There's a Sudbury connection to Sausage Party, the yet-to-be-released 3D computer-animated R-rated adventure horror-comedy written and voiced by Seth Rogen that's been getting a lot of buzz this week.
Sudbury native Scott Armstrong was a layout artist on the film.
Set to be released in theatres Aug. 12, the film tells the story of a sausage named Frank that lives at a supermarket with various other food products.
They live a peaceful life with their ultimate goal to get picked by a customer. To their delight, they are purchased by a woman, and brought to her home.
They soon discover the truth about their existence, when the woman prepares a meal with them that equates to torture and death. Now, with the help of friends, they embark on an adventure to escape their fate. Parents take note: This is not a film for children.
The film's trailer was released earlier this week, and has received a lot of attention on social media. The movie is intended to be a spoof of Disney and Pixar films and will be the first American R-rated computer animated movie.
Armstrong, who was also a layout artist for the 2013 smash hit Disney film Frozen, said it was “definitely a privilege” to work on Sausage Party.
“It's a really interesting project to me,” said 28-year-old Armstrong, who works for Sony Imageworks out of Vancouver.
“I thought this is different, it's interesting, no one's really doing this kind of thing, and it would be really cool to take a break from the normal animated films and try something different. It's really a rewarding experience.”
As a layout artist, Armstrong is involved in the front-end of the production of animated films.
“Once there's a script and storyboard, we're working with the directors to visualize how the film's going to work,” he said.
“We start placing cameras in a 3D environment, we start building the environment, we start staging the characters.”
Armstrong said he got into animation after doing an internship at Sudbury's March Entertainment.
He then attended an animation program at Algonquin College in Ottawa. In 2013, he landed an internship at Disney, and ended up working on Frozen.
Armstrong has also worked on several other high-profile films lately, including The Angry Birds Movie and Storks, both set to be released in 2016, and Smurfs: The Lost Village, to be released in 2017.
Projects he's worked on in the past include the TV series Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil and Jake and the Never Land Pirates and the TV movie The Magic Hockey Skates.
Armstrong is also working on his own animated short. “Hopefully it's going to be done this year,” he said.
While he doesn't deny working in animation can be fun, he said it's also a difficult job. “It's a lot of late hours,” Armstrong said.
Click here to watch the trailer. (Warning: content is intended for mature audiences only).
