If you grew up watching cartoons in the nineties, then actors like Rob Paulsen and Kevin Conroy were so omnipresent in your childhood that even if you don’t know their names, you’d immediately recognize their voices. And now, a new project is set to bring them all together.
Spearheaded by screenwriter Byron Burton and voice actor Rob Paulsen (of ‘Animaniacs’, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, and countless others) the series, dubbed ‘The Gang’s All Here’ is described by The Hollywood Reporter as following “an animal cast of actors as the star in their own films and navigate the pitfalls of the entertainment industry.” At first glance, the premise invites comparisons Netflix’s ‘BoJack Horseman’, but ‘The Gang’s All Here’ is further described as targeting an audience of “adults and adolescents” and will possess some vaguely defined superhero elements. That alone should prove more than enough to set the series apart from its streaming counterpart, which has always been a more unabashedly adult program, replete as it is with Hollywood satire and black comedy.
And really, the title of ‘The Gang’s All Here’ says it all. In addition to Paulsen, the cast also includes Cal Dodd and Kevin Conroy, best known for voicing the early nineties incarnations of Wolverine and Batman respectively. At least as noteworthy, however, is the involvement of Andrea Romano. Romano, of course, is something of an industry legend for her work as a casting and voice director for a plethora of animated films and series, including ‘Animaniacs’, ‘Pinky and the Brain’ and the entirety of the DC Animated Universe. She will be lending her voice to ‘The Gang’s All Here’, despite having announced her retirement earlier this year. As Romano explains it, it’s the uniqueness of the series’ approach that lured her out of retirement: “This is so different than what we’d been doing in terms of creating things with actors. I think it speaks volumes that I’m willing to look at it when I’d just retired.”
But what of their characters? So far, we have only the broadest of descriptions, but let’s go over what we do know. Paulsen will be Patches, a warthog whose voice is being compared with that of Christopher Walken. Conroy, meanwhile, will be voicing Frances, who might best be described as “Frasier Crane if he was a bear” as well as Barkley, a superhero dog whose sidekick, a cat named Meryl, will be voiced by Romano. Which brings us to Cal Dodd, who will lend his voice to Sargent Snout, a “gruff pig commando” in the vein of a Reagan-era Sylvester Stallone. He will also be voicing a literal wolverine, in a nod to his most famous role.
Be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more on ‘The Gang’s All Here’ as it becomes available!
