You liked Sausage Party, did you? Thought all the poop jokes were bowel bustingly funny? Was the religious satire on point? Well, the film that you love might not have been such a bratwurstpoo of virtue after all. Since its successful release in early August the film has received a grilling from the animators who worked on the film, sighting a breakfast buffet of shady work practices.
Specifically the allegations centre on unpaid overtime, which emerged on the comments section of an interview with the film’s directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan at the website CartoonBrew. One poster claimed Tiernan demanded animators work overtime for free. It’s also claimed that more than 30 animators quit during production due to stress and the pressures placed on them, with their names being omitted from the film’s final credits.
While the veracity of these claims has yet to be verified, it now seems several unions have thrown their support behind the animators. In a statement, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees backed the animators, but added that such labour issues were becoming a big problem in the visual effects industry. Meanwhile, Canadian media union Local Unifor 2000 have already filed an official complaint on the matter.
Nitrigon Studios, the Canadian animation house behind the project, insists the film’s production was on the level. At $19 million, Sausage Party‘s budget is uncommonly small for a digitally rendered animated feature (for comparison, Disney are estimated to have spent $150 million on Zootopia). Still in theatres, Sausage Party has earned more than $88 million worldwide at time of writing.
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