Film Roman's The Bartonnis

== Synopsis ==
== Production ==
Since 1986, Monsieur Squiggebvigga Garbonsonian wanted to make his own series, but companies wouldn't greenlight any of his unconventional ideas, resorting him to only making independent films for his country's film festivals in France. In 1994, he came to America to work on one of his own series' entitled "The Bartonnis" and even tried making an unfinished pilot for the What A Cartoon shorts showcase, but Hanna Barbera didn't really understand his ideas and thought his old independent films were "only understood by French people", even though Fred Seibert was the only person sticking out for him. In 1995, Squigge kept going from network to network pitching The Bartonnis (Nickelodeon, Fox Kids, ABC, Kids WB, and even Disney Channel) with each company rejecting him, all while working on shows like Twisted Tales of Felix, Kablam, and Dexter's Laboratory (although uncredited). These incidents lead him to make his own studio in France that helps produce his shows, and he was ultimately gonna have his show be primarily within his own country in France until Phil Roman made the phone call in Summer 1996. Phil offered Squigge an opportunity to make his own show under Phil's production, and since Phil trusted his vision in Timing the Animation in Twisted Tales (among other things), he let Squigge make his own series for them and entirely storyboard driven (unlike the majority of Film Roman's output) so that Squigge and his crew have full creative control. In December 13, 1996, a boatload of animators, artists, and cartoonists (John Kricfalusi, Michael Sporn, Craig McCracken, Byron Vaughs, Bill Plympton, Bob Camp, Sergio Pablos, Mark O'Hare, Dave Wasson, Jaime Diaz, Jackie Ross, Sanjay Patel, Kaz, Tim Chi Ly, Eddie Fitzgerald, Stephen Hillenburg, Doug Compton, Barry Vodos, Jim Smith, Milton Knight, Thomas Szabo, John R. Dilworth, Alex Kirwan, Timothy Bjorklund, Ralph Bakshi, Lauren Faust, Eric Goldberg, Barry E Jackson, and Kevin Brownie to name a few) gave Squigge up to a million bucks to fund his animation studio for his show with Film Roman, thusly 65% of the animation was done by his newly formed in-house studio in Paris, France "Le Squigge Studios". After seeing a demo of Squigge's studio animations for "The Bartonnis" in the February 1, 1997 studio tour, John K praised this studio's input claiming "It swept my work with Carbunkle Cartoons away and perfected upon their practices". Squigge was pleased, however was noted to be nicer to his animators than John (Squigge still was a perfectionist).
The animation was done all by Le Squigge Studios in France, Rough Draft in Korea (and sometimes America), and Wang Films in Taiwan. In a November 1997 Interview, Squigge said "While I try to have every episode be animated in my in-house studio in France, I will also have Rough Draft and Wang Films animate for my series since their input has been better than most of the overseas studios I've seen". He even confirmed this while going into Wang Films in February 1998 and seeing a preview of the new cartoon titled "Courage the Cowardly Dog" and admired it's sense of knowing when to be crazy and subtle. As with Rough Draft, He loved their work on Ren and Stimpy and The Simpsons.
Squigge admired Carl Stalling music in Classic Looney Tunes, and while he loved the charm of APM's music in Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life, he wanted to stand out from what they were doing; He loved the music in Animaniacs and how it brought a comeback to music that follows the action, but he didn't want to just get the same composers because he wants them to spread his own wings. Instead, he got Michael Tavera and Billy Martin to do a jazzier Carl Stalling-esque soundtrack reminiscent of The Simpsons Intro (one of his favorite theme songs despite loving the first season of that show better); He especially got them because he heard a sample of their work in Toonsylvania while touring Dreamworks Animation in Summer 1997 and loved it. To quote Squigge "It was like the music in Animaniacs without being Animaniacs". He also got Chrstipher Heral to help his soundtrack out seeing that he didn't want the entire show to only have American crew members (aside from the cast). Aside from that type of music, he also wanted to have music in some scenes be atmospheric and often eerie, especially during psycho-drama esque scenes, so Squigge would tell Michael Tavera during those scenes to go for the Ligeti approach of music composition.
As for casting, Squigge loved how Space Goofs casting was doing by having a French show with American cast members, so he did the same thing. In terms of casting for an American series, he tried to avoid celebrities as much as possible (unless it was someone Squigge liked) and favored the hard work of voice actors and even screen actors. He loved the casting in The Ren and Stimpy Show so he hired Cheryl Chase as senior casting director, among also hiring long time casting director Donald Case (especially for East Coast talent). Squigge didn't just want to get his favorite voices, he also wanted to get people that people wouldn't have expected or known about. However, he does joke that this show is a "Billy West Show" and often gets him to voice various background characters aside from voicing The Bartonni's wise-cracking dog, Rufus.
== Cast ==
=== CONFIRMED CAST MEMEBERS ===
Harris Peet - Mr Holmes Bartonni, Squatz
Billy West - Rufus Bartonni
Cheryl Chase - Jillian Bartonni
Michael Pataki - Crowmonger
Jim Gomez - Scold the Mold
Danny Cooksey - Sieskel Bartonni
Janice Kawaye - Lynne Bartonni, Baby Eddy
=== UNCONFIRMED CAST MEMBERS ===
Charlie Adler
Pamela Adlon
Ashley Paige Albert
Adam Baldwin
Roxanne Beck
Simon Bennett
Gregg Berger
Jeff Bottoms
Bob Bottone
Karen Braga
Jim Brownold
Michele Burks
Danny Burstein
Bob Camp
Frank Campanella
Jack Carter
Lisa Collins
Jim Conroy
Kevin Conway
Eric Cornfeld
Marsha Crenshaw
Tim Dadabo
Richard Doyle
Babi Floyd
Lloyd Floyd
Stan Freberg
Frank Gorshin
Michael Gough
Melissa Greenspan
Grey DeLisle Griffin
Michael C. Gwynne
Melinda Hamilton
Dorian Harewood
Wendy Hoopes
J.R. Horne
Mandy Kaplan
Don Kennedy
Tom Kenny
Eddie Korbich
Tammy Lang
Lela Lee
Dom LeLuise
Becca Lish
June Lockhart
Danny Mann
Erin Matthews
Gail Matthius
Len Maxwell
Julia McIlvaine
Kate Miller
Lara Jill Miller
Chuck Montgomery
Peter Newman
Ken Page
Rudolph Porter
Doug Pries
Moira Quirk
Monica Rial
Michael Rosen
Leon Russom
David Saire
Tara Sands
Kevin Seal
Leslie Shuman
Michael Sicoly
Jim Smith
Arnold Stang
Todd Stashwick
James Stephens
George Taylor
Yul Vazquez
Kira Vincent-Davis
Marcia Wallace
Christine Walters
Lionel Wilson
Burt Young
== Episodes ==
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