Seth Rogen Previews Raunchy Animated Sausage Party

Moviegoers with the chronological age of adults but the aesthetic tastes of pre-teens represent a lucrative audience, and if anyone knows how to tap that audience, it's Seth Rogen. This week, the actor/producer presented South By Southwest with a preview of Sausage Party, an R-rated animated romp that promises loads of profanity and crude humor in a context normally reserved for family-friendly fare.

It seems certain that Sausage Party was pitched to studios as an R-rated version of Toy Story, and it features a cast of personified food items trying to escape destruction at the hands - and mouths - of humans. The screenplay was written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who previously collaborated on Pineapple Express, and it features the creative input of Rogen's usual partners in crime, including Jonah Hill, James Franco, Michael Cera and Paul Rudd.

Rogen's box-office track record has been somewhat spotty lately. As a voice actor in the much more kid-friendly Kung Fu Panda 3, he scored big earlier this year. The last film over which he had creative control, 2014's The Interview, was a major disappointment, however. Yet, the technique of adding profanity, sex, drugs and violence to kids' stuff has proven very successful in films such as Ted and Deadpool, so Sausage Party might just be one of 2016's sleeper hits.

Sausage Party is scheduled for release on August 12, 2016.