggs" Underwood reprising their roles from the film with Will Forte, Natasha Rothwell, Sam Richardson, and Yassir Lester voicing new characters.
The first season premiered on Amazon Prime Video on July 11, 2024, with a second season currently in development.[2] The series received generally mixed reviews from critics, who praised its voice acting and humor, while others were divided about its political themes, and criticized its writing and characters.
Premise
[edit]After standing up to the human race following the events of the film, Frank and his friends establish a safe haven dubbed "Foodtopia". Following a massive flood that destroys their once promised land, they have no choice but to partner with humans to ensure the survival of their race.
Cast
[edit]Main
[edit]- Seth Rogen as Frank Frankfurter, a sausage who discovered and exposed the truth about the "Great Beyond", he later becomes the leader of Foodtopia.
- Kristen Wiig as Brenda Bunson, a hot dog bun who is Frank's love interest, she later becomes co-leader of Foodtopia.
- Michael Cera as Barry, a small deformed sausage who is one of Frank's friends, he later becomes chief of police seeking lawbreakers at Foodtopia.
- Edward Norton as Sammy Bagel Jr., a neurotic Jewish bagel who had a relationship with Lavash. After Lavash's death, he becomes a comedian talk show host for Foodtopia.
Recurring
[edit]- Will Forte as Jack, a surviving human whom Frank and Brenda kept alive in order to learn about humanity, along with things such as weather, ravenous animals, and politics. Due to becoming an ally of food, he resorts to cannibalism to avoid eating them.
- Sam Richardson as Julius, a tyrannical orange who uses his charms and wealth of human teeth to gain followers in order to take over Foodtopia.[3] The character is a parody of Donald Trump, with his name being a play on Orange Julius and Julius Caesar.
- Stephanie Beard as Jeri Rice, a tiny grain of rice who is the sole survivor of her family drowning from the flood and has a personal hatred towards Julius, who selfishly left her for dead. Her name is a pun of former NFL wide receiver Jerry Rice.
- Scott "Diggs" Underwood as Gum, a Stephen Hawking-esque intelligent but paraplegic wad of chewed gum who wears glasses and has a mechanized wheelchair.[4] He dies after sacrificing himself for the other food during the flood.
Additionally, David Krumholtz reprises his role as Kareem Abdul-Lavash, a Middle Eastern lavash who had a relationship with Sammy. He is killed off during the uprising, leaving Sammy devastated. Natasha Rothwell, Yassir Lester, Jill Talley and Grey DeLisle[5] have been cast in undisclosed roles.
Episodes
[edit]No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date [6] | |
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1 | "First Course" | Conrad Vernon | Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter & Ariel Shaffir | July 11, 2024 | |
Following the events of Sausage Party, the food items at Shopwell's, led by Frank, Brenda, Barry, Lavash, Sammy and Gum, stage an uprising and successfully overthrow the human race by killing them, resulting in food to become the new dominant species on Earth, now free to do whatever they want. However, Sammy struggles to move past Lavash's death, as he was killed during the uprising, and Barry struggles to wind down, having a desire for action. A rainstorm arrives, resulting in a flash flood that leads to numerous deaths; Gum sacrifices himself to save his friends from falling into a sewer drain, and Barry goes off to rescue the food that has been washed away. With their promised land completely ruined, the food, realizing that Frank and Brenda have no idea what they are doing, decide to go back to Shopwell's, claiming it is safer despite the store falling apart, making Frank and Brenda comment that they wish they had a human to help them out. Meanwhile, Barry discovers a human, Richie, escaping with the food he is saving. | |||||
2 | "Second Course" | Conrad Vernon | Ali Waller | July 11, 2024 | |
Frank, Brenda and Barry proceed to go on a search for Richie; Frank and Brenda want to get some answers on what rain is, while Barry wants to kill him. They eventually find Richie, but Barry ends up killing him before Frank and Brenda could get some answers from him. Suddenly, they are ambushed by two of Richie's friends, Jack and Donny, who proceed to attack the foods. Remembering what he saw Douche do during their uprising at Shopwell's, Barry decides to inject himself into Jack's butt in order to control him, and successfully makes him kill Donny. Meanwhile, at Shopwell's, Sammy discovers a newfound purpose in stand-up comedy as he begins to roast the food, much to their enjoyment. However, their combined laughter causes the store to start collapsing and, after having the escape route opened by Jack, they manage to escape in time. With their old home completely destroyed, Frank and Brenda encourage the others to seek out a new one. No longer needing Jack, Barry is prepared to kill him, while Sammy suggests holding a big festival for it. Unbeknownst to Frank and Brenda, the foods begin to hoard the different buildings to themselves after watching an orange named Julius do it, leading to more mass hysteria and smaller foods to become homeless. | |||||
3 | "Third Course" | Conrad Vernon | Dewayne Perkins | July 11, 2024 | |
The foods are getting themselves ready for the "Burning Man" Festival, where they will sacrifice Jack in front of a large audience by burning him alive. While holding auditions for the ceremony's performances, a crow arrives and starts attacking. After Barry's initial attempt to stop it fails, Frank and Brenda consult Jack once more on how to stop it, to which he suggests using the corpse of a dead human as a makeshift scarecrow, which successfully scares it away. Because of this, Frank and Brenda consider delaying Jack's sacrifice in case they need more of his help, but Barry refuses, telling them that Jack must die and will not take any excuses. That night, as the festival occurs, Julius offers to let smaller foods view the show from his building in exchange for their human teeth, their newfound form of currency. Going against Barry's wishes, Frank and Brenda secretly decide to spare Jack, and Frank manages to find another live human to control in order to take Jack's place, successfully fooling everyone into believing Jack is dead. Frank and Brenda take Jack to their treehouse to hide, only to start second-guessing their decision when Jack begins to rattle off what he'd like to eat. | |||||
4 | "Fourth Course" | Conrad Vernon | Jennifer Kim | July 11, 2024 | |
Using his newfound wealth in human teeth, Julius decides to expand his empire by buying buildings from their owners. Sammy, desiring to be in the spotlight once more, discovers an electronics store owned by a cereal box. After being ejected, an enraged Sammy attacks him and proceeds to hijack the store, where he continues his comedy act. While bringing a human foot for Jack to eat, Frank and Brenda discover that foods are being robbed of their teeth, prompting them and Barry to enforce a new police system. During a trial, Frank and Brenda discover that the foods accused of stealing teeth consist entirely of perishables, who are showing signs of molding and live in slum-like conditions due to their inability to afford Julius' refrigerated housing. Appearing on Sammy's newest show, Frank and Brenda propose that those who own lots of teeth should offer them to those who don't, but Julius, who is in the audience, manages to turn everyone against them by arguing that they're taking away everyone's freedom and suggests that they hold an election in order to determine a new leader for Foodtopia. Meanwhile, Barry discovers Jack's footprints, and Jack, realizing he has no other choice, converts to cannibalism and tearfully eats the foot Frank and Brenda gave him earlier. | |||||
5 | "Fifth Course" | Conrad Vernon | Laura Krafft | July 11, 2024 | |
A Machiavellian orange, Julius, gains popularity in Foodtopia. Frank and Brenda struggle to maintain control. | |||||
6 | "Sixth Course" | Conrad Vernon | Jeremy Levick & Rajat Suresh | July 11, 2024 | |
Election day is upon Foodtopia: Julius versus Frank and Brenda. But relationship trouble threatens their chances. | |||||
7 | "Seventh Course" | Conrad Vernon | Dewayne Perkins | July 11, 2024 | |
Brenda sets out to find the good in the dictator orange, Julius. Frank ties up some loose ends. | |||||
8 | "Eight Course" | Conrad Vernon | Kyle Hunter & Ariel Shaffir | July 11, 2024 | |
Barry and Sammy have to clear Frank's name and save Foodtopia. Julius must be stopped. |
Production
[edit]Development
[edit]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[7] 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."[8]
On October 26, 2022, It was announced that Amazon had ordered a sequel from Point Grey Pictures, Annapurna Television, and Sony Pictures Television the co-writers Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir returning to develop and executive produce the series under their production company Shaffirwhich while some of the cast (including Rogen, who co-wrote, co-produced, and created the film alongside creative partner Evan Goldberg) returning to reprise their roles, along with new members like Will Forte, Natasha Rothwell, Sam Richardson and Yassir Lester.[9]
Animation
[edit]Unlike the first film being produced by Nitrogen Studios, now acquired by Cinesite, Bardel Entertainment[10] and Stellar Creative Lab[11] would handle the animation for the series as former Blue Sky Studios executive Andrew Millstein, who now runs Annapurna's animation division with Robert L. Baird after its first film Nimona (2023) was released on Netflix, executive produces with Rogen, Goldberg, James Weaver, Alex McAtee, Megan Ellison and Patrick Chu on the series while co-producer/co-director Conrad Vernon returns as a supervising director.[12]
Release
[edit]On May 1, 2024, it was announced that the series would premiere on Amazon Prime Video on July 11, 2024.[6] A second season is currently in development.[13]
Reception
[edit]On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 50% approval rating based on 22 reviews with an average rating of 5.70/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Clean up on aisle three—Foodtopia has plenty of rancid gags to tide over fans of Seth Rogen's sense of humor, but this follow-up can't help but feel like stale leftovers."[14] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the series assigned a score of 54 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[15]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Conrad Vernon directed Sausage Party with Greg Tiernan, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg served as producers and co-wrote both the screenplay and story, and Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir co-wrote the screenplay.
References
[edit]- ^ "'Sausage Party' Animated Series Cooked up at Amazon". October 26, 2022.
- ^ "Ariel Shaffir and Kyle Hunter Offer a Taste of Their New Prime Video Show, 'Sausage Party: Foodtopia'". www.animationmagazine.net. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
- ^ "First Look: Prime Video Offers a 'Sausage Party: Foodtopia' Appetizer". Animation Magazine. June 3, 2024. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ a b "Feast Your Eyes: Prime Video Reveals Sausage Party: Foodtopia's Premiere Date". Amazon MGM Studios. May 1, 2024. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
- ^ O'Connell, Sean (November 2, 2016). "Watch The Sausage Party Alternate Ending That Had To Be Cut From The Movie". CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on March 7, 2023. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
- ^ Gallagher, Brian (August 14, 2016). "Seth Rogen Wants to Do Sausage Party 2 & More R-Rated Animated Movies". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2016.
- ^ Hibberd, James (October 26, 2022). "'Sausage Party' TV Series from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg Ordered by Amazon". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ^ "Bardel Entertainment on LinkedIn: Foodtopia: Story, Release Date & Everything We Know About Seth Rogen's…".
- ^ "Stellar Creative Lab on LinkedIn: Even Seth Rogen finds his new Sausage Party show "unbelievably shocking"".
- ^ "'Sausage Party: Foodtopia': Seth Rogen Teases Sequel Series Has "Unbelievably Shocking" Scene". July 5, 2023.
- ^ "Ariel Shaffir and Kyle Hunter Offer a Taste of Their New Prime Video Show, 'Sausage Party: Foodtopia'". www.animationmagazine.net. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
- ^ "Sausage Party: Foodtopia: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
- ^ "Sausage Party: Foodtopia: Season 1". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved July 12, 2024.