Nat Moonhill has a experimental theater background in New Orleans before migrating to Los Angeles. We spoke to them about their adult animation TV pilot that garnered the Grand Prize in the Creative Screenwriting Animation Screenplay Competition.

What was the personal and creative inspiration behind Bartleby & Clo?

It’s a cliché, but the initial idea just came to me in a weird flash.

About five years ago, my friend – a psychic – told me that I had been deeply involved in black magic in a past life. That night I woke up in the middle of the night with a fully formed story in my head about two alchemists who manage to create an immortality serum. They drink it, but soon realize that immortality is a horrible curse, and they go to the Goddess of Death begging to have their mortality restored. I hopped out of bed and wrote it down.

Then pretty much nothing for five years. But I couldn’t get the story out of my head. It incorporated so many things that excite me: ancient magic, questions of life and death, and deep complex friendships.  It wasn’t until it occurred to me to try and write it as an animated show that things clicked into place.

When the story evolved into Bartleby & Clo it started feeling much more personal to me. The best screenwriting advice I ever heard is to write the show you would most want to watch, and that’s what I tried to do.

 

What animated TV shows do you want it to be most like?

Bojack Horseman, for sure. That show knows how to tow the line between goofy jokes and deep insight into the human (horseman) psyche. I also love the explosive, limitless creativity of Rick & Morty – where the most unbelievably insane thing can happen at any moment. And if I could have just a thimbleful of the magic of Miyazaki films I’d be thrilled.

Why did you choose the animation medium as the best platform to tell your story?

It took me a while to get there. I initially conceived this project as a fantasy novel, then a live action feature – neither of which were comedies. Then the pandemic hit and I was taking a lot of comfort in nostalgic TV, mostly cartoons. When I was a kid it was my dream to have my own animated show, so I thought – ok, what if I try writing this script for my inner 13 year old. That’s when the ideas really started flowing.

Writing in animation allowed me to whip up fantastical scenarios on the fly and move on just as quickly. It meant the world of the show could be as sprawling and kaleidoscopic as I wanted it to be.

Making the show a cartoon also brought in humor. That was key to approaching the subject matter, which over the course of the show will get pretty heavy. I think comedy is an amazing tool for exploring difficult topics, because you can disarm your audience and make them a little more willing to go there. You can slowly sneak up on tragic themes before the viewer has a chance to put their guard up.

Describe the worlds in your show and how they are essential in exploring your characters?

There are a lot of (literal) layers to the show’s universe – the Overworld of the Immortals, the mortal world of Phantasma, the subterranean world of the vampires, and the Underworld of Death. There’s a kind of caste system here. I was watching Succession as I wrote the script, and the Immortals became a stand in for the rich, powerful narcissists who run the world.  You can love them or hate them, but you’re subject to their whims either way.

Bartleby and Clo start out with mortal concerns, but then they do a sort of “class jump” to immortality and inadvertently get wrapped up in a conflict much larger than themselves. How they contend with suddenly being thrust out of the world of everyday people and into the upper echelons of power is a big part of the story.

Also, it was really important to me to weave a queer subculture into the universe of the show. Clo is queer and trans, so I wanted to include a setting where I could support that aspect of her character – which is where the vampire night club came in. Plus, I’m a huge Anne Rice stan so I needed an excuse to work vampires into the story.

What themes do you want to explore in this show?

The eventual overarching theme of the show is that in the absence of death, life ceases to have meaning. Bartleby and Clo realize pretty quickly that for mortals, eternal life is a kind of hell – you keep living as everyone you love grows old and dies, your goals and desires become meaningless in the face of infinity, never-ending life means never-ending suffering. The story ultimately becomes about their quest to win back their mortality and embrace death as an essential part of life.

It’s also a story about power, and what happens when the concerns of the powerless come into conflict with the machinations of the powerful. Bartleby and Clo discover that they are unwitting pawns in a war between the Over and Underworlds and have to decide how much to involve themselves in a conflict they didn’t start, but which could have dire consequences.

Describe your process of writing visually for animation compared to live action

The rhythm of animation is so different from live action. In an animated script I can jam a ton of crazy visual ideas in really quickly – Two cockroaches having a knife fight, a board meeting of gods and goddesses, demon guts spelling out a character’s name as they fly through the air. The reader’s suspension of disbelief can be stretched pretty far because the laws of real reality don’t apply.

When I’m writing live action the sense of plausibility needs to be much stronger. You can’t rip the world away over and over again on a single page, you need to work a little harder to earn moments of absurdity. In an animated script the reader can digest an onslaught of ridiculous imagery easily – the crazier the better.

Bartleby & Clo moves at a relentless pace. How do you balance propelling the story forward with character development?

I think it’s about leaving a lot of room for character-driven conflict. There’s the big epic plot driven narrative, but there’s also a personal narrative at the story’s core without which the whole thing would be hollow. Finding moments within the action driven sequences where our heroes don’t quite see eye to eye helps to reveal them as three dimensional characters and move their relationship forward.

How are Bartleby and Clo complementary and supplementary to each other?

I see them as part of a long line of wild-child/nervous-nellie duos; Lucy & Ethel, Bert & Ernie, Alana & Abby, Ren & Stimpy. Clo helps push Bartleby out of his comfort zone. Bartleby brings Clo back down to earth when she gets cocky. Clo is action oriented, Bartleby is more introspective. Bartleby wants safety, Clo wants danger. But they share the same sense of humor, pursue the same goals, and they care a lot about one another. They’re partners in crime with a “you and me against the world” mentality.

Describe the structure of the pilot episode. Is there an A and B story or is it a story of two halves?

It’s not a traditional A/B structure. More like an A story with a couple of different pocket universes we dip into to set the stage for the overarching narrative.

What is the story engine of the series? How will it generate endless episodes?

There are a few. The main ones are Bartleby & Clo’s quest for glory, and their eventual goal to try and undo the immortality spell they cast in the pilot. Then, behind the scenes, there’s a massive political storyline brewing between the Over and Underworlds that will eventually lead to total chaos.

Similar to something like Buffy, the show places normal sitcom tropes alongside big action-packed battles. There’s a classic will they/ won’t they romance dynamic between our two leads, and in the meantime they’ll have dating lives with various monsters and demons.

Also, like any good imaginary universe, the possibilities of Phantasma are limitless. Literally any fantasy trope can exist in the show’s world, so there’s lots of room to keep things interesting. I’d want to visit the Elf society where Clo’s mother lives, explore the dynamics of the Underworld, and introduce tons of different  creatures for them to battle or befriend. There are a lot of questions to answer about how this universe operates and I want to explore every nook and cranny.

Plus, because so many of the characters on the show are immortal I see the possibility for an epic Lord of the Rings style storyline that spans thousands of years (hence the ‘Forever’ in the title). I’d love to do a 100 or even 1000 year time jump between seasons, which would mean occasionally totally reinventing the world of the show – which I think serialized TV has to do to stay fresh.

Also, spoiler alert, we haven’t seen the end of the Ice Cream Man’s storyline.

How did your start in theatre and later film inform your sense of storytelling?

In film you can jump across the globe in a single cut, you can do an insert of the one thing you want the audience’s attention on, you can CGI in literally anything you want. In theater all you have is the stage and the limits of physical reality. Because of that theater artists learn to carefully set the audiences expectations and then completely upend them. Like, imagine you’re watching a one person performance on a bare stage and then, an hour in, a huge parade goes by – that’s mind blowing. Surprise is one of the most powerful tools I learned from theater, and I try to translate that into writing. A good surprise delights the audience, keeps them interested, and signals to them that they’re in the hands of a good storyteller. I like to find a way for each beat of the story to contain something unexpected.  It’s also how I keep myself interested in writing – I enjoy it most when I’m able to surprise myself.

How do you describe your writing voice?

I try to be cheeky and heart forward.

We’re coming out of an era of TV that centered “bad men” struggling against inner demons to ultimately become slightly less bad. A lot of these shows are great, but there are other stories to tell. I’m more interested in characters who are grounded in a desire to be good to one another, but face challenges in their attempts to do so. But I also have an impish sense of humor and am allergic to anything saccharine so I tend to get dark and snarky to keep things from being too pat.

My ideal story has both a big heart and a set of poison fangs.

Who do you see/hear starring in this show and what is the best platform to screen it?

My dream cast would be Donald Glover as Bartleby, and Hunter Schaffer from Euphoria as Clo. For Titanica, the warrior goddess (who becomes the third central character) I’ve always imagined either Michaela Cole or Kathryn Hahn – two pretty different directions, but both would be amazing!

I wrote the script with Adult Swim in mind, but Hulu and Netflix are doing a lot of amazing stuff with adult animation too. And I definitely want the audience to be able to binge the show and get totally immersed in the universe.