Even if you go into Sausage Party forewarned that it”s very crass and politically incorrect, you still will be shocked by what you see and shocked that this movie, distributed by a major Hollywood studio, exists.
At a screening outside of San Diego Comic-Con tonight, the new R-rated Seth Rogen movie was screened for an audience that gasped, groaned, chorused many a disgusted “ewwww” – and was constantly cracking up.
It must have been a particularly rewarding screening for Rogen et al. to sit in on. They sure got to listen in on plenty of loud reactions from the audience.
After the screening, a group of the voice cast and filmmakers gathered for a Q&A (which was itself a sausage fest – neither Kristen Wiig nor Salma Hayek joined their co-stars for the event).
The animated movie – about the talking food inhabiting a grocery store and discovering, to their horror, what really happens in the “Great Beyond” (they get eaten) – features Rogen as the voice of the sausage Frank and on the writers team.
Here are five shocking things we learned about Sausage Party from the San Diego Q&A:
Warning: Spoilers and some references to adult moments from Sausage Party follow. But for the most explicit Sausage Party moments, you”ll have to go see the movie.
1. Research is important: If Rogen”s tale of how he and his co-writers put together this weird story is to be believed (and hey, it's Seth Rogen, so it's believable), they would have been a weird bunch to catch a glimpse of at the local grocery store. “We must have looked like the dumbest idiots on earth,” Rogen said. “Just two guys with a notepad, stoned, walking around Ralphs at two in the morning. ‘Oh, horseradish could be a horse!””
2. The MPAA didn”t know what to do with this: Rogen explained the trade association”s confusion: “It's an unprecedented area. ‘Well is it a dick if it's food?””
3. Meatloaf was totally down for this (okay, maybe that”s not entirely shocking): The movie features a sequence set to Meat Loaf”s “I'd Do Anything for Love,” sung by, yes, a box of meat loaf. After Rogen pitched the weird scene to the singer-songwriter, “There was just 20 seconds of silence, and then he said ‘Yeah, I get it.””
4. Animators can get gross: The movie ends with an orgy – yes, an orgy of all the grocery store items – that had the crowd howling with both laughter and utter shock. Rogen revealed that the first version his animators gave him was 8 minutes long and “the grossest thing I”ve ever seen in my whole life.” It was shortened and toned down a bit, but Rogen got to see that original pass where “there was a lot of fluids involved. A lot of mayonnaise and things like that.”
5. Puff Daddy turned down a voice role: The hip-hop artist did get on the phone with the film”s writer-star. “He was so psyched, and he wanted to do it and he couldn't be more excited,” recalled Rogen (who, as you”re probably figuring out, dominated the panel discussion). “And when we ended the call, he was like, ‘Wait a minute, this is a live-action movie, right?” We're like, ‘No.” 'You're not dressed like a hot dog?” ‘No, man, this is an animated movie.” And you could see his interest level just disappear.”
Sausage Party opens in theaters on August 12, 2016.