For its kids fall slate, Canada’s pubcaster CBC is betting on a pre-existing animated IP and a live-action series developed for both TV and digital featuring an iconic Canadian sprinter.

Butterfly Academy

The CBC has ordered CarpeDiem Film & TV and AgentDouble Productions’ CG-animated series Butterfly Academy (pictured above, 26 x 11 minutes). Radio-Canada, TFO and RTBF in Belgium are getting the French-language version L’Académie des monarques. 

Butterfly Academy picks up after CarpeDiem’s CG-animated 2023 film Butterfly Tale (an 82 minute Canada/German co-pro), which followed four monarch butterflies as they went on a migratory adventure. In this new series, those characters return and take up posts as instructors at the titular academy to teach younger butterflies skills like how to fly and avoid predators.

The movie toured the festival circuit and was acquired by Crave and SRC. “The director of the feature film [Sophie Roy, who also directed the series] and I toured in Quebec with the film and kids wanted to see more of the characters, which triggered the idea for a series,” says EP Marie-Claude Beauchamp.

The series stands out because it touches on the real-world threats to butterflies, which are facing endangerment, adds Beauchamp. And it’s relatable for kids because it echoes their experiences taking up sports like swimming, where the coaches are often teens, and not much older than them, she says.

Beauchamp’s Pink Parrot Media is handling the series’ international sales. Six episodes are being mixed next week, and one is already completed; Pink Parrot is sharing it with broadcasters to see what other sales it can secure.

The series has a US$5.4-million budget (CAD$7.5 million). And while securing a bigger budget in Canada is a challenge, Beauchamp hopes the series will get renewed, because there are more stories to tell with these characters, she says.

On Track with Andre De Grasse

On the live-action side, the pubcaster ordered On Track with Andre De Grasse (10 x five minutes) from Windy Isle Entertainment. The series is a buddy comedy where Olympic medalist De Grasse has to keep a younger version of himself (played by Hugo Assad) on track. In a typical episode, De Grasse finds his room getting messy, and he travels back in time to impart some wisdom to his younger self about staying organized.

Andre De Grasse gives advice to his younger self to help keep them both on track. Image courtesy of Write UR and CBC.

“What’s great about that for kids is they’ll really relate to young Andre,” Carolyn Hay, an executive producer and showrunner on the series, tells Kidscreen. “And then they have this amazing superstar giving them advice. I think that’ll be a really nice meld of those two layers.”

This series for six to 11s originated after Hay and Hugh Duffy of Write U R (Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe) were inspired by the positive messages in De Grasse’s kids book Race with Me! (Scholastic), which details how De Grasse motivates himself. It convinced the duo to branch out beyond their animation specialty to make their first live-action series, Hay says.

A seven-time Olympic medalist and champion of kids’ mental and physical health, De Grasse is one of Canada’s most decorated Olympians ever, so bringing the series to the CBC was a natural step, since the pubcaster carries the Olympics in Canada, Hay notes. But she says the series has the legs to travel internationally too, and Write U R is looking for international partners interested in picking it up. “I don’t think it matters that it’s [about] a Canadian star because the stories are universal,” says Hays. “And [viewers] will just know who he is as soon as they see him. So, you could see it play in Britain, you could see it play in Japan.”

The CBC connected Hay and Duffy, who are both executive producers and showrunners on the series, with producer Windy Isle (Mittens & Pants and According to Kids, both CBC series) to bring live-action expertise to the production. De Grasse, Windy Isle’s Phil McCordic and Shereen Ali and Brian Levine of Envision Sports and Entertainment are EPs on the series, too, with CBC’s Drew Mullin as executive in charge of production for CBC Kids.

On Track was developed to translate to social media, and its short format (another first for Write U R, which was used to 11-minute episodes) fits into the bite-size episode length the CBC wanted to reach kids on digital. To that end, CBC will share the series on TV, on its streamer CBC Gem and on YouTube, and it’ll be clipped for social media, a spokesperson for the pubcaster confirmed. And in true sprint fashion, the series only had a nine-day shoot back in March, and the production had to work around De Grasse’s rigid training schedule, Hay notes.

“I’m excited that we’re managing to tell big stories in a small amount of time,” Hay adds. “This is a new sort of format, and I’m excited to tell more stories in that way. I think it’s encouraging that we could get such a great result in such a short amount of time. And it shows that you can be resilient in the industry, like Andre teaches.”

The upcoming slate

These two series will join the previously announced title Cool Indigenous Stuff (Kejic Media) to debut this fall. The pubcaster has also renewed Super Why’s Comic Book Adventures from 9 Story/Brown Bag Films and PBS KIDS for an additional 39 x 22 episodes, which will premiere in the fall. The CBC also previously announced a renewal of Macy Murdoch from Shaftesbury for an eight x 11-minute third season, which will debut this winter. And previously announced projects 9 Story/Brown Bag Films’ new Clifford the Big Red Dog revival and Lightcatcher Media’s Little Margo Stories (also going to Disney Jr.) will debut next year.