Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong On 'Tuca & Bertie,' Their New Netflix Animated Comedy | THR News - video Dailymotion

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Following a screening of the first two episodes of Netflix's new animated comedy 'Tuca & Bertie' on Wednesday night, Hanawalt, Haddish and Wong gathered for a Q&A and discussed how the show came together.

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00:00I have an amazing idea! Follow me!

00:02Nooooooo!

00:04Netflix's new animated comedy, Tuca and Birdie, from Birdjack Horseman producer

00:08Lisa Hanawalt explores the friendship between two 30-something bird women,

00:12voiced by comedians Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong. Haddish plays Tuca, a carefree

00:16and confident toucan, while Wong takes on the role of Birdie, an anxious and repressed

00:20songbird. On Wednesday night, Hanawalt, Haddish and Wong appeared after a screening

00:24of the first two episodes of the series at Tribeca Film Festival to discuss how the

00:28show came together, with Hanawalt explaining that she just really wanted to make a show

00:32about female friendship and drew on her own experiences when writing her new show.

00:36Of the central dynamic, Hanawalt said,

00:38They're kind of opposites, but Birdie has Tuca qualities, Tuca has Birdie qualities,

00:42and you can kind of see why they've been friends for so long.

00:45Meanwhile, real-life longtime friends Haddish and Wong are over the moon to finally be

00:48working together, with Wong telling the audience,

00:51We met 10 years ago in San Francisco at a shitty time for us both when we were just

00:55starting out in comedy. The next time I saw her was in New York when she'd

00:58auditioned for SNL and everybody around town said she'd killed it and she knew she killed it,

01:02and she was like, if they don't give it to me, that's f***ed up.

01:04Added Haddish,

01:05Yep, I said, next time I'll be hosting, and that's that.

01:08True to her word, the Girls Trip Breakout did indeed host a long-running sketch show in 2017.

01:13I lived in a lot of group homes and about to convincing that Dana Carvey is just as funny

01:17as Damon Wayans was a problem. I got stabbed twice, y'all, in a bunk bed.

01:22We balance each other out, Haddish said of her dynamic with Wong. I can be really OTT

01:26and I look at her and she'll remind me that I need to bring it back down just a little bit.

01:30I really value her a lot. I like having her around. I wish we could be in a studio together more often.

01:34The panel brought up the fact that Tuca & Birdie is one of very few animated comedies

01:38created by a woman and created by, not co-created by, as Haddish pointed out.

01:42I just wanted to make a show that I want to watch, Hannah Woltz said.

01:45I love adult cartoons and I wanted to see one about female relationships and about women

01:49and what it's like to be a woman in the world with stupid jokes that I would laugh at about

01:53eating spicy chips for lunch.

01:55It's not all laughs though, as the second episode of the animation involves a storyline

01:58about sexual harassment.

02:00Overall, the show is very light and optimistic and feels like a safe place, Hannah Woltz said.

02:04But we do get into some darker stuff. I like shows that are very silly and surreal

02:08and then also have some relatable moments and some darker themes.

02:11Hannah Woltz elaborated on this comment later in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter saying,

02:15I wanted it to be this very silly, cartoony world, but I also wanted to explore deep, rough topics

02:20like early childhood trauma and harassment, men crossing boundaries and unreliable mentors,

02:25and our relationship to other women who we feel like we should support. All that stuff is interesting to me.

02:30For anyone who has watched Bojack Horseman and Raphael Bob Wasper's animated series

02:34about a humanoid horse who was also a washed-up 90s sitcom star dealing with substance abuse

02:39and self-loathing, it may come as a surprise that there are restrictions as to what the writers

02:43and producers can put on screen, and also that Tuca & Birdie takes place in an entirely different universe.

02:48Says Hannah Woltz of Birdtown, the imaginatively designed city in which Tuca and Birdie live,

02:52it's a representation of all the stuff she isn't allowed to do on the Will Arnett and Aaron Paul voice series.

02:57This is my place to go crazy and just do what I do in my personal work, which is more surreal

03:01and has very loose rules to the universe, Hannah Woltz tells THR.

03:04It's a bit more fun for me. I like having plant people. I love that Birdie's cell phone can come alive

03:09and talk to her. I really wanted to tie it to the children's animation that I grew up watching

03:13and that I still really enjoy, but I wanted to combine that with adult themes. It's for adults, and it's weird.

03:18Ask what she hopes viewers will take away from the series, Hannah Woltz's answer was simple.

03:22I hope people find it funny and relatable, and I hope women see themselves in the characters.

03:27When reviewing the new series, THR's Daniel Feinberg gives Hannah Woltz perhaps the ultimate compliment

03:31in comparing her characters to the two incredibly funny and relatable ones created by

03:36Alana Glazer and Abby Jacobson.

03:38Writes Feinberg, both Tuka and Birdie are complicated characters with psychological roadblocks

03:42holding them back, yet this isn't a Bojackian story of repression and internalized angst,

03:47because what really holds the story together is a lovely portrait of female friendship,

03:51one that seems unconsciously or serendipitously designed and scheduled to fill the void left

03:55by the departed Broad City.

03:57All in all, concludes Feinberg, I laughed out loud a lot at Tuka and Birdie and watched

04:01with a big smile on my face the rest of the time.

04:03Tuka and Birdie is now available to watch on Netflix.

04:06To read more on this story, head to THR.com.

04:08For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.

Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong On 'Tuca & Bertie,' Their New Netflix Animated Comedy | THR News

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