Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode. Though very difficent. I
Speaker 1: am your host, if you Waddy Way and sitting across
Speaker 1: from me as own Danny Fernandez. I thought you were
Speaker 1: going to say something now, Oh well I can, I can,
Speaker 1: but you know, it seems so funny, fabulous, so wonderful.
Speaker 1: I know it is. It is a mic drop, just
Speaker 1: saying my own name, just saying my own name. Oh yeah, today,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a fun episode. We had quite a
Speaker 1: fun time watching we did. It was a good time.
Speaker 1: We were falling, you know, it was. It was a good,
Speaker 1: good one. I thought you were going to pee your pants,
Speaker 1: you were. We sat next to each other during this
Speaker 1: film and it was I think it was oh a
Speaker 1: one thirty Mattinee, which I highly recommend because they're also
Speaker 1: a bunch of kids in there too, and listening to
Speaker 1: them giggle, um like the person behind us, the girl
Speaker 1: behind us, remember, oh my gosh, they just laugh at
Speaker 1: also inappropriate Yeah yeah yeah, and they sing a hut experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was fun. It was fun. So today we are
Speaker 1: talking about angry birds. We almost got it. We almost
Speaker 1: didn't it. I don't know why I thought you should
Speaker 1: try and say today we're joined by the director of
Speaker 1: Angry Birds to throw up Van Orman. Thank you, yeah, thanks, yeah,
Speaker 1: thank thank you for And you also played the seal, right,
Speaker 1: did the seal? I did the worms and um the
Speaker 1: dog most of the time. Okay, both of those killed you.
Speaker 1: I remember your I love a good recurring bit. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's you know, it plays fun. And that poor
Speaker 1: dog frozen. Oh my gosh. We yeah, we're going to
Speaker 1: hop into the film because, honest to god, I was
Speaker 1: surprised at the I mean, the humor was just so
Speaker 1: some of it. I was like, these kids are gonna
Speaker 1: watch this ten years from now and be like, what
Speaker 1: it was the perfect recipe for kids film where it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, a little something for some kids, a little
Speaker 1: little little light something for the adults if you're paying attention.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's funny mentioned sitting next to the kids,
Speaker 1: because when I watch it's so fun Like the first
Speaker 1: half of the movie, the kids are like laughing all
Speaker 1: the way through, and then I don't know, fourth the
Speaker 1: third of the way through, then the parents started, and
Speaker 1: then that builds them. By the end of the movie,
Speaker 1: you can't hear the kids at all anymore. Their parents
Speaker 1: are laughing. It's such a good time. Um. But there
Speaker 1: if I wanted to also talk about some of your
Speaker 1: history before we get into the history of Angry Birds,
Speaker 1: because you have such a ginormous is that a word?
Speaker 1: Ginormous history. You were also the storyboard artist for Camp Laslow,
Speaker 1: The power Puff Girls, The Grim Adventures a Billion Mandy.
Speaker 1: This man has worked on essentially our childhood um of
Speaker 1: everyone listening. Um. You were also the creator of the
Speaker 1: Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. What drove you to wanting to
Speaker 1: be an animation specifically, Well, I didn't have the Internet
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, so I actually I had
Speaker 1: no idea that you could have a job in animation. UM.
Speaker 1: So like um Simpson's I came on UM when I
Speaker 1: was like thirteen and and it was I loved it,
Speaker 1: but I thought, oh, that's one guy. That's one guy
Speaker 1: who got really lucky and got to make his own show. Um.
Speaker 1: And then, uh, I don't know. I didn't know what
Speaker 1: I was gonna do until I was twenty four. So, UM,
Speaker 1: I stumbled into a job making video games. My friend
Speaker 1: got a job and I was like, what, you can
Speaker 1: have a job just doing cartoon stuff. UM. And so uh,
Speaker 1: I went to cal Arts um because that's where you
Speaker 1: went to school to do animation. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: that's still the same today. Um. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the creative people out of the directors and show
Speaker 1: creators and stuff do come out of Calerts because you
Speaker 1: do UM. You get a pretty solid foundation there and
Speaker 1: actually probably believe more than anything, it's just because it
Speaker 1: already has that cloud. So when you get there, UM,
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm not the best person I know at
Speaker 1: arts anymore. Everyone is so good um, and and coming
Speaker 1: into it so late and having no idea that existed
Speaker 1: for me, it was like Hogwarts. It was like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, this now everything makes sense why I'm a weirdo.
Speaker 1: This is this is what you can do with it.
Speaker 1: But but then you're really you push yourself because you
Speaker 1: feel bad. You feel bad that everyone's so much better
Speaker 1: than you at everything. Um. And everyone's better than you
Speaker 1: at something no matter how good you are UM at CalArts,
Speaker 1: so it really pushes you um to up your work
Speaker 1: ethic um. And you learn things from these people. You
Speaker 1: learned like, oh people really laugh at that joke they do. Oh,
Speaker 1: people really get bored when you make really self indulgent
Speaker 1: student phones. So we aside from the Simpsons, were their
Speaker 1: cartoons that you were really drawn to growing up that
Speaker 1: you feel like influenced you. Um, Renan Stimpy was a
Speaker 1: big and um yeah, I mean all of the cartoons. Um,
Speaker 1: Smurfs was my favorite. I think Smurfs and Hemane. I
Speaker 1: would probably have said to my friend's Hemane was my favorite,
Speaker 1: but totally Smurfs. Was you give off a Smurfs vibe?
Speaker 1: I can see that. Um yeah, So why don't we
Speaker 1: just dive straight in if you didn't want to dive into. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Angry Birds, let's get this nitty gritty out the way.
Speaker 1: How we kick it all off with an explanation like?
Speaker 1: The Angry Birds is a video game franchise created by
Speaker 1: the Finnish company Rovio Entertainment. The series focus on multicolored
Speaker 1: birds which try to save their eggs from green colored
Speaker 1: pigs their enemies. Inspired by Crushed the Castle, the aim
Speaker 1: has been praised for a successful commodation of fun gameplay,
Speaker 1: comical style, and low prize. It's popularity led to many
Speaker 1: spinoffs uh spinoff versions of Angry Birds created for PCs
Speaker 1: and video game consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters,
Speaker 1: a televis animated series, and a feature film by Chain
Speaker 1: where two thousand and fourteen, there had been over two
Speaker 1: billion downloads across all platforms, including both regular and special editions.
Speaker 1: By July two thousand fifteen, the series games had been
Speaker 1: downloaded more than three billion times Collection three for Builgon,
Speaker 1: making it the most downloaded freemium game series of all time.
Speaker 1: Eat That Fortnite. The original Angry Birds has been called
Speaker 1: one of the most mainstream games out right now, one
Speaker 1: of the great runaway hits of two thousand ten, and
Speaker 1: the largest mobile apps successes the world has ever seen
Speaker 1: so far. An animated feature film based on the series
Speaker 1: was released by Columbia Pictures on the twenty of the
Speaker 1: May and two thousand sixteen, and the first main series sequel,
Speaker 1: Angry Birds to What It Do was Really East on
Speaker 1: July two thousand fifteen. Is that I don't think that's right?
Speaker 1: Is that right? Um? Now, when you're reading something, Oh
Speaker 1: they're talking about the game, Okay, we're there, the game
Speaker 1: Angry but you're like looking at your friend. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was wild. So the sequel to the game Angry Birds
Speaker 1: two was released in July. I thought we went back
Speaker 1: in time for a second. I was losing my mind.
Speaker 1: There's something really cool. We had Sam Maggs, who is
Speaker 1: a game developer on and ufer Insomniac Games, and she
Speaker 1: was saying that she talks, she goes and she talks
Speaker 1: to groups of of little girls about gaming and that um,
Speaker 1: she'll be like, how many of you consider yourself a gamer?
Speaker 1: And a lot of them won't raise their hands. And
Speaker 1: she's like, but how many of you plays say Angry
Speaker 1: Birds And they'll all raise their hands. And she was like,
Speaker 1: then you're a gamer. That is a game that you're playing.
Speaker 1: It's just so funny that people have in their head like, oh,
Speaker 1: if it's not Fortnite, if it's not you know, World
Speaker 1: of Warcraft or something like that, they don't consider it
Speaker 1: a game. But she likes to say like, no, this
Speaker 1: is a game. If you look like you have thoughts,
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, I totally agree. And I just think
Speaker 1: it's funny that people are like, oh, if I play
Speaker 1: Angry Birds, I'm not a gamer because it's mechanics are
Speaker 1: very similar to a game I used to play a
Speaker 1: lot called gun Bound, where my gun bound Heads. It
Speaker 1: was this old Naxon game where you were in these
Speaker 1: little gun ships and you you used basically physics to
Speaker 1: aim your shots and they would shoot across the map.
Speaker 1: And it was based off of like an even older game.
Speaker 1: But you can customize the ship, but that's kind of
Speaker 1: the the same kind of a skeleton of angry birds
Speaker 1: as you're aiming the shot to uh to hit it,
Speaker 1: and you have different types of ammunition. So to me,
Speaker 1: it's funny when it's like, oh no, I remember being
Speaker 1: stand up late to one on the phone what my
Speaker 1: friends were strategizing and like ganging up against people, and
Speaker 1: like it's just a simpler like version that you can
Speaker 1: just play on your phone. Yeah, mobile games are games.
Speaker 1: They require a lot of skill and then people get
Speaker 1: really good at them. The speakining you mentioned Fortnite, a
Speaker 1: huge bass plays mobile a lot of the kids. And
Speaker 1: that's what I think. I've said this on an earlier
Speaker 1: episode is the great equalizer because like consoles run for
Speaker 1: like what to three D bucks, a cell phone most
Speaker 1: kids have it, so like if you if you have
Speaker 1: a smartphone, you can play this like triple a game Fortnite,
Speaker 1: which is why, like you know, everyone you know, everyone
Speaker 1: feels some type of way. I remember when I talked
Speaker 1: about the Diablo mobile game and a few of y'all
Speaker 1: slid into the MS and we had, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: some civilized conversation. Uh. But like mobile That's why I
Speaker 1: like am excited by the idea of mobile games because
Speaker 1: I called this five six years ago, back when Infinity
Speaker 1: Infinity Blade came out for the iPhone. Uh. But that's
Speaker 1: just my whole like aside on mobile gaming and like
Speaker 1: it's growth and how much it's impacted like back when
Speaker 1: Infinity Blade. Like the concept of cross platform you can
Speaker 1: literally play Fortnite with someone on a PS four. That
Speaker 1: is crazy. So now you're not you know, like if
Speaker 1: you want to go way back when you're the kid
Speaker 1: who didn't have the Genesis or the S and E
Speaker 1: s and you couldn't play long, Nope, you have a
Speaker 1: cell phone. You can play with your friends whose parents
Speaker 1: were able to get him a PS four or an
Speaker 1: Xbox one. You you're you include Like that is beautiful
Speaker 1: in its own self. I did not realize that Angry
Speaker 1: Birds was breaking down class and economic barriers by allowing
Speaker 1: gameplay to everybody. That's really cool. You learn new things
Speaker 1: on this podcast all the time. So I know that
Speaker 1: you have kids. Were they playing Angry Birds? Like? How
Speaker 1: are you? What was your first introduction to it before
Speaker 1: you tapped onto this as a director. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: you saw it or might have had it on your
Speaker 1: phone or your kid's phones or um. To be totally honest,
Speaker 1: I'd never played the game or watched the movie. That's
Speaker 1: fine asked me to make this one, but I did
Speaker 1: after the research. Yeah, I I Actually I'm not a
Speaker 1: gamer at all. My first job was video games, and
Speaker 1: I realized really quickly if I get into video games,
Speaker 1: like I want to be good at it and I
Speaker 1: will not stop um and it's not really what I
Speaker 1: want to do with all of my time. Um uh.
Speaker 1: So it was all or nothing, and I was like,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just not I'll make them. I'll play through
Speaker 1: as much as I need to know, um to know
Speaker 1: how it works. But UM, I think one reason that
Speaker 1: I went into storytelling is I like the stories. I
Speaker 1: like I like telling the stories. I like taling a tale. Um.
Speaker 1: And in video games, something that's super cool about video games,
Speaker 1: they say, like the golden rule of making the perfect
Speaker 1: video game as it should take a minute to learn
Speaker 1: in a lifetime to master UM. And so like you
Speaker 1: suck them in quick and then you once you got
Speaker 1: your hooks, and like they're they're just like trying to
Speaker 1: reach a higher, unattainable level. And I think that's super cool. Um.
Speaker 1: It's kind of similar to TV because you don't give
Speaker 1: them too much UM and movies, though, you want to
Speaker 1: wrap it up. You want to give them um uh
Speaker 1: inclusive ending and make them feel like they accomplished something
Speaker 1: and they gained something at the end of the day
Speaker 1: and there's not more out there and have like this unsatisfied.
Speaker 1: I gotta get right back into it. Um. And I
Speaker 1: love that. I love that about TV and movies. UM.
Speaker 1: I guess just the storytelling aspect of it. Yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: in video games that that definitely has a overlap with
Speaker 1: video games as well. I feel like, um and one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why this was so successful, I feel
Speaker 1: like people really latched onto the characters. Well it's funny
Speaker 1: because yeah, like I feel like, you know, Anger Birds one,
Speaker 1: you know kind of like wrote the wave of the
Speaker 1: popularity of the game and too you know, And I'm
Speaker 1: not just saying this because you're in here. I'd say
Speaker 1: it if you weren't in here really kind of like
Speaker 1: the improv term is heightening and and just like blowing
Speaker 1: out the world. And it really did like flash out
Speaker 1: these characters and like I think tackled some very interesting
Speaker 1: themes and just the the aspect of like doing things
Speaker 1: to too for because you want to be wanted and
Speaker 1: not necessary, you know, and just like that was really
Speaker 1: exciting and fun. Yeah. I think also an improv, it's
Speaker 1: playing at the top of your intelligence, and I feel
Speaker 1: like that's what the film did as well. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: just wrapping up about the development. In early two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: Rovio staff began reviewing proposals for potential games. One such
Speaker 1: proposal came from senior game designer Jacko Lislo in form
Speaker 1: of a simulated screenshot for youatweing some angry looking birds
Speaker 1: with no visible legs or wings. While the picture gave
Speaker 1: no clust to what type of game was being played,
Speaker 1: I love that, just like taking it in. Like remember
Speaker 1: that whoever first pitched um Mario, that would have just
Speaker 1: been this plumber who has rescue a princess. Uh, stay
Speaker 1: with me here, everybody again. It was after crushed the castle.
Speaker 1: This is the funniest part to me. At the time,
Speaker 1: the swine flew epidemic was also in the news, so
Speaker 1: the staff made the birds enemies pigs as you do.
Speaker 1: Um and Angry Birds was the studio's fifty second produced
Speaker 1: game and its initial release, and like you said, it
Speaker 1: did huge numbers here, m hmm yeah so yeah when
Speaker 1: it first came out though, it didn't sell that many copies.
Speaker 1: And it was after it was featured uh um. After
Speaker 1: it was a featured app on the UK App Store
Speaker 1: in February two, it quickly reached number one and it
Speaker 1: blew up. It's funny how a little visibility, you know.
Speaker 1: It was like this is tight, y'all, Like that's what
Speaker 1: the app store was like, like, yo, don't sleep on this.
Speaker 1: And being on the front page of Netflix, I feel like, um,
Speaker 1: they always get that huge boost. I would not have
Speaker 1: found ships Creak that way. Yeah, me neither. So good.
Speaker 1: I've rewatched it so many times. Which which character do
Speaker 1: you gravitate towards? Um? It started with David, He's such
Speaker 1: a good character, and then slowly like um, I love
Speaker 1: more and more Alexa and actually the mom who was
Speaker 1: my least favorite character because I was like all right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Moira her she's the most fascinating now. She just owns
Speaker 1: like characters so much. It's amazing. I just love that
Speaker 1: they let her take whatever risks she wants, Like if
Speaker 1: she's she just like says like baby or whatever. She's
Speaker 1: pronounces things how they shouldn't be pronounced. Um, there's like cool,
Speaker 1: go with it. I love it. We have to take
Speaker 1: a really quick break then we're going to jump into
Speaker 1: the films of Angry Birds right after this. All right,
Speaker 1: and well come back to Nerdificent. We're back and we're
Speaker 1: going to jump right into the movies. Uh yeah, so
Speaker 1: Angry Birds. The first movie was the Angry Birds movie,
Speaker 1: also known simply as Angry Birds is released in the
Speaker 1: UK as such, So the Plant because this is important
Speaker 1: when we talk about two, yeah and one. It was
Speaker 1: about a reclusive, temperamental, outcast bird named Red who lived
Speaker 1: in a village called Bird Island with other flightless birds
Speaker 1: who lead angerless lives. When his temper causes a premature
Speaker 1: hatching of another bird's egg, he is sentenced to attend
Speaker 1: an anger management class, the maximum penalty on the island.
Speaker 1: Red's classmates Chuck, who is hyperactive and can move at
Speaker 1: hyper Velosophy and Bomb, who can cause explosions with his
Speaker 1: anger and fear, try to befriend him, but he avoids
Speaker 1: them because he's angry. One day, a boat docks at
Speaker 1: the island shore, damaging Red's house. The birds agreeded by
Speaker 1: green colored pigs and their captain, Leonard, who claimed to
Speaker 1: be peaceful explorers, bringing offerings of friendship. The pigs ingratiate
Speaker 1: themselves with birds by introducing them to various innovations, notably
Speaker 1: a giant slingshot, but begin to overwhelm the island with
Speaker 1: their numbers. Red becomes suspicious. He recruits Chuck and Bomb
Speaker 1: to find Mighty Eagle, the only flying burden island, who
Speaker 1: has not been seen for many years. They find Mighty
Speaker 1: Eagle on top of Bird Mountain, but he's overweight, self absorbed,
Speaker 1: and leads the life of a slacker is not flowing years,
Speaker 1: and refuses to help them. Red discovers that the pigs
Speaker 1: planting dynamite around the island while other birds are distracted
Speaker 1: with the rave party, but they arrived too late to
Speaker 1: sound of warning. The pigs escape with the eggs and
Speaker 1: activate the dynamite, destroying the village. The other birds apologize
Speaker 1: to Read for not believing him. Under his leadership, they
Speaker 1: organized an army and construct a boat from Rubble Fall
Speaker 1: the Pigs to Pig Islands and the battle ensues. They
Speaker 1: win and Red as a champion. He's a hero. He's
Speaker 1: a hero. Yeah. So we had Jason Sadakis, Josh Gad,
Speaker 1: Jenny McBride, Bill Hater, Maya, Rudolph, Peter Dingli just a
Speaker 1: part of the cast. Um and uh then we hop
Speaker 1: into Angry Birds too, and you so we had we
Speaker 1: had all of the cast returning, right, Um, not most
Speaker 1: of them. I wish that we had Keith McKinnon. She
Speaker 1: is my hero, and boy, we had to make room
Speaker 1: for some new characters and unfortunately she didn't come back,
Speaker 1: but I love her. Yeah. Yeah, So what was it
Speaker 1: like to work with let's say, Jason as Read, I
Speaker 1: mean taking on that role again. Um, it was amazing.
Speaker 1: He's so smart. I mean, most of these actors you
Speaker 1: think they're just reading scripts or whatever, but he is
Speaker 1: so such a smart collaboratorator, such a great improv verb. So, um,
Speaker 1: you throw him a line, he's never seen it before,
Speaker 1: and he has like this catalog of funny lines that
Speaker 1: serve the same purpose, but are like, oh man, that's better. Um,
Speaker 1: um super good, super smart and and actually most of
Speaker 1: this movie was very improv really. Yeah. So we we
Speaker 1: didn't have writers for most of the movie, like for
Speaker 1: a few months at the beginning and then a few
Speaker 1: months like three fourths of the way through. UM. But
Speaker 1: we treated it like like in TV UM we do
Speaker 1: board story driven shows, UM where you have an outline
Speaker 1: and we figured out like the backbone of the movie
Speaker 1: and then we improv. So with the storyboard artist it
Speaker 1: was a very yes and oh and then we could
Speaker 1: do this this, then we could do this UM. And
Speaker 1: with the actors we did the same thing. So we
Speaker 1: and we tried a lot of ideas up front. We
Speaker 1: had like you know, basic idea of what the movie was,
Speaker 1: um and where we needed to get to, but we
Speaker 1: did a lot of playing around with the actors and
Speaker 1: with all of the artists. It was fun. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's what I wanted to say, is like, well,
Speaker 1: so you know, Anger Birds one comes out, was there
Speaker 1: anything from one that kind of like where that you
Speaker 1: were like, okay, I want to take it this way,
Speaker 1: Like how was the baton handed off to you on
Speaker 1: the first movie they had. Their job was to sell
Speaker 1: why they're why they're making a movie based on the game,
Speaker 1: um and it's Angry Birds. It has to be about anger,
Speaker 1: and that is such a hard thing to tackle, like
Speaker 1: this is why anger is really good? Um, which maybe
Speaker 1: it is, but it's still hard to do a story
Speaker 1: about that. UM so uh So in this movie, we
Speaker 1: didn't really have to do that. I mean, we could
Speaker 1: delve deeper into his issues, but it's not just about
Speaker 1: anger issues. And that was very nice um to just
Speaker 1: be able to get into like more real emotions and
Speaker 1: why he's vulnerable. And then as far as like this
Speaker 1: storytelling that we got to explore on this movie, we
Speaker 1: didn't have to have them enemies, And I think that's
Speaker 1: that's really hard and I think it's hard to like
Speaker 1: feel good about making this movie, Like, yeah, we were
Speaker 1: justified hating these guys what they had to do in
Speaker 1: the first movie, and and this one we could like, Okay,
Speaker 1: they hated each other at the end of the first movie.
Speaker 1: Let's pare him up. Let's force them to work with
Speaker 1: the people they don't I'm not people birds and pigs
Speaker 1: that they didn't want to work with. Um and and
Speaker 1: that's hard. Um. And it's hard even amongst Red's friends
Speaker 1: and his friend's sister. Like he's got some issues, he's
Speaker 1: got some trust issues to work out, and I think, UM,
Speaker 1: working working on a movie, UM with a bunch of
Speaker 1: other people. It was kind of the metaphor for working
Speaker 1: on the movie. The movie Uh metaphor was also the
Speaker 1: behind the scenes metaphor. It's it's definitely harder to work
Speaker 1: with a bunch of other people and to collaborate, and
Speaker 1: everyone has their own ideas that they're trying to cram
Speaker 1: in there, um, and they don't know what you say.
Speaker 1: There's too many hens in the henhouse. I did want
Speaker 1: to say that kind of One of my favorite movies
Speaker 1: is a Nightmare before Christmas, But like, essentially the messages
Speaker 1: stay in your lane. I still think it's fabulous and
Speaker 1: I love it. I love so many things about it.
Speaker 1: But it's like at the end, people are like, so
Speaker 1: don't venture out and try just do what you're good. UM,
Speaker 1: So we did. It was so funny. If he leaned
Speaker 1: over to me, was like, who is that? Uh? And
Speaker 1: for Zada and it was Leslie Jones. Yeah, what was
Speaker 1: it like getting to work with her? Um? It was amazing.
Speaker 1: She'd worked on one thing before an animation, and I've
Speaker 1: think it wasn't the best experience for it was a
Speaker 1: smaller role, and I think she came in like nervous,
Speaker 1: which was so weird for me because I wasn't nervous.
Speaker 1: Um but um, but I love Leslie Jones and I
Speaker 1: was just like, it was weird going into this, like
Speaker 1: these famous people are nervous and I'm not because I
Speaker 1: should be the one. But she was a freaking hoot.
Speaker 1: I think within like five minutes she was like, we're
Speaker 1: laughing at each other's jokes. I'm playing around and she
Speaker 1: saw like, oh I can just be myself. Okay, I
Speaker 1: can do that. Um. And so I would feed her
Speaker 1: lines like okay um and and she was comfortable, like
Speaker 1: just like reading the script. But I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: we don't have to do exactly that. Here's here's what's
Speaker 1: happening in the scene. Um uh, this is how you're feeling,
Speaker 1: this is where we need to get to. And then
Speaker 1: she would riff, and by far that's the best stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just allowing the artist, like allowing the comedians to take
Speaker 1: risks and be themselves. Yeah, now that that it was
Speaker 1: real fun having her play and stuff. And I think
Speaker 1: just you know, just because we keep bouncing and talking
Speaker 1: about the comedy in this film, is was was super fun.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, I'm gonna keep it like all the
Speaker 1: way real and I don't feel bad because you didn't
Speaker 1: work on it. But I didn't see the first one,
Speaker 1: so I came in with two and I really regretted
Speaker 1: didn't bring my daughter because the there was like a
Speaker 1: little baby shark nod and I knew that, but yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that's it really, Uh like it's so funny because we're
Speaker 1: raving about it online and people were like really and
Speaker 1: I'm like, please just go see it be And it
Speaker 1: seemed like if I had to, like, you know, do
Speaker 1: like an armchair analysis, and I think it was kind
Speaker 1: of like they the first movie had the hard task
Speaker 1: of kind of being more of an adaptation of us
Speaker 1: of a mobile app, and y'all have to have fun
Speaker 1: with just telling a story using a character that they
Speaker 1: introduced in the first movie, and that's what. It's such
Speaker 1: a fun, fun story. I mean, yeah, Les Lake Tiffany
Speaker 1: uh is great and just even you know the eagle,
Speaker 1: you know, you guys picked up the torch from the
Speaker 1: arc that they kind of like introduced from the first
Speaker 1: one and like dunked it in such a fun way. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel it's it's like, look y'all, I
Speaker 1: know you're gonna be like if he's over, you're being
Speaker 1: on a shell. I'm like, look, go see it. Go
Speaker 1: see it and tell me what you think. You're in
Speaker 1: the Discord. You can tell me what you think. Thorape
Speaker 1: won't be in there, so you can be honest. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're gonna love it. There's no Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: actually the Discord. I don't want to kick you out
Speaker 1: the Discord. You can be in it. But it's actually
Speaker 1: the highest rated video game adaptation movie. Right yeah, right
Speaker 1: now it is taking the throne as the highest rated
Speaker 1: video game movie, and it deserves that praise because residels
Speaker 1: An experience the first one started off real good. Uh,
Speaker 1: And that's what I'll say I wanted. Before we wrap
Speaker 1: up on Leslie Jones, is Zata what can you tell
Speaker 1: people about essentially that new character that was introduced. Um yeah, um, yes,
Speaker 1: so Zada um is the villain in this movie. She um.
Speaker 1: When we were trying to figure out who the villain
Speaker 1: is and what her personality was. Um, we saw an
Speaker 1: old I don't remember if it was Jimmy Kimmel, but
Speaker 1: she was on a toxic show and said, you know
Speaker 1: what I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to
Speaker 1: be a villain in a movie. And so we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: huh m, maybe we got to get first. Okay, So
Speaker 1: you saw her and you were like wow, So the
Speaker 1: character was made for her. Yep, Oh my gosh, that
Speaker 1: is so cool. Yeah, totally, and so um we we
Speaker 1: designed the character um after her, I think personality wise,
Speaker 1: especially um and we tried to write for Leslie Jones
Speaker 1: and tried to um anticipate what her real character would
Speaker 1: be feeling or whatever. Um. And it kind of worked
Speaker 1: before we had her recorded, but it was kind of
Speaker 1: like flat and dry and it's like mustache poorly villain.
Speaker 1: And then she came in and really put her personality
Speaker 1: into it, and then it was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is the best character. Um. Yeah, she really she
Speaker 1: really had fun with it and really put a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of herself into it, which was amazing.
Speaker 1: So here's my big question, because it's always interesting working
Speaker 1: with like an already established I p was Rovio precious
Speaker 1: with you know the I piano where they you know,
Speaker 1: nervous about any like new characters, where they kind of
Speaker 1: gave you like they're they're great, good gracisms like we
Speaker 1: trust you do what do what you do? Um for
Speaker 1: the almost a million percent, that's what they did. The
Speaker 1: only thing that they threw out there was like, just
Speaker 1: to the end, could you have them go back to
Speaker 1: the pigs and the birds going back to fighting. That's
Speaker 1: not really but we'll we'll throw in a few like
Speaker 1: jokey jabs that And they were totally cool with that.
Speaker 1: They were they were amazing. Um all though, um, the fans, Uh,
Speaker 1: some of the fans have had the hardest time because
Speaker 1: we weren't precious about the video games at all. And
Speaker 1: uh and there's a new character and the video and
Speaker 1: the video games. Uh Silver um was a character and
Speaker 1: we I never even played the game. Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: look at it. I was like, no, we're gonna do
Speaker 1: her own thing. She's gonna be really cute and really
Speaker 1: smart and really fun. Uh. And actually I've got maybe
Speaker 1: a hundred what a hundred d ms today from fans
Speaker 1: are like I hate this new Silver alone y'all leave
Speaker 1: this man alone? Was a great what is there? Wait? Okay,
Speaker 1: so what is their complaints about her? Or that she's
Speaker 1: just not like the game? To two different things, She's
Speaker 1: not like the game, so her character is different. Most
Speaker 1: of those have kind of died away. The whole world
Speaker 1: that I didn't know existed was Angry Birds, um fan fiction,
Speaker 1: and so a lot of them are like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: my OC is dating Red, so he can't like this
Speaker 1: other girl. Yes, the fan fiction comming. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie. I have been on those boards. Um,
Speaker 1: not in the Angry Birds level, but definitely on the
Speaker 1: anime level. I felt like she was done in such
Speaker 1: a it was perfect because it was like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: so used to being the girl that has the answers
Speaker 1: and she's smart, and it's like she's kind of looked
Speaker 1: over and people don't trust her and she has to
Speaker 1: prove herself twice as much. And it was like such
Speaker 1: a great commentary and and and especially for you know,
Speaker 1: young girls to see. Um, I just I love that
Speaker 1: aspect of it and kind of read I think I said,
Speaker 1: I tweeted this out that it was something that did
Speaker 1: tackle like toxic masculinity and and this feeling of identity
Speaker 1: and insecurity that he has um where he feels like
Speaker 1: he has to be in control or else people won't
Speaker 1: or he has to be the center of the hero,
Speaker 1: or people won't love him as he is. But just
Speaker 1: the fact that she is brilliant and that kind of
Speaker 1: gets you know, pushed aside for a while. I just
Speaker 1: I loved that that was done. So I I just
Speaker 1: did a quick because I wanted to see what the
Speaker 1: Angry Birds Silver was. I'm in the Angry Birds, wicky.
Speaker 1: They are detailed, they are strong. You can't underrest me
Speaker 1: how many communities there are around there and there will
Speaker 1: be someone who's like um, actually, and let me know,
Speaker 1: nerd fam, do we have any nerd fam who's like
Speaker 1: our our Angry Birds stand because I'm sure you will
Speaker 1: have more than a few choice words for us. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's I think thought Silver was super fun and great
Speaker 1: and now played by Rachel Bloom. I know, good friend
Speaker 1: also a fellow l A native like me. Hey, Rachel,
Speaker 1: do you listen? I don't know, I doubt it. She
Speaker 1: just follow me. I'm I should say back back to Rachel.
Speaker 1: And but there are maybe five people who are mad
Speaker 1: about the suffers, like don't worry, yeah, you know, and
Speaker 1: and sometimes those people are really loud. And I would
Speaker 1: say the majority of people have been super supportive. And
Speaker 1: I've seen it on my Twitter. And that's not just
Speaker 1: because I follow you and Matthew Cherry. I can see
Speaker 1: everything you guys are retweeting UM. But I have seen
Speaker 1: so many people that have really praised this film. I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about Rachel Bloom though, and the
Speaker 1: rest of the cast, including Sturley Kay Brown, but we
Speaker 1: have to take a really quick break, so we're hop
Speaker 1: back in right after this and we're back. One thing
Speaker 1: that I wanted to say about Rachel Bloom. My favorite
Speaker 1: thing that I always tell people is that she she
Speaker 1: talks about how she got rejected like six times in
Speaker 1: one day when she was pitching crazy ex girlfriend. On
Speaker 1: one single day, she went out and she had, you know,
Speaker 1: throughout the weeks, had pitched to a bunch of networks
Speaker 1: and they all called her back on the same day.
Speaker 1: She got like six rejections, one after the other after
Speaker 1: the other, and UM c W was the only one
Speaker 1: that gave her a chance, and that totally paid off
Speaker 1: for them. UM taking a risk on her. But I
Speaker 1: just remind my friends of that whenever they're having a
Speaker 1: hard time that it's like, you know, you can get
Speaker 1: rejected that many times. It just takes that one yes
Speaker 1: to pop in there. That's it takes. What was your
Speaker 1: first yes? Or like when when did you feel like
Speaker 1: that was your a moment that it was like, yes,
Speaker 1: I have made it in Um it was slow. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a moment. Because I pitched UM when I was
Speaker 1: at cal Arts. Um, I knew, all right, I have
Speaker 1: to bust my ask because for the rest of my
Speaker 1: life I could work at a coffee shop and probably
Speaker 1: either fire to get quit, either get fired or quit
Speaker 1: every couple of months because what I want to do
Speaker 1: is be an artist. Or I can bust ask now
Speaker 1: and um make something happen for myself and then have
Speaker 1: a decent job as an artists. Um. So I developed
Speaker 1: Flapjack while I was at cal Arts, and I pitched
Speaker 1: it UM, and I was so stoked to get in like, wow,
Speaker 1: I did it, I made it. I'm gonna pitch this
Speaker 1: and they're gonna love It's gonna be their favorite show.
Speaker 1: And then well I was pitching it. The lady I
Speaker 1: was pitching too. Was like waving two people out her
Speaker 1: door and like reading stuff on her desk, UM and
Speaker 1: walk looking out the window. And it was like very clear, Okay,
Speaker 1: I get it. Yeah, you're you're just waiting for me
Speaker 1: to finish, so you can say no because I'm a
Speaker 1: kid and I'm a student at school. UM. And and
Speaker 1: she gave me a few notes and feedback or whatever
Speaker 1: after and then I came back like Okay, so I
Speaker 1: addressed those notes and I want to pitch to you again,
Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, you know, UM, I kind of
Speaker 1: just thought of that as a student pitch UM, come
Speaker 1: back when you have some experience and already. And it
Speaker 1: was like so so heartbreaking UM for me, and I
Speaker 1: like kept taking tests to do storyboards on different shows UM.
Speaker 1: And then eventually only got in UM Cartoon Network because
Speaker 1: I kept pushing them to start a free internship program
Speaker 1: and then I came in on the free intern UM
Speaker 1: And then once you're in, it's like it's so much
Speaker 1: easier and and I'm not advocating work for free, but
Speaker 1: that's totally the only thing that has worked for me
Speaker 1: because I was like paying tuition, which was a ton
Speaker 1: of money and I couldn't afford school anymore, but okay,
Speaker 1: I'll pay tuition so that I can go work this
Speaker 1: free job. And then UM, and then I think I
Speaker 1: think it was the first day, at least within the
Speaker 1: first couple of days. UM, I was on powerpuff Girl,
Speaker 1: which is a show that I loved, and UM, and
Speaker 1: I was in the writer's room. They let me go
Speaker 1: on the writer's room and they're like, well, we're out
Speaker 1: of ideas, We've already done everything, and so UM, I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, this is my chance, and I can
Speaker 1: do it. So I went home and wrote uh six
Speaker 1: episodes and I brought them in the next day they
Speaker 1: bought them, and then they let me storyboard. UM. And
Speaker 1: then when I started storyboarding, UM, people would compliment me
Speaker 1: and say, oh my gosh, that was so funny or whatever.
Speaker 1: And every one of those people, I was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: could you go tell the development exact um that you
Speaker 1: thought it was really UM. So that next time I
Speaker 1: went in to pitch my show. I mean, this was
Speaker 1: my plan was they were looking for a reason to
Speaker 1: say yes instead of a reason to say no. They'd
Speaker 1: already heard from ten people say oh, you know, the
Speaker 1: next person who should have a show, you should have
Speaker 1: thorough pitch. Um. So the next time I went into pitch,
Speaker 1: they already went in with that confidence like this guy
Speaker 1: knows what he's doing. Um so uh. And then they
Speaker 1: picked up Flapapa. Yeah, I love Bubby. Bubby is like
Speaker 1: just comedically so funny in the hard action, all the
Speaker 1: wild stuff Flapjack gets into. I love Flapjack. Thanks. Actually,
Speaker 1: ros Ryan and I have almost exactly that relationship. She
Speaker 1: treats me like and I love her. She is so
Speaker 1: like a motherly figure to me. And still like every
Speaker 1: time I talked to her she gives me a big hug.
Speaker 1: Oh the baby, how are you doing then? Like exactly
Speaker 1: exactly the relationship of flab Jack and Bubby And actually, um,
Speaker 1: Brian del Murray and I very similar relationship. Or he's
Speaker 1: just like alright, shut up, that's done. See people, it
Speaker 1: takes some rejection. Are you don't give up? Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the grind is Like I always say, um, people always
Speaker 1: think it's like a shot and it's really more so
Speaker 1: just a battle of attrition. Like it it feels like
Speaker 1: every everyone who you know, it was like I didn't work.
Speaker 1: It was because they just got done and everyone like
Speaker 1: you know, if you just here, eventually, eventually they got
Speaker 1: to say yes, yeah, a million percent. Everything that I've
Speaker 1: pitched has gotten rejected so many times, and then I
Speaker 1: rework it and I figure out like, okay, and I
Speaker 1: still believe in this um what is working for me
Speaker 1: and isn't working for them? How do I find the
Speaker 1: way into everyone so that they this resonates with them
Speaker 1: the same same way that it does with me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But do you ever just like for me, I wrote
Speaker 1: something that like some really respected people just loved and adored,
Speaker 1: and some other people just didn't like. And I just
Speaker 1: was like, I think I gotta let that go a
Speaker 1: part of me at least, I you know, I guess
Speaker 1: I I thought like, maybe it's not going to resonate
Speaker 1: with everyone. Yeah, And I think it really is. Just
Speaker 1: like you, they're there are people who are going to
Speaker 1: be fans of you, and there's people who you're not
Speaker 1: gonna be for And if you're as long as you
Speaker 1: don't hang up on that and just make sure you
Speaker 1: find your people, that's who you want anyway, you know,
Speaker 1: I oftentimes see a lot of people fighting for people
Speaker 1: to be there people when they're not, And then you
Speaker 1: see like they eventually do get them, and then they're
Speaker 1: kind of almost beholden to what this like fringe group
Speaker 1: of their fan base likes because they don't want to
Speaker 1: lose them, not realizing that the fan base at large,
Speaker 1: you know, is there for them, are a fan of
Speaker 1: that they create, So let that, Yeah, just make like
Speaker 1: and that's that's kind of like the basis of I
Speaker 1: think a lot of creative stuff, because I think when
Speaker 1: the creative growth process in my like weird mind is
Speaker 1: like you start off doing what you what you like,
Speaker 1: and by what I mean what you like, you like
Speaker 1: that you're kind of be making homages to the things
Speaker 1: that inspire you, and then you start to venture more
Speaker 1: into professional stuff, and then you start to try and
Speaker 1: make things you think that people will want. Well that
Speaker 1: you try and make things that you think people will like,
Speaker 1: and then eventually you mature and then you just go
Speaker 1: back to right making the stuff you like, but the
Speaker 1: stuff that really you your voice you like, and then
Speaker 1: that's when you really find the most success, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you're the most passionate about it. Yeah, And I think
Speaker 1: like within the last few years, there's so much more
Speaker 1: of a market for that because you don't have to
Speaker 1: appeal to everyone anymore. You don't have to peel to
Speaker 1: like every seven to twelve year old kids. You can
Speaker 1: just make something you love and the audience will find it.
Speaker 1: With with streaming because you don't have to uh aim
Speaker 1: commercials at them. Yeah, you can only sell a show
Speaker 1: or a movie or whatever. Um. If you can sell
Speaker 1: the commercial time to this age demographic and that's gone
Speaker 1: out the window, it's amazing. It's such a cool time
Speaker 1: to be making TV shows. Yeah. So we did tease
Speaker 1: Sterley kay Brown. Uh he is a new character, Gary
Speaker 1: pig Um. I didn't even realize that that was him.
Speaker 1: I was trying to I was like, man, almost has
Speaker 1: a tinge of Idris in there. But I was like
Speaker 1: I would know like Idris, I would have locked in
Speaker 1: also because I just saw Hobbs and Shaw, so he's
Speaker 1: but I was like, who is it? And when I
Speaker 1: saw Sterling at the end, I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: how did that combo come together? Like picking him for
Speaker 1: that particular character. I think that we just loved him. Um.
Speaker 1: I think he was on Saturday Night Live and stick
Speaker 1: was that he would just start crying all the time,
Speaker 1: because that's what he does on this is us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like such a good crier and like you're like
Speaker 1: emotionally with him all the time. And so um they
Speaker 1: ran that as a bit and so we're like, all right,
Speaker 1: this guy is getting upset all the time. That'd be
Speaker 1: really funny if he was Sterling K. Brown. Um, but
Speaker 1: we didn't want to do that exact bit. Um. So uh.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because most of the characters, um, we
Speaker 1: just drew so much from their personality and they became
Speaker 1: their character because of the personality of the actor. Sterling K.
Speaker 1: Brown is the least like Gary you could possibly these
Speaker 1: that like the nicest, most sincere, like down for whatever
Speaker 1: person and and maybe that's why, um we ended up
Speaker 1: um making his character the opposite because we thought that
Speaker 1: was funny, like it's like this guy an asshole. Um.
Speaker 1: And then uh, he just started playing around with the
Speaker 1: British accent and yeah, that's funny, that works, let's do it. Um.
Speaker 1: So so he just rolled with it. We'll start wrapping up.
Speaker 1: But what I did want to say is that I
Speaker 1: saw your tweet that you said there's no better place
Speaker 1: to be right now than at Sony Animation. It sounds
Speaker 1: like they're really allowing filmmakers to take the risks. We
Speaker 1: definitely saw that with a lot of not only the
Speaker 1: heart but also the humor that you were allowed to
Speaker 1: do in this film, which I love that. Yeah. UM.
Speaker 1: Christine Bilson, who's the head of the studio, is amazing
Speaker 1: and I think, UM, I've worked with some really amazing
Speaker 1: UM execs, and I've worked with some who are less amazing.
Speaker 1: And usually the reason they're less amazing is because there's
Speaker 1: really self conscious and they give you a note and
Speaker 1: they just want you to do it and they don't
Speaker 1: want to talk about it. And someone like Christine, who
Speaker 1: if you didn't know better, it might seem like the
Speaker 1: opposite because she always says, I don't know, maybe something
Speaker 1: like this. She knows exactly what she's talking about, but
Speaker 1: she's giving you freedom. That's that's you're out to not
Speaker 1: have to do exactly what I just said. But along
Speaker 1: these lines, this is what we need and that's the
Speaker 1: best UM, the best creative note that you can give
Speaker 1: like it's missing this thing and somewhere around here, just
Speaker 1: think about a better way to do it. And that's
Speaker 1: that's everything. UM. And I think she really sees the
Speaker 1: value in UM more original ideas. I think the new
Speaker 1: UM Sony lineup is going to be a lot more
Speaker 1: original movies, which is amazing, a lot more like creator
Speaker 1: driven ideas, which is amazing. They're not all I p
Speaker 1: s that are not all um uh, these well known
Speaker 1: entities that you already know what it is. It's like
Speaker 1: it's exciting because it's like the new stuff. All right,
Speaker 1: let's see a bunch of new stuff, um by people
Speaker 1: who know how to tell a story. And that's super
Speaker 1: exciting to me. Yeah, that's what a lot of people
Speaker 1: have been asking for too, So it's cool that they're
Speaker 1: doing that. Um. I guess just to wrap it up,
Speaker 1: what what do you hope that audiences take away from
Speaker 1: Angry Birds too? Um? I think I think the movie
Speaker 1: is really a metaphor for life. I think it's a
Speaker 1: metaphor for every everyone. It's about working together with others
Speaker 1: who are different than you, went together, being able to
Speaker 1: do something you could do on your own. It's not easier,
Speaker 1: it's almost always harder, but it's way more fulfilling and
Speaker 1: at the um in the long run, you get something better.
Speaker 1: Yeah whin than uh? Where can people find you? Um?
Speaker 1: Literally just google thorop Twitter. Just type in up, just
Speaker 1: type in Thorp. Yeah, I think so. You don't have
Speaker 1: to take your your screen name from someone else. There's
Speaker 1: like forty Danny Fernances, and there's a very big soccer
Speaker 1: player finally beat on Google and a magician who I'm not.
Speaker 1: He actually has a show on Netflix, so he and
Speaker 1: I are really going. I'm just waiting. Um actually, um,
Speaker 1: I think it's a little thro up on Instagram because
Speaker 1: I created a throup and then I forgot my past.
Speaker 1: We have both I love it and Angry Birds is
Speaker 1: out and Your Birds Too is out right now in theaters.
Speaker 1: Check it out. And also our friend Matthew Cherry has
Speaker 1: hair Love the short that he directed is also before
Speaker 1: it so both awesome, Uh pieces that you can see
Speaker 1: you will cry and growing like a baby before anything
Speaker 1: even happened. Just when the dread Dad came, I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm a dread Dad. I knew it was going to
Speaker 1: get you. Yeah it was who boy? But yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know me, if you want to wait on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram, if d's on Twitch, if you want to
Speaker 1: see me playing video games, uh, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: check Twitter for upcoming show dates. I'm at miss Danny Fernandez.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be at New York Comic Con. How did
Speaker 1: I say that? New York. I'm gonna be at New
Speaker 1: York Comic Con. I will be posting my panel, so
Speaker 1: check me out on Twitter and Instagram. I'll definitely have
Speaker 1: the dates and rooms you know, in the next week
Speaker 1: of those so but I will see you there New York.
Speaker 1: And as we always say, stay neardy, Stay neardy.