Canada’s Mercury Filmworks has secured a French co-production partner for its animated preschool series, Octicorn & Friends.

Based in Lyon, Stim Studio will join the Mercury team working on the 52 x 11-minute series, which is based on a book called Hello, My Name is Octicorn by Justin Lowe and Kevin Diller that Amazon first published in 2016. It stars Octi, a half-octopus/half-unicorn, who is struggling to fit in and goes on a journey to develop his self-confidence. In each episode, Octi and his friends have an adventure that unearths a feeling they then explore, and through this they develop coping skills to deal with their new emotions.

Mercury announced Octicorn & Friends in 2020 as part of its new strategy to start developing original IPs. Other concepts on its slate include Tales of the Underwear Dragon, based on Scott Rothman’s picture book; and Once Our Land, stemming from a Peter Ricq graphic novel. 

Stim is also currently working on kids series Les aventures de Lou (26 x 22 minutes) and a short film called Witches, in collaboration with student association Cpasdec. The French studio was established in 2019 by execs Jordan Soler (Despicable Me 3) and Felix Ferrand (The Secret Life of Pets).