Seven new digital-first animated projects for kids have been selected to share US$2.6 million in funding that’s available to Canadian producers from the CMF-Shaw Rocket Fund’s Kids Digital Animated Series Program. 

Receiving funding this year are Peg Pals (Imagine Create Media), Dance With Thickety (Moonshot Rights), Polly Can Do (Milkcow Media), Magic Sash (Hammer & Sash), Butterfly Academy (Les productions Carpediem), Guiby (Divertissement EW) and Savais-Tu? (Happy Camper Media). Project details are sparse at the moment, but Butterfly Academy (pictured) is set in a school where young monarchs train for their yearly migration, and Savais-Tu? is based on an educational comic book series about animals that has sold 600,000 copies in Quebec.

Each short-form concept will receive US$382,000 in production financing—with CMF putting up two-thirds of this funding and Shaw Rocket Fund covering the rest. The orgs launched their joint-run program in 2018, and it has so far invested more than US$16 million in 50 Canadian children’s series. 

Series that have benefited from the fund in the past include Copernicus Studios’ Lana Longbeard (which has secured presales from Super RTL and WBD EMEA), Big Bad Boo’s Judge Jodhi (CBC Kids) and marblemedia’s YouTube series Armadillo Avalanche.