Film Roman is an animation studio founded in 1984 by former Bill Meléndez Productions director Phil Roman. Its first work includes the animated specials based on Garfield, as well as Garfield and Friends. Since then, they have worked on a number of other animated media, listed below. In 1999, Roman left the company, and formed another animation studio called Phil Roman Entertainment, which has produced Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. For a time in the 2000s, the studio became known as DPS Film Roman, after a merger with the IDT-owned Digital Production Solutions; the name was reverted back to simply Film Roman later on. From 2006 to 2015, Film Roman was owned by the Starz premium TV group, which acquired the previous owner, IDT Entertainment, in 2006 (IDT had acquired Film Roman in 2003); The Weinstein Company had also owned a stake in FR. However, in 2015, Starz was dissatisfied with the studio's performance and sold the studio to producer Steve Waterman that year. Starz retains control to all of Film Roman's catalog up to that point, and will continue to work with them.
Main production company for the following series/movies:
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (with Marvel Animation and Ingenious Media)
- Animated Classic Showcase
- The Baby Huey Show (with Harveytoons; season 2 only)
- Bobby's World (with Alevy Productions and Fox Children's Productions)
- Bruno the Kid
- C Bear and Jamal
- Camp WWE (with WWE and Stoopid Buddy Studios)
- Charlie's Angels Animated Adventures shorts
- Cro (with Sesame Workshop)
- Dan Vs. (with The Hatchery)
- Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic (with Electronic Arts and Starz Media)
- Dead Space: Downfall (with Electronic Arts and Starz Media)
- Eek! The Cat (Klutter segments only; with Nelvana and Fox Children's Productions)
- Free For All (with IDT Entertainment)
- Garfield Specials (except the first two; with Paws, Inc.)
- Garfield and Friends (with United Medianote , Lee Mendelson Productionsnote and Paws, Inc.)
- Hairballs (pilot)
- The Happy Elf (with IDT Entertainment)
- The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (with Starz Media)
- Hellboy Animated (with Revolution Studios and Starz Media)
- Sword of Storms
- Blood and Iron
- The Iron Shoes (short film released as Bonus Material to the DVD release of Blood and Iron)
- Izzy's Quest For the Olympic Gold (TV special)
- Johnny Tsunami (a Disney Channel Original Movie)
- The Mask (with Sunbow Entertainment, Dark Horse Entertainment and New Line Television)
- Me, Eloise! (with HandMade Films and Starz Media)
- Mighty Max (with Bohbot Entertainment and Canal Plus)
- Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (with Threshold Entertainment and New Line Television)
- Mother Goose and Grimm (with Tribune Entertainment, Grimmy, Inc., Lee Mendelson Productions and MGM Television)
- Motocrossed (a Disney Channel Original Movie)
- The Mr. Potato Head Show
- Nick & Noël (made-for-video)
- Richie Rich (1996) (with Jeffrey A. Montgomery Productions and Harveytoons)
- Slacker Cats (with Laika and ABC Family Original Productions)
- The Story of Santa Claus
- The Super Hero Squad Show (with Marvel Animation and Ingenious Medianote )
- Tom and Jerry: The Movie (with Turner Entertainment)
- Tripping the Rift (not Film Roman specifically, but IDT Entertainment. Season 2 only.)
- Turok: Son of Stone (with Classic Media and Starz Media)
- The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) (with Marvel Animation)
- Weebles: Welcome to Weebleville (made-for-video)
- Weebles: Sharing in the Fun!
- Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (with Six Point Harness, Bolder Medianote and IDT Entertainmentnote )
- X-Men: Evolution (with Marvel Studios)
- Zazoo U (with Fox Children's Productions)
Animation studio for other production companies:
- Beavis And Butthead (season 8)
- The Critic
- Family Guy (all 15 episodes in the season 1 production order; starting with "Brian in Love", production switched over to Fox/20th Television Animation)
- The Goode Family
- King of the Hill
- Mission Hill
- The Oblongs
- The Simpsons (seasons 4-27, after the animation production was moved from Klasky-Csupo. Starting with the WABF production season, the production duties have been transferred to Fox/20th Television Animation.
) - Spaceballs: The Animated Series (animation services for Fantasy Prone Interactive for the episode "Grand Theft Starship")
Visual effects for:
Tropes associated with Film Roman include:
- Animation Bump:
- Many of their feature films tend to looks miles better than their television work.
- Their run of The Simpsons reduced the amount of Off-Model animation that plagued the Klasky Csupo produced episodes.
- Deranged Animation: The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat and The Haunted World of El Superbeasto have this type of animation.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: They were once the biggest pre-production animation studios in America during the '90s to the early 2010s. Once they cut ties with parent Starz Media, their work input had all but been nonexistent, with Fox/20th Television Animation later being the current producers of The Simpsons starting with season 28.
- Limited Animation: Any of their series animated in Flash and/or aimed at adult audiences are this, although their adult-animated series don't go to the extent as Fuzzy Door Productions, Williams Street and Bento Box Entertainment.
- Off-Model: This is prevalent in most series where they use AKOM as their sub-contractor, especially in their cel-animated series, and the less said about their run on Family Guy and the pilot of King of the Hill, the better.
- Production Posse:
- AKOM, Plus One Animation, Saerom, and Rough Draft Korea are their most common contractors for their adult-animated series.
- Mike Judge used them to do the pre-production work on King of the Hill, The Goode Family, and the 2011 revival of Beavis and Butt-Head.
- Gracie Films used them for The Simpsons for most of that series run and The Critic.
