It’s been eight long and hard years since Sausage Party first cursed the Earth with its insane animated debauchery. Ridiculously rude, offensive, hypersexual, gross, and bizarre, the 2016 film made history and headlines as the first ever R-rated computer-animated feature and subjected audiences to unprecedented levels of anthropomorphic food items banging each other on the big screen. Created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Jonah Hill, Sausage Party is purposefully crude and obnoxious to the point where it almost feels like it’s testing the viewer’s resolve more than anything. But whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying the weird charm and novelty that the movie has. It’s also a bit smarter than it appears on the surface, weaving genuinely complex ideas into its story of a hot dog discovering the truth of his and his fellow food’s existence.
Sausage Party feels like a real snapshot in time, or at least movie and entertainment history, so now that a sequel has finally arrived in the form of an eight-episode Prime Video Original series (the latest collaboration between Amazon and duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg after The Boys and Invincible), there’s a major question to be answered. Can a streaming show coming out nearly a decade later offer the same kind of viral shock, disgust, and interest that popularized the original animated film? 2024 is a very different time, and audience appetites have changed. However, if Sausage Party: Foodtopia is any indication, some jokes are just too hilariously stupid to ever really go out of style.
Sausage Party: Foodtopia picks up directly after the events of the original animated movie, as Frank (Rogen), the sausage, and his love, Brenda Bunson (Kristen Wiig), the bun, lead foodkind in a revolution against mankind. Now unafraid to venture beyond the automatic doors of the supermarket, Frank and the others attempt to establish “Foodtopia,” a safe haven for food to live without the fear of being sold and eaten by their human oppressors. But the outside world proves to be a whole lot more than they could have ever bargained for, as natural occurrences like rain can quickly turn into food massacres and other new threats start to emerge. As Frank and Brenda try to deliver on the promise of Foodtopia, a scheming and selfish orange named Julius (Sam Richardson) uses their plight to take power over this new society for himself.
While Sausage Party: Foodtopia obviously can’t replicate the kind of scandal and countless guffaws the original film generated with its obscenity, it’s not for lack of trying. There’s plenty (probably too much, honestly) of animated food group sex and violence, among other things, if that’s what you’re here for — episode six proudly features a message that it contains a scene so graphic that Amazon made them add a warning for viewers. To be frank though (get it?), make sure every episode of Sausage Party: Foodtopia is on the list of things to never have on when someone unknowingly walks in on you watching it.
Of course, this kind of humor can get weird and old pretty fast. So, after an uneven start in the comedy department, Sausage Party: Foodtopia smartly switches gears and starts relying more on food puns and parody songs for its jokes. It ends up becoming so relentlessly dumb that it works. There’s no shortage of laugh-out-loud moments in this Amazon show, which is probably a testament to the return of the original creative team. This includes original creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, original writers Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir, now acting as showrunners, and the return of original director Conrad Vernon (The Addams Family, Shrek 2).
Edward Norton returns as Sammy Bagel Jr., now traumatized by the sudden death of Kareem Abdul Lavash (David Krumholtz) and desperate for new love and attention. As he strives for fame as an entertainer, he unwittingly becomes a mouthpiece for Julius in his campaign to overthrow Frank and Brenda’s Foodtopia. Michael Cera also reprises his role as Barry, the short and deformed sausage who turns into a badass human killer with a bit of a sadistic streak to him. That turns into a problem for Frank and Brenda, who secretly hold a human named Jack (Will Forte) hostage to ask him questions about surviving in the human world.
The best part of Sausage Party: Foodtopia is much like how the original movie tackled religion and mental awakenings, the Amazon series now goes after society and societal constructs. We see what happens when food society is introduced to currency, politics, propaganda, and the enforcement of laws, among other human-made monstrosities. It’s here that the show feels the most inspired and serves as a solid example of a sequel series that gets better the further it goes.
With only eight episodes in the season, each of which being around twenty minutes in length, Sausage Party: Foodtopia flies by at a brisk pace with a good amount of laugh mileage to boot. There’s clear inspiration and creativity behind all of the sex jokes and groan-inducing food puns, showing that the crude charm of the original is still very much present in this streaming series follow-up. This isn’t something that’s so bad it’s good. It’s good because it’s so bad, and you have no choice but to hop on its particular wavelength of smart stupidity. But once you’re on, it’s a pretty hilarious ride.
All episodes of Sausage Party: Foodtopia are now streaming on Prime Video!
Release Date: July 11, 2024.
Created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, & Conrad Vernon.
Based on Sausage Party by Ariel Shaffir, Kyle Hunter, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, & Jonah Hill.
Developed by Kyle Hunter & Ariel Shaffir.
Executive Producers: Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Alex McAtee, Megan Ellison, Patrick Chu, & Andrew Millstein.
Main Voice Cast: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton, Will Forte, Sam Richardson, Scott “Diggs” Underwood, Natasha Rothwell, Yassir Lester, & Grey DeLisle.
Composers: Alexander Bornstein & Christopher Lennertz.
Production Companies: Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television, Annapurna Television, Point Grey Pictures, & Shaffirwhich.
Episode Count: 8.
