Sausage Party. The moment I heard about this movie, I thought to myself, “well, there goes all the good press that Anomalisa brought to R-rated animated films; now they’re going to have to start all over again.” The first trailer for this Toy Story with food products certainly didn’t help my perception; I thought, despite an all-star voice cast and an interesting concept, that this stinker would be looked down on by everyone except 13-year-old boys, who would find it hilarious.
But despite its provocative title, occasionally childish humor, and problems behind the scenes that are still being figured out, Sausage Party was actually well received by critics and audiences, currently holding an 82 percent “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It has also grossed $95 million against its $19 million budget as of September 22nd, making it an unqualified success financially.
Now that the Emmys are over, and Oscar season has officially/unofficially begun, I have found myself thinking an almost unthinkable thought: could Sausage Party receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature for the upcoming 89th Academy Awards this February?
The short answer: No. It has a snowball’s chance in Hell or a hot dog’s chance at a 4th of July barbecue of being nominated, especially with films like Zootopia, Finding Dory, Kubo and the Two Strings, and the upcoming Disney film Moana as competition, to name only a few. But the long answer does invite analysis of how far animated movies have come over the years.
Animated films have only had their own Oscar category since 2001, and it was only last year, at the 88th Academy Awards, that an R-rated animated movie, Anomalisa, was nominated for Best Animated Feature. And while it lost to the family friendly and equally thought provoking Disney*Pixar masterpiece Inside Out, for Anomalisa to simply be nominated is a big leap forward in the treatment of R-rated animated films and indicates that there are more avenues for animated films to explore.
Prior to 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would recognize *animated films from time to time, but usually for Honorary Awards or for the musical aspect of the movies (especially in the case of Disney films). After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Walt Disney was given an Honorary Oscar (plus seven smaller statuettes, for obvious reasons), but that was about it for honoring animated movies at the Academy for many years. It was not until 1992, at the 64th Academy Awards, that an animated film came close to the greatest honor that the Academy can bestow upon any film: when Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture. It didn’t win, but at least it was nominated.
*A quick side note: When I say “animated films,” I am referring to feature-length animated films; there have been plenty of short animated films that the Academy has recognized over the years, such as the classic Tom & Jerry short “The Cat Concerto,” as well as several Looney Tunes cartoons.*
But what is the biggest difference between a comedy that asks existential questions like Sausage Party and a drama about identity and how it can be lost in the crowd like Anomalisa? Why was it no surprise when Anomalisa was nominated for an Oscar and why would it be the biggest upset of the century if Sausage Party were to receive the same nomination? Well, one is structured very much like a typical romantic drama that the Academy loves to recognize, and that could have been a live action movie, whereas the other has to be animated. They couldn’t do Sausage Party as a live-action movie; they could have done a CGI-live-action hybrid movie like Smurfs, but that would have been more expensive. On the other hand, with CGI and motion capture technology, they could have, conceivably, done Anomalisa as a live-action film. Anomalisa is full of stop motion models that have the same face and are all voiced by the same voice actor, except for the two main characters. Dubbing the original dialogue over and using motion capture, they could have done this film as a live-action movie. The remarkable thing about Anomalisa is how both lifelike and how much like animation the final film looks.
Another difference between these movies, however, was their box office returns; as well-received as Anomalisa was, its total box office was $3 million against its budget of $8 million. As stated before, Sausage Party has made back its budget five times over. As many people will point out, box office success does not equate to overall film quality (just look to the Transformers movies if you want to understand).
Anomalisa was nominated, ultimately, because of its visual style, mature storytelling, and the provocative questions it asks the audience to consider. Sausage Party, for all its financial success and positive critical reception, doesn’t present enough new material to the growing genre of R-rated animation. As such, Anomalisa has a coveted spot in the annals of R-rated animation history for the prestige granted to it, while Sausage Party will be remembered as a funny movie that made a great deal of money at the box office, but one that will not have a chance at being nominated for the coveted Oscar.