Marking its first foray into kids TV, Toronto’s Wildling Pictures has secured the rights to produce an animated series based on a collection of Professor Goose Debunks Fairy Tales picture books written by Franklin the Turtle author Paulette Bourgeois.

The Snoopy Show writer Jocelyn Geddie has been tapped to develop the concept with Wildling Pictures’ Matt Code (Mary Goes Round), and Natalie Urquhart (Rogue Bridal) and Julie Strifler (Easy Land) executive producing.

The first book in the series, Professor Goose Debunks Goldilocks and the Three Bears, was released last month in North America at retailers including Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon, as well as digitally through Google Play Books and Kobo. More titles will be announced at a later date. 

The books feature Professor Goose, a relative of Mother Goose who loves to fact-check classic fairy tales and expose their flaws using basic laws of science. They are published by Tundra Books, a Penguin Random House Canada imprint, and illustrated by Alex Griffiths (The Bug Collector). 

Bourgeois has been a big name in kidlit circles since Franklin in the Dark was first published in 1986. Penned by Bourgeois and illustrated by Brenda Clark (although later titles featured TV series art), the franchise has since sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, as well as spawning two animated series from Canadian animation studio Nelvana (1997 and 2011) and several broad consumer products programs.  

Wildling’s most recent original productions include David Bowie biopic Stardust (2020) and thriller feature film See for Me (2021), which are both available on Canadian SVOD Crave.