Armed with a stellar ensemble cast including Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, Edward Norton and Natasha Rothwell, Sausage Party: Foodtopia is a binge-able yet unmemorable watch. Directed by Conrad Vernon and made for television by Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir, this new eight-part series features infamous characters from the 2016 movie (also co-directed by Vernon, alongside Greg Tiernan) and some equally outrageous new characters, and meets the raunchy and obscene benchmarks set by the original film.
The show begins in the midst of a coup between humans and food, which is hilariously ridiculous to watch. From cupcakes armed with lit candles to an army of spaghetti, this opening moment begins the series on a highly amusing note. Assuming control over humans, food ascends to power. The members of the food community aim to install a "foodtopia," by which all of the food items are free from the grocery store and the greedy hands of humans.
Trouble prevails when the members of the food community realize that this foodtopia is increasingly more difficult to achieve than previously hoped. The show follows the members of this community as they embark on many of their mischievous, wacky and sometimes incomprehensible adventures. It's all as ridiculous as it sounds.
I enjoyed the original movie and found it to be an eccentric yet entertaining watch; however, Foodtopia lacks the imaginative and zany attributes that defined the original movie. When Sausage Party first came out, it was a unique and quirky concept unlike any other movie hitting the big screen at the time. The series retreads the concept, making it definitively less unique in comparison.
That is not to say that the show is wholly unimaginative, though. There are many amusing jokes that made me smile (for example, the numerous food-ified names for celebrities within the foodtopia, from Céline Dijon to Tina Turnip), but surprisingly, one the major pitfalls of this show is also its comedy. Oftentimes the humour can be excessively profane and crude to the point it weakens the laughability and enjoyment of the show. There are numerous cheap and infantile jokes that lessen its entertainment value and, to put it bluntly, they just weren't funny.
The saving grace of Foodtopia is Norton's performance as Sammy Bagel Jr. His performance as a no-nonsense, quick-witted bagel offers the most significant portion of comedy to this series. Norton's performance is also a testament to his acting abilities, seamlessly transitioning from his typical drama-centric roles to a comedic one — something not easily achieved.
For all my disappointments with the show, I found the final episode restorative in its execution of the plot, allowing the series to regain pace and we finally get to see the story play out. Because of this, it made me realize that the show itself could have easily been executed in fewer episodes, which would have allowed for more concise and effective storytelling.
Sausage Party: Foodtopia's comedy lacks real longevity and seems to be primarily catered toward binge-watching rather than possessing anything substantive or memorable.