‘Sausage Party’ Animators Locked in Dispute over Unpaid Overtime and Horrid Working Conditions

Sausage Party, one of the summer’s hit movies in a season relatively devoid of them, is CG animated with a gleefully R-rated twist. The film begins whimsically enough by exploring the secret lives of supermarket goods and takes an inevitable turn for the horrific when the terrified packaged foods realize they are literally destined for the chopping block.

So it’s unfortunate that such a cheerfully uninhibited project has been marred by allegations of the oppressive working conditions the film’s animators had to endure. According to The Hollywood Reporter, thirty animators signed a letter accusing Canadian production company Nitrogen Studios of coercing them into working grueling shifts while withholding overtime pay and punishing those who complained by stripping them of their credits.

The animators claim that they were deliberately deprived of overtime wages and threatened with termination or demotion if they were unwilling to work extra for free. Some animators, who have likely remained anonymous for fear of reprisal, have argued that these measures were used by the directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon to drive production costs down and increase profit margins. Sausage Party grossed $33.6 million on its opening weekend against a relatively low $19 million production budget, according to Gizmodo.

Nitrogen Studios chief executive Nicole Stinn has unequivocally denied the allegations, according to The Los Angeles Times. “These claims are without merit,” Stinn said in her public statement. “Our production adhered to all overtime laws and regulations, as well as our contractual obligations with our artists.”

The controversy has brought focus on the plight of animators who are particularly vulnerable to intimidation and threats of blacklisting because they work contractually and lack job stability. It has also directed attention to the outsourcing of animation jobs to countries like Canada and India, which have attractive tax subsidies and cheap labor.