Whoops—before a screening of Finding Dory earlier this month, a California movie theater accidentally ran a trailer for Seth Rogen’s upcoming R-rated animated film Sausage Party. For those who haven’t seen the Sausage Party trailer, it starts out like a whimsical kids movie about anthropomorphized food only to devolve into a horror comedy about humans torturing and killing (a.k.a. cooking) the innocent foods who only want to be their friends. “They’re eating children!” one hot dog shrieks in horror as a lady munches on some baby carrots. The whole thing is basically a gruesome Pixar parody that specifically tries to shock its audience with unexpected violence.
So, yes, not the best material to show to a bunch of kids waiting to see a lighthearted film about a funny fish. Theatergoers understandably complained and the theater’s vice president of operations issued a heartfelt apology in a local newspaper. He called the incident “a one-time honest mistake” that occurred because the venue had to accommodate additional demand for Finding Dory by switching screens and accidentally forgot to switch the movies too. The theater didn’t realize its mistake until the wrong trailer started playing. “We fully realize this trailer is not appropriate for Dory and we would never schedule something like that,” the VP explained. “The trailer for Sausage Party is not and never has been scheduled with Dory.”
It’s a good apology filled with the requisite regret and a plausible explanation for the mistake. On the other hand, it’s a pretty big coincidence that the mixed up movie just happened to start with the trailer for an R-rated animated film that opens by tricking people into thinking it’s a fun family adventure. If you ask us, it seems a little more likely that someone didn’t watch the trailer all the way through before sticking it with Finding Dory. Or perhaps a rogue movie theater employee took it upon themselves to expose a bunch of kids to the harsh realities of life. Which, to be fair, isn’t entirely thematically inappropriate for Finding Dory. After all, Finding Nemo did open with a scene in which Marlin’s wife and hundreds of their children were brutally murdered by a barracuda.