Josh Gad talks about new cast additions in 'The Angry Birds Movie' sequel

The Sony mated flick 'The Angry Birds' based on the popular game is back again for the sequel with a deep story and great star-cast.

Josh Gad, who stars as one of the main birds in the film, 'Chuck,' told The Hollywood Reporter at the Los Angeles premiere on Saturday that "there's no reason to do a sequel unless you're going to try to top the original, and with this, it was immediately clear to me that there was a whole different approach. The idea of frenemies uniting, when it was first pitched to me, was just so ingenious, and Thurop [Van Orman] -- our new director -- he just does a masterclass in unbelievable, insane mation that is like golden-age Looney Tunes-style stuff."

The sequel will see the constantly at-odds angry birds and the green pigs teaming up to take on a common enemy that has put all of their homes in danger, which Gad said seems apt according to the prevailing political climate.

"The movie has some amazing message in it, not the least of which is overcoming differences with people you disagree with in order to find a common ground, which I think speaks to a lot of issues we're dealing with right now," he said.

The sequel has brought a number of A-listers to the cast, most notably 'Saturday Night Live' star Leslie Jones is roped in as the villainous purple bird Zeta, who Gad says was "such inspired casting and brings such unwieldy new energy to the film that disrupts everything in such a great way."

Jones may not have been the ideal choice to play an evil character, but director Van Orman said she unknowingly cast herself in the role.

"She was on a talk show a few years ago, I don't even remember which talk show, and she was like 'I've always wanted to be a villain if anybody is listening to I want to be a villain!'" he remembered. "So when we were looking at who to cast as a villain we were like, 'Oh yeah, shit, she would be amazing,'" he added.

Other than Jones, new additions include Sterling K. Brown, Rachel Bloom, Awkwafina and Eugenio Derbez. Derbez is the one who takes on his first American mated film with 'Angry Birds 2' after spending years of dubbing English versions of several films in Spsh.

"I'm Donkey's voice for Shrek, I'm Snowball in Secret Life of Pets -- I'm Kevin Hart, basically, in Spsh, I'm Eddie Murphy in Spsh all of his movies, I'm Jim Carrey," Derbez said.

( With inputs from ANI )