Corus-owned kids prodco Nelvana is singing along with a new series of musical shorts for linear preschool channel Treehouse and its associated YouTube channel. Titled Toon Bops, the 21 x 90-second animated shorts debuted on YouTube November 15 and marks the first time Nelvana has tried its hand at a short musical series. The videos will continue to roll out this month and will launch on linear in the new year.

Each episode features original songs that revolve around family and friendship, and include popular kid staples like pandas, dinosaurs, ponies and robots.

The Treehouse Direct channel has 622,000 subscribers and features full episodes of preschool series, including Little Charmers, Miss Persona and The Backyardigans.

After decades of building up a catalogue of long-form animated shows like Max & Ruby and Mysticons, Nelvana has been busy working to expand into new categories this year. Seeing a need to branch out in order to stand out in an industry rife with consolidation, Nelvana Enterprises’ new head Mellany Masterson, told Kidscreen in October that the prodco planned to create and distribute original IPs through its YouTube channels and on Treehouse Direct, specifically. Beyond digital content, the prodco made its first short film (The Most Magnificent Thing) this year and is also working on a live-action series based on The Hardy Boys books series.