Sausage Party: Foodtopia: Review

In 2016, Sausage Party was an incredible animated feat of fornicating food and R-rated language as the food fought back against its human oppressors.

Perfectly combining potty mouth humour with button-pushing moments, Seth Rogen starred as sentient sausage Frank, who along with Brenda the Bun, and Sammy the Bagel gained their freedom.

But in 2024, the animated series Sausage Party : Foodtopia feels like the food’s ever so slightly gone off, braised in a swathe of food puns, a weakish storyline stretched over 8 parts and a feeling that what was new and exciting then, is less so now – that is, if you’re not a teenager or baked after a night out.

In the latest, Frank and Brenda (Kristen Wiig) try and create a new world after the humans have been wiped out – but not everyone’s in favour of their utopia after rain attacks them from the sky and cracks begin to develop in their planned new democracy.

Further to this, Barry the mini-sausage (Michael Cera) has lost his purpose without a cause to fight, and Sammy the Bagel (Edward Norton Jr doing Woody Allen), traumatised by the loss of his friend, has turned to endless stand up to heal the wound.

When a new threat arises in the form of Julius an orange determined to lie, manipulate and segregate (an easy target from real life perhaps), Brenda and Frank must turn to human ways to save the day.

It’s not that Foodtopia is without its charms.

Granted, there are endless food puns, a good musical riff on Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire and some silliness around, but much of Sausage Party: Foodtopia just doesn’t feel like it’s firing at all – despite the plethora of writers attached to the project.

While episodes barely register a commercial half hour, many feel dragged out and lacking pizazz, as if the real fun was had inside the writers’ room. Consequently, while It doesn’t outstay its welcome, Sausage Party: Foodtopia does little to encourage the idea of a return once again – even if a deliberately tacked-on cliffhanger feels like an afterthought rather than a narrative need. This just feels flat, its targets easy by comparison to its 2016 outing.

Perhaps worst of all is the fact there is a deliberate fridging incident late in the day, leading to the distinct disturbing feeling that any future outings for Foodtopia will feel even more of a sausage-fest than ever before.

Sausage Party: Foodtopia is streaming on Prime Video now.