The following contains minor spoilers for The Phineas and Ferb Movie: Candace Against the Universe.
Friday saw the Disney+ debut of The Phineas and Ferb Movie: Candace Against the Universe and considering what a nightmare hellscape we're all living it, it wasn't a moment too soon. The film is just pure joy. It's an endless barrage of jokes that will work for almost any age. It's far from surprising that the series that came before it had such a widespread fan base. So many people loved the series that Phineas and Ferb creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh had several celebrities that wanted to lend their voices to the new movie. Tiffany Haddish was one of the big names that joined the cast, and while we've heard stories of the occasionally bizarre requests celebrities can make, Haddish's one ask was hilariously simple. All she wanted a t-shirt, though that was actually surprisingly difficult to provide.
Tiffany Haddish appears in The Phineas and Ferb Movie: Candace Against the Universe, though she's one of the more difficult voices to recognize as her role is quite unique. Perhaps because her role was so simple, Dan Povenmire and "Swampy" Marsh told me when I spoke to them last month that Haddish had a simple request from the creators. All she wanted was a Perry the Platypus t-shirt, and they did give her one, though it apparently took some doing. As Povenmire explained...
She’s like, ‘Ok, I’m coming but I want a Perry the Platypus t-shirt.' And we’re like ‘Where are we going to get that? They haven’t made Perry the Platypus t-shirts for a couple years now I think.’ But I just had an assistant go out and get some nice t-shirts at a store. We found out her size and came back and I just painted Perry the Platypus on them. So she has one-of-a-kind Perry the Platypus t-shirts.
While it sounds like Tiffany Haddish would have been fine with any Perry the Platypus t-shirt, she ended up with a custom made one-of-a-kind shirt, simply by virtue of the fact that simply picking one up off the rack wasn't really an option anymore.
There are a handful of other celebrities that appear in The Phineas and Ferb Movie: Candace Against the Universe. "Weird Al" Yankovic has a brief cameo, Ali Wong is there as well, and there are more, but Tiffany Haddish probably has the best gig of them all. Her role only consists of a single word (though its heard multiple times). The fact that a name like Tiffany Haddish appears in such a hilariously minor cameo is one of the many great jokes in the film. I asked the Phineas and Ferb duo how one asks a movie star to appear in their movie in such a role. "Swampy" Marsh explained that Haddish was simply happy to be part of the movie because she was a fan...
You say ‘Hey, how would you like a really great payday for about five minutes work?’ The nice thing about stuff like that is we’ve been lucky with the popularity of the show that we can ask a lot of people to come on and find out that they’re fans and I think that was the case. Tiffany just loved the show and wanted to be a part of it.
The Phineas and Ferb Movie: Candace Against the Universe is certainly going to be a movie that anybody that loves the show is going to appreciate. It's also a show that newcomers should give a chance. And if enough people love it, we could see even more where that came from.
