Tuca and Bertie Review: The Colorfully Crazy Animated Comedy

Tuca and Bertie review: what the animated comedy is about

Tuca and Bertie follows two best friends who happen to be birds. Tuca, voiced by Tiffany Haddish, is a cocky, carefree toucan with no job to speak of and a lot of energy. Bertie, voiced by Ali Wong, is an anxious song thrush who works a data analysis job she finds boring and daydreams about becoming a professional baker. Steven Yeun voices Speckle, Bertie's over-supportive boyfriend. The show is about what it takes to keep a friendship alive and to keep yourself intact in your 30s.

Lisa Hanawalt created the series, based on her own webcomic Tuca the Toucan, which ran from 2013 to 2014. Hanawalt was already known for the world of BoJack Horseman, where she was the production designer and a producer, and the new series carries a similar sense of anthropomorphic fun. Netflix ordered a 10-episode first season on February 20, 2018, and the show premiered on May 3, 2019. Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the BoJack creator, is listed as an executive producer.

The Rough Cut Review piece opens as a recommendation: check it out if you get a chance. It calls the series an original take on adult animation, in the spirit of children's shows like Adventure Time, with a kooky world that goes above and beyond the line between the surreal and the real, all for the sake of comedy. It says the show breaks rules, flips the bird at the patriarchy, and proves that women can be gross-out funny in adult animation and can be written with greater depth than one-dimensional objects.

That last point is about writing and casting. The series has an almost entirely female cast and focuses on the relationship between Tuca and Bertie, with a lot of room for supporting characters. Wikipedia lists Nicole Byer, Richard E. Grant, John Early and Reggie Watts among the voice cast. The review says the show deals with the struggles of maintaining adult relationships, but does so by design in a way no other series has, delivering information through zany animation and vignettes and not through diatribes and dialogue.

The characters: Tuca, Bertie and Speckle

Bertie is the show's anchor and its worrier. In the review's description, she is a little song thrush stuck between a dull career and a dream of baking, who wants an exciting life but is scared of rejection, so her daydreams stay safer than the reality of pursuing them. She lives with Speckle, who is trying hard to make their relationship work and is, in the review's words, nothing shy of a pushover.

Tuca is the noise. She is loud, in your face and free of responsibilities, and she gives Bertie's life vibrance, emotional support and inspiration. She also comes with baggage, including a recent sobriety that she is navigating. The review contrasts the show with BoJack Horseman, one of the reviewer's favorites for its take on self-loathing and celebrity. Where BoJack looks at self-destruction, Tuca and Bertie looks at the pitfalls of self-creation and reinvention, which the review calls a great theme for your 30s.

The animation: stop motion, puppets and felt

The review's strongest recommendation is visual. It says to see the series for the animation style alone, since it plays with different formulas and is not afraid to try new things. That includes stop motion, hand puppets and even deconstructing objects made of felt. The palette is colorful and reminiscent of a children's series, with bright tones that give the world a feeling that anything is possible, while the content acknowledges heavy topics such as career choices, getting older, growing apart and deciding what to do with the rest of one's life.

Food is a recurring subject. Bertie bakes constantly, often in exaggerated, anime-style sequences, and Tuca loves to eat, which leads to visual gags about living as a foodie in the big city. The review adds that the animation is lively and not melodramatic, and that it is cognizant of female bodies and empowerment, with a surprising amount of physical comedy and a lot of bodies drawn with no concern for realism. Even buildings can have breasts in this world, the review jokes, and it advises asking Rick and Morty why everything looks phallic.

Storytelling: anything can be a person

The review's phrase for the show's rule-breaking is that anything can be a person. Plants, pieces of equipment and even sexually transmitted infections, which become a jam and funk band, can have a voice and a personality. An early gag involves a woman's breast that gets angry about workplace harassment and walks out for a drink at the bar. The review calls it insane and fantastic at the same moment.

It credits the balance to the show's emotional core. For every ridiculous moment there is a relationship problem that feels all too real, which keeps the surreal material grounded. The show is also dense with set-up gags and Easter eggs, so the review recommends paying attention to every second.

Behind the Tuca and Bertie cast: voices, production and themes

The voice cast is deep, and many of the supporting roles are part of the joke. Beyond the three leads, Wikipedia lists Nicole Byer in several roles, including Gamby, a ghost cake, and Bertie's file cabinet; Richard E. Grant as Holland, Bertie's blue jay boss; John Early as Dirk, a rooster co-worker; Reggie Watts as Pastry Pete, an emperor penguin baker; and Shamir as Draca, a dracaena plant neighbor. Jenifer Lewis voices Tuca's Aunt Tallulah, Pamela Adlon voices Dr. Joanne, a sparrow therapist, and Sasheer Zamata voices Kara, a seagull nurse who becomes Tuca's girlfriend. Matthew Rhys appears in season 3 as a fig tree named Figgy, which fits the review's point that anything can be a person.

The production side is as stacked. Hanawalt created the series and executive produced with Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Noel Bright, Steven A. Cohen and Tiffany Haddish, through The Tornante Company and ShadowMachine, with Williams Street joining for seasons 2 and 3. Ali Wong's casting as Bertie was announced on May 7, 2018, and Jesse Novak is credited as composer. The result is a show where the people who made BoJack Horseman's look and tone applied it to a story about two women, instead of a washed-up actor.

Themes: friendship, sobriety and trauma

Wikipedia describes the main plotlines as focused on the friendship and on adult struggles, including alcoholism and sexual abuse. Tuca has just stopped drinking when the series starts, which the review also notes as part of her baggage. Critics praised the series for its handling of female friendship, with comparisons to Broad City, and for a female-focused portrayal of trauma. The review's own phrasing is that the show makes a viewer think about the people in their life right now.

That mix is the reason the series is more than a visual stunt. The surreal gags carry the show on the surface, and underneath is a drama about two people who need each other and sometimes fail each other. The review spots this when it says every ridiculous moment comes paired with an equally dramatic relationship problem.

What critics said

Reactions were not uniform. The Guardian's Kate Abbott praised a chirpily realised world that stays true to its experimentalism, and James Poniewozik of The New York Times praised Hanawalt's surreal vision and the anarchic fluidity of the landscape. CNN's Brian Lowry was negative about the first season, calling it strictly for the birds. For the second season, The Hollywood Reporter's Dan Feinberg called the show a savvy vehicle through which to explore repressed trauma and workplace sexism, and Slate's Melanie McFarland praised shows created in and for the female gaze.

The episodes that critics singled out most often were The Jelly Lakes, which Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter named among the best of 2019 and which won the Annie for writing, and Planteau, which won the WGA award. Later nominations went to The Dance, The Pain Garden and Fledging Day, the last being the episode behind Ali Wong's Emmy nomination.

Tuca and Bertie seasons at a glance

Dates from Wikipedia's article on the series, linked in the sources below.

Tuca and Bertie explained: cancellation, revival and reception

The history of the show is as notable as the show. Netflix announced the cancellation of Tuca and Bertie on July 24, 2019, less than three months after the premiere. Fans answered with the hashtags #RenewTucaAndBertie and #SaveTucaAndBertie, each drawing over 10,000 tweets within 24 hours, and a Change.org petition collected 3,600 signatures in 24 hours. On May 22, 2020, Adult Swim announced it would revive the series. Season 2 premiered on June 13, 2021 with 10 episodes, Adult Swim renewed it for a third season in August 2021, and that season ended on August 29, 2022.

In November 2022, Hanawalt confirmed that Adult Swim had canceled the series after two seasons on the network, or three in total. A show with a first season on Netflix and two more on a different network is unusual, and it explains why newcomers often ask where to find each season.

Reception was strong at every stage. As summarized on Wikipedia, season 1 holds 98% on Rotten Tomatoes from 48 reviews and 82 out of 100 on Metacritic. Season 2 holds 100% from 20 reviews and 87 on Metacritic. Season 3 holds 100% from nine reviews. Awards include a 2020 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing, won by Shauna McGarry for the episode The Jelly Lakes, and a 2022 Writers Guild of America Award for Animation: Television, won by Hanawalt for the episode Planteau. Ali Wong received a 2023 Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance. Wikipedia counts two awards and fifteen nominations in all.

How the cast grew over three seasons

The ensemble widens as the show goes on. Taraji P. Henson and, in a later appearance, Natasha Rothwell voice Terry Toucan, Tuca's oldest sister. Patti Harrison voices Martha, a cactus neighbor, Adam Conover voices Joel, a paint horse Tuca meets online, Kate Berlant voices the Women Taking Up Space lady, and Whitmer Thomas voices the Deli Guy, a golden snub-nosed monkey. In season 3, Justina Machado joins as Winter Garcia, a bluebird who hires Bertie.

Season 3 ran from July 11, 2022 according to Wikipedia's episode table, with the last episode released on August 29, 2022. Each season has 10 episodes, so the whole series is 30 episodes, short enough to watch in a long weekend.

Where the seasons live

Season 1 was a Netflix release and seasons 2 and 3 were Adult Swim broadcasts, so the show's home has changed over the years. Availability on streaming services changes frequently, and this page cannot confirm which service carries each season today. Check a current listing for your country before you settle in. The review's original recommendation was to watch it on Netflix, where the first season debuted.

Verdict: is Tuca and Bertie worth watching?

Yes. The Rough Cut Review verdict is that there is nothing else like it, which is a high claim in an era when streaming has put almost every cliche somewhere on a service. What the review values is originality in two places at once: a visual language that treats animation as a toy box, and a female friendship story that lets both leads be funny, flawed and generous.

The case for the series gets stronger when you look at the numbers. A show with 98% on Rotten Tomatoes for its first season, two more seasons rated at or near 100%, and recognition from the Annie Awards and the Writers Guild is clearly doing something right. Netflix's cancellation in July 2019 was followed by a revival announcement within a year, and Hanawalt said Adult Swim was the best home for the show.

The case against it is taste. The humor is bawdy, the animation is busy, and the show asks the viewer to accept that a breast, a plant or a jam band can be a character. Viewers who dislike surreal comedy or sexual jokes will bounce off. Viewers who liked BoJack Horseman for its feelings as well as its animal puns will find a gentler cousin.

Who is the show for? Viewers in their 20s and 30s who are working out jobs, relationships and friendships will recognize themselves in Bertie's caution and Tuca's chaos. Fans of Broad City and BoJack Horseman have an obvious entry point. With 30 episodes in total, the whole series is a manageable commitment, and each season stands up well enough that a viewer can stop wherever the story feels complete.

Start with the first episode of season 1. If Bertie's anxiety and Tuca's chaos make you laugh in the first twenty minutes, you will likely enjoy the whole run. If they do not, no later season will change your mind.

Sources

• Tuca & Bertie, Wikipedia — Production history, cast, renewals, cancellations, awards and reception.
• Lisa Hanawalt, Wikipedia — Her work on BoJack Horseman and on Tuca & Bertie.