Speckle

Guy Moon has passed on to Heaven   I can’t believe I wrote those words but there they are. I am devastated and crying as I write this. It’s taken me three days to compose myself enough to sit at a keyboard and express my thoughts. Guy Moon - my colleague, my friend, my brother - my family - passed on to Heaven on Thursday. I’m told it was sudden. I don’t know if that’s better or worse, all I know is that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye and that’s the part that eats at me the most. I wasn’t part of his immediate clan but having known him for 30 years my wife, Julieann and I basically ‘adopted ourselves’ into his family.   To say that he was a huge part of my career journey is an understatement. He wasn’t just a part of it; he was fused with it. There’s no ‘Butch Hartman Show’ without Guy Moon. His music was involved in everything - and I mean EVERYTHING – I’ve ever done professionally. Every episode, every song, every note. It was all him. I first met him in 1996 at Cartoon Network while working on ‘Johnny Bravo’. His amazing attitude, kindness, warmth, overall sense of fun – not to mention the INCREDIBLE musical talent he possessed – were evident right from the start. From there he worked on the original pilot for ‘The Fairly Oddparents’ in 1997 all the way through its entire run until 2018. Not only did he score EVERY EPISODE he was responsible for some of the most classic hits from ‘ICKY VICKY’ to ‘MY SHINY TEETH AND ME’. The incredible thing was, while Fairly Oddparents was still running I handed him a brand-new show called ‘DANNY PHANTOM’. It was completely different but that was no problem for him. He slid into it so effortlessly it almost seemed unreal. He helped me compose the classic theme song and he did the score for, yes, EVERY SINGLE episode. Keep in mind, he was doing Fairly Oddparents the entire time as well. But this is how gifted people do things: they make it look easy to us mere mortals. From there it was ‘TUFF PUPPY’. Yep, he did the theme and every episode. Then it was ‘BUNSEN IS A BEAST’. Same thing. He did it all. Completely and wonderfully. Then we did ‘HOBBY KIDS ADVENTURES’ and he nailed that one, too. By this time, I barely even had to communicate to Guy what was needed for each episode. Of each new project.  We knew each other’s rhythms so well by then. The final show we worked on together were 40 episodes of ‘THE GARDEN CARTOON’. After 3 years of production, he had JUST finished the final episode in November of 2025. I truly believe it’s a fitting capstone to an incredible career as this show teaches kids about the Bible and Jesus Christ.  I know Guy was as proud of it and through this show and all the others I know his legacy will continue for DECADES to come. Music lives forever even if our bodies don’t. He could, quite literally, compose anything I asked him for. Pop, jazz, rock, opera, 1920’s Ragtime, whatever it was the story needed he could do. The crazy thing was he could do it without even thinking. That’s how gifted he was. Maybe the most important thing about our relationship was that he was the first one to encourage me to seek Jesus. He never pushed it, I just saw how he acted. What his example was. From there I got inspired and now Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Guy didn’t make the decision for me; he just showed me the door. I praise God for his obedience. I’ll be saying a lot more about this as the days and weeks roll by. I’m at a loss, truly. Time will make it easier, I know, as it always does and most of the pain will eventually be forgotten. But Guy – thanks to his incredible music and his amazing legacy - will never be. That warms my heart. Rest with the Prince of Peace, my friend. My brother. My family. Until we see each other again - - -Butch