Serious Kids has teamed up with Mercury Filmworks for the first time in a co-production deal for CG-animated special A Mouse Called Julian (30 minutes), which Serious will distribute globally. 

Both partners are planning to introduce the book-based project to buyers and investors at Kidscreen Summit in February in hopes of raising more financing. And Mercury is also developing a spinoff series. 

A Mouse Called Julian originated as a picture book from Brit author Joe Todd-Stanton, telling the story of a shy mouse who befriends a fox. It was first published in 2019 by Flying Eye Books and has since been translated into 19 languages. 

Flying Eye and Mercury have already struck gold together as partners on Hilda, an adaptation of Luke Pearson’s graphic novel series that Mercury produced for Netflix (season three actually dropped worldwide today). 

A Mouse Called Julian is the first CG-animated project for Mercury, which is on a mission to expand beyond 2D animation in order to meet demand from service clients and create proprietary content with a fresh look. The Ottawa-based studio is currently developing several other CG-animated series, including Pangors of Puddle Peak and Octicorn & Friends, the latter of which is a co-pro with France’s Stim Studio.