Film Roman's The Bartonnis

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, Craig McCracken, Byron Vaughs, Bill Plympton, Bob Camp, Sergio Pablos, Mark O'Hare, Dave Wasson, Sanjay Patel, Tim Chi Ly, Eddie Fitzgerald, Stephen Hillenburg, Jim Smith, Milton Knight, Thomas Szabo, Alex Kirwan, Timothy Bjorklund, Ralph Bakshi, Lauren Faust, Eric Goldberg, Barry E Jackson, 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).

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 casting world newcomer Donna Grillo Gonzales and 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
Harris Peet - Mr Holmes Bartonni, Squatz Diggity, The Box Chested Hollerer

Billy West - Rufus Bartonni, Guy Crambled, The Atomic Yew, Old Man Insomnia, Lady Insanity

Cheryl Chase - Jillian Bartonni

Michael Pataki - Crowmonger, Chet Dodgerdare

Jim Gomez - Scold the Mold

Danny Cooksey - Sieskel Bartonni

Janice Kawaye - Lynne Bartonni, Baby Eddy, Hiromi Nago