The food is here to rule again as the Sausage Party franchise returns, this time with an eight-episode miniseries titled Sausage Party: Foodtopia. The continuation series premieres eight years after the release of Sausage Party, which saw the food overthrow the tyrannical human customers from Shopwell’s department store under the leadership of sausage duo Frank and Barry and hotdog bun Brenda. As the sequel miniseries, Sausage Party: Foodtopia focuses on the world-building of the titular food world, drawing parallels to human civilization and social structure. The comedic element feels much more restrained in this installment; instead, the tone feels much more grim and serious than its predecessor. It should be mentioned that, despite following the aftermath of the first movie, the series doesn’t address the dimension-hopping that was teased in the finale of the previous season and instead builds on its own separate storyline.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Frank and Brenda Decide To Take Help From Jack?
As the series begins, it is revealed that after taking over the Shopwell’s, the food led by Frank, Barry, Gum, and Brenda had risen up against humankind in a violent uprising. In the ensuing battle, foodkind lost a number of comrades, like Kareem the lavash, but eventually emerged victorious by eliminating the majority of humankind, becoming the dominant species of the world in the process. The world becomes known as Foodtopia, and to commemorate the victory over the tyrant humans, human teeth become a symbol of honor for the food. In the aftermath of the battle, Sammy the bagel majorly misses his lover, Kareem the lavash, and somewhat distances himself from his old friends, Brenda, Frank, and Barry. On the other hand, Barry had transformed into a bloodthirsty daredevil during the war nd harbors strong hatred for humankind due to having had sordid experiences in the past. Brenda and Frank dream of Foodtopia becoming a safe haven for food and hope for a better future.
However, trouble arises when a torrential downpour results in the death of a number of food items that get destroyed after being exposed to the rain. Gum saves Brenda and Frank by sacrificing himself. Confusion and panic ensue among the mass, and the majority of survivors decide to return to the crumbling Shopwell’s instead, denouncing Frank and Brenda for not being able to explain this new peril. The duo considers taking human help to better explain the situation to the food, and as Barry sees a camper stealing food nearby, Frank and Brenda convince him to lead them to their settlement.
Barry, Frank, and Brenda track down three campers and kill two of them, leaving a cowardly, low-confidence bloke, Jack, alive. Barry agrees to keep Jack as a captive until their problems get sorted out and kill him afterwards. A captive Jack has no other option than to comply with the commands of the food and explain the rain to them, allowing the food to once again return to Foodtopia. Later, as a crow starts causing mass panic by killing the food, Jack suggests the food make a scarecrow by hanging a human corpse, effectively scaring away the crow as a result. After Jack saves the food twice, Brenda and Frank consider the possibility of gaining help from an experienced human mind in the absence of Gum’s wisdom and reconsider their options instead of going along with the plan of executing him in public, as Barry wants to do. Eventually, as Sammy and Barry organize a human burning festival and bring Jack to be executed, Frank and Brenda secretly replace Jack with another human at the last moment, saving him in the process.
How Did Julius the Orange Take Over Foodtopia?
Frank and Brenda hide Jack in their treehouse, unbeknownst to Barry and the other food, and provide him with human corpses to satiate his hunger. On the other hand, a shrewd orange named Julius starts the trend of using teeth as currency and takes over multiple establishments across Foodtopia to gain control of their refrigeration system. This allows Julius to effectively monopolize the refrigeration business and earn huge amounts of money by exploiting the necessities of the food that needs refrigeration to sustain itself.
This economic divide soon leads impoverished food to steal and participate in other crimes, to stop which Frank and Brenda employ a judicial and administrative system, with Barry being a key member of law enforcement. Noticing the growing disparity among foods, Brenda advocates for the abolishment of currency in its entirety, while Frank suggests an equal division of currency among all the foods. However, Julius controls the market, advertises a luxurious lifestyle to manipulate the minds of food, and directly opposes Frank and Brenda’s position as the leaders of Foodtopia. To make matters worse, the judiciary and authoritative departments also turn out to be under his payroll, and Sammy, who had found a way to assuage Kareem’s sordid memory as a talk show host, decides to turn his back on his former friends by acting as Julius’ spokesperson.
Frank and Brenda feel themselves cornered, and even though Frank wishes to seek Jack’s counsel to get out of this mess, Brenda wants to sort this out in the food way. Unfortunately, with the majority of Foodtopia in the orange’s pocket, there is not much they can hope to change. In a desperate attempt to turn fortune in their favor, Frank commits a daring high-speed chase-heist in “Fast and Furious” style and steals a load of teeth by adhering to Jack’s advice. This causes a rift between Frank and Brenda, as Brenda believes that Frank’s mind is being corrupted by human influence and Jack needs to be killed before it’s too late, but Frank stops her from doing so.
Did Frank and His Friends Manage to Restore Peace in Foodtopia?
On the other hand, Barry grows suspicious about Frank and Brenda after sensing a possible human presence in Foodtopia and interrogates Brenda, who eventually confesses to the truth. Due to his separation from Brenda, a disheartened Frank shares his mind with Jack, and as he finds much-needed confidence and support from him, the duo makes love. Brenda and Barry catch them in the act, leading to Jack running off into the woods. Brenda and Barry are extremely disappointed in Frank, and their clash results in Julius becoming the new leader of Foodtopia.
Frank admits his wrongdoings by apologizing to his best friend and girlfriend, and he wishes to mend the broken relationship. Brenda forgives him, and even though Frank feels dejected at seeing the food of Foodtopia turning their backs on them in Julius’ favor, she is hopeful that they will adhere to a better way by following their examples. Frank goes to break things off with Jack, and Barry follows him in the hopes of killing the human. However, as Barry notices Jack having genuine feelings for Frank, he finds it impossible to harm him. On the other hand, Brenda decides to sneak into Julius’ penthouse to appeal to his senses and finds out the truth of his actions.
Brenda finds out that Jeri, a tiny grain of rice, was controlling Julius all along to create the class divide and raise a capitalist society simply to cause the food much suffering. Previously, during the rain crisis, Jeri the rice grain was neglected, chased, and trampled by everyone for being weak, and she lost her entire family as well. Julius, who was particularly unkind to her, became her vessel to exact revenge upon other food, which is why she has been controlling him to fulfill her heart’s desire. Now that Brenda knows the truth, she decides to kill Brenda, and even though the hotdog bun perseveres by battling Jeri-controlled Julius, eventually Brenda meets her end as the grain of rice puts her under sink water. Frank, who was trying to find Brenda and sneaked inside Julius’ penthouse in search of her, is aghast after seeing Brenda’s condition, and Brenda spends her last moments in Frank’s arms. Julius (controlled by Jeri) frames Frank for committing the first murder among the foodkind and promptly arranges for his public execution.
Barry had previously tried to convince Sammy to assist his friends, but to no avail, and after Brenda’s death, Sammy is deeply affected by guilt. He joins Barry as he wishes to help Frank, whom they believe to be innocent, but they have no evidence to prove so. However, the duo finds unexpected assistance from a snoopy viener journalist who used to track Brenda’s movements, and from the recorded video footage, they find Jeri the rice grain to be the culprit. Barry decides to take Jack’s help to let him and Sammy enter a media house and broadcast the video footage moments before Frank’s execution. As a result, the food of Foodtopia frees Frank and turns on Julius. Barry beats the rice grain out of him and decides to kill her as a form of justice, but Frank reminds him that Brenda never would have wanted one food to kill another. Barry spares Jeri’s life, who seems to have finally seen the better side of the food, but it is too late for her anyway as the crow from earlier swiftly devours her afterwards—in the sudden absence of the corpse scarecrow.
To honor Brenda’s memory, Frank urges the food to abolish tooth currency; however, even after doing so, the class divide persists as the strong food takes over the foodtopia, leaving the weak ones to suffer on their own. Once again, the pattern of subjugation returns, and strong foods seem to have found new ways to manipulate the minds of others. Frank is deeply disgusted by this, and in the final moments of the series, he brings Jack into Foodtopia to act as his enforcer. The food is not able to overpower him this time, and they have no choice but to adhere to Frank’s command. Barry and Sammy are a little surprised, but Frank maintains that in order to honor Brenda’s death, this is the only way to go about the situation. In the final moments of the finale, a drone is seen hovering over Foodtopia, the significance of which we will discuss in a separate article.
In Sausage Party: Foodtopia‘s ending, peace is restored in Foodtopia, but at the cost of their freedom. Will Frank see the error in his autocratic ways and seek better judgment from his friends? Or, like the real world, Foodtopia is doomed as well? The cliffhanger of an ending suggests that there is further continuation planned by the makers, which can provide answers to these questions in the near future.
