A CG film about moving, talking, singing, swearing sausages, Seth Rogen’s Sausage Party is sure to be polarizing. In fact, it already is.

In this installment of Double Takes, two Emerald writers had drastically different opinions upon seeing the trailer; here’s what they had to say.

Watch the trailer for Sausage Party below.

Chris Berg (@ChrisBerg25):

Seth Rogen might be the most divisive comedian in the current studio system. He’s written, starred in, and even directed some of the most iconic comedies of the past decade. Even his dramatic roles in films like Steve Jobs and 50/50 have been impressive. Despite this, Rogen’s reputation has never eclipsed the “stoner aesthetic.” Even when he plots something ambitious, people never seem to appreciate it beyond being just “another pot comedy.” No clearer was this made than with the debut of the trailer to Sausage Party.

The trailer is only two minutes, but nails a simple arc that leaves an impression. We’re eased in with an identifiable soundtrack, typical stylization and all the expectations of studio animation. Then we take a turn into the morbid and perverse. But rather than a hard cut into adult comedy, it reveals the underlying horror of a premise that the audience is prime to immediately accept. Seeing an Oreo cookie and Cup O’ Noodles reenact the beach landing from Saving Private Ryan should be a moment of referential parody – yet the scene is played straight enough to communicate the same atmosphere of shock.

There’s nothing new about making an R-rated cartoon. South Park has made the trope of animated characters shouting swear words passé for over a decade. But the scale of Sausage Party is nothing to sneeze at.

This is an all-star CG animated feature from of the biggest studios in Hollywood. It fits every CG animation trope while boasting an R rating. Rather than try to remedy this cognitive dissonance between form and narrative, Sausage Party is doubling down on it, not through cheap gags but earnest comedy in premise. Despite coming from a comedian criticized for being one-note, there’s little indication that Sausage Party is aiming for the easy jokes. Perhaps the movie where Rogen literally makes himself into a piece of meat will be the one where he finally earns respect.

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Daniel Bromfield (@bromf3):

Remember Annoying Orange? That web series where that google-eyed little fruit (who may or may not have reminded you of the person showing you Annoying Orange) irritates the living hell out of another food item before the latter’s gruesome death by knife? Ever want a whole movie of it? With Seth Rogen and racial stereotypes? Well, you’re in luck: Sausage Party is coming August 12.

There are two types of animated food: that that wants to be eaten (the Planters peanut, those “let’s all go to the lobby” creeps) and that that doesn’t. The talking CGI sausages of Sausage Party and their bun belles, who resemble nothing so much as the brain bug from Starship Troopers with lipstick, are the latter. They hope to be selected by the Gods and taken to a better place than their supermarket home. Of course, they’re quickly eaten in a scene that’s not only identical to Annoying Orange but trades in the same sort of “if you don’t laugh you’re a pussy” shock humor pioneered by the animated comedy of another Seth.

It’s been eight years since Pineapple Express, a movie Rogen made in the full throes of stonerdom. Perhaps that eight years of weed tolerance just made the difference between Pineapple’s off-the-wall grandeur and a movie whose pitch couldn’t have more than three words off from “what if we made a movie called Sausage Party with talking sausages?”

Obviously, racism doesn’t harsh his buzz. Seeing as the sausages are apparently white Christians, there’s also a Native American liquor bottle (yes, a liquor bottle), a Jewish bagel, an Arab lavash, a Salma Hayek-voiced taco that’s probably gonna be sexy and Nazi sauerkraut that claims to have “exterminated the juice.” Rogen is Jewish; I guess the comedy industry taught him to hate himself, as it has so many other marginalized folks.

Sausage Party is the first R-rated CG-animated movie in history. It could have been the Toy Story of its field, as commendable for its content as its innovation. Instead, it seems content to be its Birth of a Nation.