The ‘Tuca & Bertie’ series creator talks about her favorite ’90s cartoons, ensemble stories, and more.
Tuca & Bertieis one of the richest texts of New woman ’s experience that just so happens to be a joke - stuffed cartoon . Its titular expert bird friend , voiced by Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong , will be going through something dark — disabling anxiety , workplace torment , searing menses pain — and then an airhorn din . Its tonal flexibility is part of what makes the series so vastly ( re-)watchable , along with its Swedish mile - a - second visual gags , original showtune asides , and bright , surrealist landscapes . As a writerly pitch to oblige more multitude to watch , it ’s often advert in the same breather asBroad Cityand , more late , nag , two mussy - gallon clowning about millennian women figuring out their horseshit , but Godhead Lisa Hanawalt welcomes the comparisons . " It makes sense why different artists would subdue the same matter , " she says over Zoom . " It ’s really juicy , and I recall there ’s a lot of surplus succus in there . "
Now ventilate its third time of year on Adult Swim ( and on HBO Max the day after),Tuca & Bertieis thriving in all of its weirdo nimbus after Netflix — where Hanawalt designed and producedBoJack Horsemanfor six seasons — unceremoniously invalidate it in 2019 after its first time of year . To learn more about what has instigate Hanawalt ’s signature example and her journey as a show Divine , Thrillist talked to her about her favorite old sketch , the playfulness of world building , and the TV show and film she repay to over and over again .
I would troll Raphael [ Bob - Waksberg , Creator ofBoJack ] with this and be like , " I ’m going to put a industrial plant in there , " and he ’d be like , " No ! Plants inBoJackdon’t walk and babble . No , cease it . " I was always essay to troll him with more surreal poppycock . It just did n’t fit the tone ofBoJack , and it was n’t his visual modality . But I retrieve that little act of frustration — it was playful thwarting , but what I could and could n’t do onBoJackwas part of what led to me even considering that I could do my own show . Which really , I thought I did not have the skillset needed to do this . But Raphael helped a lot in making me believe that I could do it and also teaching me a lot of things I needed to be intimate to do it . So , yeah , it was exciting to do my own show where I ’m like , " plant are a affair , I do n’t need to explain it . It just is . "
Design by Maggie Rossetti for Thrillist
Especially with this new time of year , where we have this Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree character that was really tough to come up with . I knew I want Tuca to have a Modern love stake and I was n’t sure what I wanted it to be . I was lying in layer at night and suddenly just had it , just have sex what he was and what his batch was , and the metaphor of him suffer this intimate rot . When you date someone raw , there ’s always some inner rot that you need to uncover and it ’s knobbed . How are you start to cope with that ? I also just opine it was a fun challenge to make a sexy Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Which I think we accomplish . Some people like to key out this show as by women for fair sex , which I really object to . But it is by deviate for degenerate .
Annie Proulx novels and ensemble TV shows
Here ’s something I can pull out of my ass that will make me fathom smart . I got really into novels by Émile Zola , who ’s a French novelist . My married person , Adam , was reading his bookGerminal , which is about a ember mine . And so , I interpret it too . Then I readThe Ladies ' Paradise , which is my favored one , and then I readPot Luck , which was my least favourite . But he ’s written 20 novels and they ’re all about order back in the 1800s . He does a similar thing as my favorite writer , Annie Proulx , does in my favorite book , Barkskins , where he sets up all these character and it ’s his own little ant farm . And then he just has them interact with each other and do things in interesting ways that represent varying classes and layer of society and all the problem with all of them . Nobody ’s good and nobody ’s wickedness , they ’re just very human . I believe Annie Proulx does something similar in her writing , where it ’s just observing humanity .
BarkskinsI like because it ’s so bestial . She has these really cinematic deaths . It ’s just something I really react to and enjoy . She does n’t sleep with her fiber enough , in a elbow room . She ’s several step back , where she ’s really absorbing them at a distance . And I ’m not like that . I hump my characters and identify with them very powerfully . But there ’s just something about that where you ’ve created all these little dolls and then , as a show Almighty or as a author , you ’re like , " What do I want these wench to do ? " Like , " What am I interested in ? " And I ’m not inevitably trying to be didactical and be like , " This is how people should be in guild . " It ’s just like , " Here ’s something I ’ve observe " or like , " This is an experience me or one of the other writer has had . "
It ’s something I ’m work out in my brain and I just think is interesting and a good news report . And we go from there . That , to me , is the funnest affair about making a show . you may in all probability tell what my political leaning are from the show , what my general worldview is , but I ’m trying to make it a small more complex when I can . That ’s when I ’m succeeding , I retrieve , is when things are in a uncanny grey-headed region . Like , this character reference is like , " I should like them , but they ’re being really bad right now . " That ’s what I wish aboutSuccession , which is one of my pet shows . Where it ’s like , you should detest all these characters , but you do kind of pick your guy and you do feel empathy for them . It ’s really fun , and it ’s just these constant , subtle switch . Like , if you look at the last time of year , it ’s like nothing even really go on .
’90s cartoons
I lovedSailor Moon . It always felt a little bit aloof to me because it was so pretty and so girly . At that prison term , I did n’t fully link with that or feel like that was my identity . So I loved it for how extra it was . It was just to the max , sparkly , shiny , aphrodisiacal , you know ? But I was aRen & Stimpygirl . The vivification was so good . It ’s too unsound that John K ’s DNA is baked in therebecause he sucks . But there ’s a lot of really talented people who worked on it too , and the graphics is part of my body . I watch it so much . I like the really egregious , off - putting side of things . I thinkAaahh ! ! ! Real Monsters , that was in my box of thing .
I care a luck of dissimilar clobber . LovedGarfield . You know , just such a ' XC child in every way of life . The Simpsonswas one of those show that the whole family could watch , which was alone , something that my parent would relish just as much as me and my buddy . And , you sleep together , I was obviously connect to Lisa Simpson in many ways . Just her serious-mindedness and dorkiness , I feel represented .
Simple, but iconic animated characters
Tuca was a webcomic before this was ever a show idea , so her pattern was kind of baked already . She ’s a very uncanny drawing of a toucan that ’s very unrealistic ; she ’s sort of a bean . She ’s just interlocking attic shapes , which I really relish . I think it makes her more of an iconic persona that you could easily describe , even if you do n’t cognise how to draw a naturalistic shuttlecock . And same with Bertie . The characters are on a spectrum of realness plain , but yeah , I just wanted something iconic of a bird . Did n’t matter that they ’re wench — they could be cats or horses . I wanted something not human , something you could visualise things onto well .
Maximalism and visual gags
When I was growing up , we listened to a lot of musical . I likedLes Misand poppycock , butJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoatwas always my favorite . Just something about the music — I learn it and listen to it every day . Also , I think it ’s just my attending span . I care having a lot of material going on at once , which I think is one thing people have to set to when they start see the show . There ’s a lot visually and audibly bump . But also with my illustration ground , when there ’s an idea lay out , I ’m like , " Well , I just ca n’t let this go without see a ocular popup of it . " My dad always complain about this when he is catch the show . He ’s like , " The gags go by so fast and I ca n’t catch them . " I ’m like , " Dad , it ’s supposed to make you desire to rewatch it . "
There ’s a item this time of year where Lowry ’s talking about how he buy a sports car for his duck’s egg boat . And we were watching that setting in the review and I was like , " You recognize , I just keep feel like I need to see what that car looks like . " What would a elevator car front like that you purchase for a giant duck ? And in the meeting , I was like , " Okay , so it ’s like a transmutable , but it ’s full of , like , pool water and lily pad . " And I was amusing myself so much . This is what I ’m best at , is just come up with something so stupefied , but that part really makes me express joy . This is n’t in the show , but just internally , I reckon of it as the Ponda Civic .
Endlessly rewatchable movies and TV
My favorite display , I just rewatch all the time.30 Rockis just like , every time I take in it , I pick up something new . It age less and less well each time I watch it . I ’m like , " This show made Alec Baldwin seem acceptable , " which I have a problem with . But it is very prank - dense in a way that I admire and plain is a huge influence .
A lot of movies from the former ' 80s and early ' 90s I discover really re - watchable because they have so many weird moments in them . motion-picture show have gotten so slick that there ’s not a lot of elbow room for just uncanny material in there . Like , there ’s nothing extraneous . If you ascertain the originalGhostbusters , there ’s just weird tinker’s dam in there . It ’s just like , What is this , just Bill Murray fucking around ? I ca n’t recite . How is this even part of the playscript ? I really screw the movieBroadcast News . I could rewatch that endlessly . That ’s one of my favorite movies .
Adult Swim
‘The Ren & Stimpy Show’|Nickeldeon
‘Broadcast News’|20th Century Studios
