Everybody and their uncle has played “Angry Birds.” Except some select members of the voice cast of The Angry Birds Movie.
The birds-vs.-pigs mobile app and its various editions have been downloaded over 3 billion times, making it the most downloaded mobile game ever.
At an Angry Birds Movie press event on Tuesday, Bill Hader, who voices the pig Leonard in the animated film, at first appeared to be a big fan of the popular app. When a reporter asked Hader and the panel of fellow Angry Birds Movie voice actors, did any of you “get particularly obsessed with the game?” the Saturday Night Live alum said, “I got obsessed with the game on a layover, stuck on a plane.”
Later during the Q&A – which, all in all, was hilarious, with a panel of four comedic actors – another press member asked, “Which level of the game had you most stumped?” The real stumper was actually that question. Hader couldn“t regale the press with tales of battling the toughest levels of “Angry Birds.”
So much for the “obsessive fan” guise.
“This is what they call a ‘gotcha question,”” quipped Josh Gad, who voices speedy yellow bird Chuck in the movie.
“Game! What? I play the game!” Hader exclaimed, then turned to co-star Danny McBride for help. “S–t. Danny, how do you play the game?”
Gad, meanwhile, is a true “Angry Birds” fan. Or just tried out the game last night. Or closely studied Sony”s talking points.
“In the [‘Angry Birds] Star Wars” games, there”s the later levels where you”re in this interplanetary world where you launch – I actually did the homework, dicks,” he interjected at his snickering co-stars before continuing, “You launch into these planets, and you get sucked into their orbits. That”s the trickiest one.”
“That”s a tricky one, yeah,” followed “Angry Birds” expert Bill Hader.
Hader approached the footage+Q&A event, billed as a “Sneak Beak” (get it?), with a hilarious irreverence for the whole publicity affair – when a reporter asked a “business” question about the rights and development of the film, while his producer John Cohen attempted to answer, Hader mock snored into his microphone.
If The Angry Birds Movie gets half as many laughs from its audiences as these actors got out of the crowd at this event today, this is gonna be a majorly funny movie.
And it”ll be a movie that anyone can enjoy, regardless of how addicted you got to the “Angry Birds” game, according to Jason Sudeikis, voice of Red. See the movie without having played the game, and you”ll have fun, but “Angry Bird” aficionados will have a greater appreciation for this origin story about the birds and their eggs and their slingshots.
“It”s like Life of Brian,” Sudeikis said. “If you have an understanding about the Bible and the history of religion, you love the movie on that level as well, but otherwise, it”s just a great fun, funny movie even if you don”t.”
So even if your history with “Angry Birds” is more like Bill Hader”s than Josh Gad”s, there may be something in The Angry Birds Movie for you when it”s in theaters on May 20, 2016.