'Sausage Party' Animators Reportedly Forced to Work for Free

December 14, 2022

Sausage Party is laughing all of the way to the bank despite racism accusations and low box office expectations. Seth Rogen can add Sausage Party to his long list of box office hit productions. However, the animators who worked on the feature film were not too happy. Recently, CartoonBrew held an interview with the movie's directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan. In the interview, GReg Tiernan brags about the movie's small budget. However, anonymous animators are coming forward to talk about what really happened behind the scenes of Sausage Party and the allegedly poor treatment they endured at Nitrogen Studios. From Dorkly:

The production cost were kept low because Greg would demand people work overtime for free. If you wouldn't work late for free your work would be assigned to someone who would stay late or come in on the weekend. Some artist were even threatened with termination for not staying late to hit a deadline.

The animation department signed a petition for better treatment and paid overtime. When the letter got to Annapurna they stepped in and saw that artist were payed [sic> and fed when overtime was needed.

Over 30 animators left during the coarse [sic] of the production due to the stress and expectations. Most of them left before the paid overtime was implemented. This was met with animosity and was taken as a personal insult to the owners. Their names were omitted from the final credits despite working for over a year on this film.

Apparently a large percentage of the animation team went uncredited.

Almost half the animation team was not credited. The team believed in this film and poured their hearts and souls into it. Despite this, more than half of it was not credited. You can see the full team on IMDB, which contains 83 people (and I am certain there are some missing). The film's credits, however, contains 47.

If these accusations are true, it is sad to think that people dedicated a large percentage of their time working under strenuous conditions for little to no money.

Working with Greg and the Nitrogen production was a nightmare for any artist, we believed in that project and stayed despite that fact.

But no one has officially came forward as they are afraid of getting blacklisted. However, A Pixar artist did link to the article on Twitter and pointed to the comments; Nitrogen's reviews on GlassDoor also line up with the Sausage Party horror stories we've seen so far. In addition, a report by The Hollywood Reporter, an open letter was written addressing the workplace conditions. In the letter, reportedly reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, the animators allege "unfair pressure tactics" were used against the team: intimidating staff into working past official studio hours, disciplinary measures utilizing fear tactics that demotivate and cause distress (such as threatening to terminate employment), implying that other departments are working overtime 'voluntarily' as a reason to deny compensation." Well if you think that's crazy. Lindsay Lohan is working on making a comeback. Watch the video below:

Via Dorkly, Cartoon Brew, The Hollywood Reporter Related: