Franklin



Franklin is a both a series of books and an animated children's series featuring the adventures of anthropomorphic young turtle and his group of friends. The first book in the series was released in 1986 by Kids Can Press and its popularity led to over twenty books in the original series. In 1996, Nelvana adapted the characters for an animated series that appeared on Nick Jr. in the United States, the Family Channel in Canada and has since been seen around the world. In each story, Franklin explores themes and values of importance to kids, including the first day of school, a first sleepover and the importance of perseverance and being true to one's friends.

In 2010, Nelvana announced the production of a new CGI series, Franklin and Friends, ordered for 26 episodes, featuring familiar favorites and a new character, Aunt T. The series was previewed on Treehouse TV on February 14, 2011 and began regular broadcasts in March. In the United States, it began airing in Nickelodeon's morning block on February 13, 2012, nearly a year after it was first seen in Canada. Franklin celebrated his 25th anniversary in 2011.

Two Franklin CD releases are known to be available. The first, Hey, It's Franklin!, was released in 2000 and includes music from the film Franklin and the Green Knight, as well as two different stage shows. The second is called Franklin & the Adventures of the Noble Knights and features the music from a 2010 stage show by that name.

Franklin provides examples of the following:
"For Baby Turtle... To Baby Turtle... Baby Turtle... Beat"
 * An Aesop: Most of the stories are based on teaching one of some sort.
 * Aesop Amnesia: In Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure, Aunt Lucy mentions a "mystic" who lives at Turtle Lake and Mr. Turtle comments "Can't say I believe in hocus pocus myself." Apparently he has forgotten witnessing his son and daughter traveling on the back of a flying reindeer in Franklin's Magic Christmas.
 * Agony of the Feet: In "Franklin and the Pinecone Pass" on Franklin and Friends, Franklin gets so frustrated and upset that Bear wants to play Rabbit's new game (Pinecone Pass) instead of playing with him that he kicks a rock, hard. (Too bad he doesn't wear the shoes described in the books' traditional opening.) He hops up and down, clutching his foot, and a just-arriving Beaver reminds him that it's balls that are good for kicking, not rocks.
 * All CGI Cartoon: Franklin and Friends
 * Alliterative Name: Beatrice "Bea" Bear.
 * Animated Adaptation: Like most of Nelvana's shows. Many of the first season stories are based directly on the original books. This was dropped after the first season, though some stories still occasionally incorporated story elements that first appeared in the books.
 * Animation Bump: There were four movies and each have their own distinctive visual style. Fans vary on which was their favorite. In pure technical terms, however, the final film Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure had the best animation, thanks to a number of former Disney animators being hired on to work on the film. This film also contains a fair amount of Scenery Porn.
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Franklin's sister Harriet is occasionally placed in this role. Generally, however, the two are reasonably amiable with each other and enjoy a healthy brother/sister relationship.
 * Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better: Rabbit and Fox in the "So Much Faster Than You" song from the stage show "Adventures of the Noble Knights"
 * Art Evolution: Thumb through the first Franklin book, then go through each season of the TV series, then the movies, and finally the stills for the upcoming CGI special. Yep, they've come a long way.
 * Be Yourself: "Franklin and His Night Friend," probably other stories as well.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Franklin, without a doubt, seen in the third season in "Big Brother Franklin" when Franklin took to looking after a little kid named Squirrel. He also became a "best friend big brother" to Bear's little sister, Beatrice. Eventually, Paulette Bourgeois finally made him a big brother for real in the book "Franklin's Baby Sister" and the film Franklin and the Green Knight soon followed.
 * Big Eater: Bear is often munching on something and tends to get edgy if he's denied food. His solo in ''Franklin and the Adventures of the Noble Knights" is titled "A Hungry Little Bear."
 * Bill, Bill, Junk, Bill: In "Franklin the Spy," Mr. Turtle does this with several pieces of mail, then gets excited when he finds the new issue of his Gardener's Monthly magazine.
 * Franklin also goes through a variant of this when he goes through the baby shower gifts in the Green Knight movie:


 * Breakout Character: Mr. Groundhog in Franklin and Friends. This character never appeared in the books and only showed up late in the original Franklin TV series, appearing in just a couple of episodes. The writers of Franklin and Friends, however, seem to have taken a shine to him and have included him in many episodes, often in an at least somewhat central role.
 * Call Back: Franklin's knight costume is seen in a treasure chest in Back to School With Franklin and that film also references Franklin's distaste for brussels sprouts from "Franklin's Blanket." The sixth season story "Sir Franklin's Squire" also heavily references Franklin and the Green Knight.
 * Canada, Eh?: Franklin is a Canadian production, and Mr. Marmot invoked the trope in Franklin Plays It Safe. To be specific, Mr. Marmot punctuates the end of every other sentence with an "Eh".
 * Canon Discontinuity - Beaver got a pet hamster in the third season of the original show, but in "Franklin in the Gecko Games," on Franklin and Friends, it's said that one of the reasons she's excited about the idea of taking home the class gecko for the summer is that she doesn't have any pets of her own. Unless, of course, "doesn't have any pets" is just code for Henry having died and the characters not wanting to talk about it directly, but Franklin has never been afraid to tackle to tough issues before.
 * Character Title, or Character Name and the Noun Phrase for Franklin and Friends
 * Christmas Episode: "Franklin's Christmas Gift" and the movie Franklin's Magic Christmas
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Moose, a character first seen in the original books. He showed up in some future books, but not so for the TV series. Instead, they did an entire story in the first season about how Moose moved to town, joined Franklin's class and the two became friends. He was then never seen again, the most likely explanation being that he was just too awkward to draw, given his large size and antlers. There are any of a number of other characters that have simply come and gone with no explanation. Franklin and Friends has been better about this, at least so far, anyway. Badger is nowhere to be seen in this new series, but otherwise they seem to have pretty much picked a stable cast of characters to stick with.
 * Conspicuous CG: The entire series and pretty much all of the movies were done entirely in traditional animation, though perhaps with some computer assistance in some cases. The turtle talisman in Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure was pretty obviously CGed however.
 * Cool Teacher: Miss Koala, the replacement teacher in Back to School With Franklin. She rides around a motor-scooter and is decidedly pretty hip.
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Snail is voiced by Kristen Bone, the voice of Maggie on Maggie And The Ferocious Beast. This has led to a bit of Viewer Gender Confusion, though it's usually made pretty obvious that Snail is male.
 * Cunning Like a Fox: Fox, of course. He's not really a bad guy, but he can be a bit more mischievous sometimes than the other characters.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: As a child, Franklin's Granny's (on his father's side) home was destroyed in a brush-fire and she escaped only because she was camping out in a tent. She could only watch as she rowed away in a boat and her home was burned to the ground, along with her parents. This, and certain other elements in the film, were so dark compared to the series in general that some parents expressed serious concern about the effect it could have on their children. (Though it really isn't any darker than something you might see on a Disney film such as The Lion King or The Little Mermaid.) Granny is also likely a widow, as Franklin's paternal grandfather has never been seen (or mentioned, for that matter.)
 * Dead Pet Sketch: The "pet goes missing" variant in Franklin and the Two Henrys
 * Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: Owl and Badger, though badgers can sometimes be diurnal in certain seasons. Averted, however, with Bat
 * A Dog Named "Dog": Nearly everyone but Franklin.
 * Doomy Dooms of Doom: Invoked by Beaver in Sir Franklin's Squire with The Obstacle Course Of Doom!
 * Dream Within a Dream: In "Franklin the Fearless," Franklin has a nightmare about trying to reprise a daring stunt he only managed before by accident in which he falls and falls. He seems to wake up before he hits the ground, then heads off to perform the trick. He chickens out, then wakes up to find out that was just a nightmare as well.
 * Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Harriet, in Franklin's Magic Christmas and the fifth season of the TV show. It's dropped in the sixth season, to indicate that she's growing up.
 * "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Common
 * Everyone Went to School Together: Almost inevitable, given the limited number of characters
 * Expressive Ears: Rabbit's ears droop back when he's sad about something.
 * Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: See the page for the trope, but yeah, it's enforced. Oh, and Franklin and Harriet are seen wearing seatbelts (and Harriet in an appropriate child safety seat) the few times that they're shown in a car.
 * Fear of Thunder: "Franklin and the Thunderstorm" deals with this. Franklin is helped by imagining the thunder as "cloud giants."
 * Feather Fingers: Goose, Mrs. Goose and Mr. Owl
 * Forgiveness: Again, see the page for the trope for a full and detailed explanation.
 * Furry Confusion: On one side of the scale, we have Franklin, Beaver, Goose, Bear, Eagle, etc, which are all semi-anthropomorphic: they almost look like their real world counterparts but are capable of speaking a common language and often the four legged animals walk on two. On the other hand, we have the Henry (a hamster - two hamsters actually, both named Henry), Goldie (Franklin's pet goldfish) and a baby duckling, and many other birds who are purely zoomorphic.
 * In "Franklin Migrates" (also available in book form as "Franklin Celebrates"), Franklin meets Goose's extended family, who all behave much more like regular geese by migrating to the south in the winter. The book version even goes so far as to suggest that Goose doesn't agree with her parents' practice of staying put. As the other geese fly away, Goose whispers "One day I will be with them, Franklin."
 * Then there was the story of Franklin wanting a pet dog.
 * Going in Circles: In "Franklin is Lost," (originally a book, adapted as a television story) Franklin and Fox get lost in a forest. They try to get out, only to end up circling right back to where they started. They then decide it's best to stay right where they are until someone comes looking for them.
 * Green Aesop: "Franklin Plants a Tree," in which Franklin loses a small sapling and doesn't think that it's a big deal, until he learns that a tree is a living creature. It's actually probably one of the least Anvilicious examples of this trope that there is.
 * Halloween Episode
 * Have a Gay Old Time: During the song Deck The Halls at the opening of Franklin's Magic Christmas (Don we now our gay apparel). Justified in that the movie was aiming to use the traditional, unaltered lyrics of the featured songs.
 * Hypocritical Humor: In "Franklin Migrates," Bear and Franklin get a little too loud and excited while in the library, so Mrs. Goose comes to to tell them to use their library voices. She then says that Goose told her that Franklin agreed to come to their Migration Eve Party and tells him in her loud, musical voice, "Bring your dancing shoes!"
 * I Can See My House From Here: Rabbit does this from inside a barrel in "Franklin the Planner" on Franklin and Friends.
 * I Have This Friend: Franklin uses this in Back to School With Franklin, telling his parents that Bear has reservations about Miss Koala as the replacement teacher for Mr. Owl, when he's really the one who isn't so sure about her.
 * I Have to Go Iron My Dog: In "Franklin's Advice," Snail uses the excuse that he has to help his father to push a pinecone to get out of sitting on Franklin's shoulder as he jumps rope, so that he won't have to reveal that he cracked his shell and is in pain.
 * I Minored in Tropology: The new CGI Franklin and Friends series reveals that Mrs. Turtle knows enough about teaching to occasionally serve as a substitute teacher for Mr. Owl, something which was never seen in either the books or the original TV show.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: In "Franklin Sees the Big Picture," upon seeing Franklin and Bear dressed as superheroes, the librarian Mrs. Goose suggests that maybe they'll have to help her rescue somebody who's "lost in a book."
 * Inevitable Waterfall: Franklin rescues Snail from going over the edge of one just in the nick of time following the "I Wonder" song in Franklin and the Green Knight.
 * Innocent Swearing: Used at one point, with the "swear word" stupid.
 * Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Beaver. In fairness, she is smart as a whip, but she's just as often wrong as she is right.
 * Large Ham: In the TV version of "Franklin's Valentines," Beaver's Valentine box is plastered with massive photos of herself. Bear jokingly asks her which box is hers.
 * Licensed Games: Two Game Boy Advance games, one Nintendo DS game, and one Play Station 2 game. All of them by The Game Factory.
 * Edutainment Games: A few PC edutainment titles from Vivendi Universal also exists, as does a few educational electronic LCD hand-held games from Tiger Electronics.
 * Long Running Book Series: The first book in the series was released in 1986. The TV series didn't first appear until 1996 and continued releasing new content as late as 2006. A new CGI television series, Franklin and Friends, has been confirmed, with more merchandise and book releases likely to follow.
 * Magic Feather: In one of the stories, Bear believes he's having bad luck, so his friends try to find him a four-leaf clover. Not able to find one, they just give him a fake four-leaf clover that is really a regular clover with an extra-leaf taped on. Bear gains confidence and does stuff well until he finds out that it's not a real four-leaf clover-- but then his friends remind him that since it wasn't real, that means he did everything on his own.
 * Merit Badges for Everything: In "Franklin Wants a Badge," Franklin desperately tries to earn merit badges, but ends up continuously stopping to help out his little sister, Harriet. He eventually earns the "Caring Brother Badge."
 * Monster Is a Mommy: In Franklin and the Green Knight, Franklin and Snail find the "magic cherry tree" and then start getting pecked like crazy by a seemingly vicious warbler bird. It turns out that she's just protecting her eggs, though once Franklin and Snail state that they don't want her eggs, she becomes positively pleasant.
 * Moose Are Idiots: Moose initially seems this way, but it turns out he's just awkward.
 * The Movie: Even popular series of this sort are usually lucky to get even one movie. Franklin got four of them-- Franklin and the Green Knight: The Movie (the only one to include the phrase "The Movie" in the title), Franklin's Magic Christmas, Back to School With Franklin and Franklin in the Turtle Lake Treasure. The final one was the only one released to theaters. It was seen theatrically in France, as Franklin et le tresor du lac.
 * Franklin and the Green Knight received theatrical releases in certain markets, most notably in its home country of Canada.
 * The Moving Experience: In "Franklin's Party Plans," Franklin gets the idea that Skunk is moving away to another town, but she's just moving to another street.
 * The Narrator: Used Once Per Episode at the beginning of each episode to give viewers a brief description of what's about to happen in the story, a format adapted from the original books. The original narrator was replaced later in the series, though both were female. The only time the Narrator got any narration outside of the opening was in the Franklin and the Green Knight: The Movie, but all three of the films that followed didn't contain any narration at all, even at the start. The Narrator has also been done away with in Franklin and Friends.
 * No Antagonist: Well, no real ones, only imaginary ones.
 * No Ending: In "Franklin Has the Hiccups," we never find out the outcome of the chess match. It just ends with Franklin and Marmot agreeing to each play their best and have fun, then heading inside to have the match.
 * No Export for You: To this day, Nick Jr. still has never shown a number of episodes from the program's sixth season. Additionally, the CGI Franklin and Friends was premiered in Canada, with no immediate word on when U.S. viewers might see it.
 * Not as bad as Malaysia, which has never gotten to see the sixth season at all. Which is pretty strange considering that TV2, the primary station that airs Franklin in Malaysia, brought in the fifth season a few months before Nick Jr. did in the US.
 * The One Who Wears Shoes: "Franklin could count by twos and tie his shoes..." except he doesn't wear shoes, most of the time. The cast are generally Barefoot Cartoon Animals and Franklin is usually no exception. Several of the books, however, do depict him sometimes wearing shoes and Franklin is the only character ever seen wearing boots on a cold winter's day.
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: Granny's time capsule, the titular treasure in Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure, along with the talisman and photograph within it.
 * The Other Darrin: They managed to keep the same voice, Noah Reid, for Franklin for five seasons and two films, but then the original voice actor's voice got so deep that it just wasn't working anymore. So they got Cole Caplan, who had previously voiced a One-Shot Character named Squirrel, to do the voice. Then, for the final film, they got Cameron Ansell, one of the many voices of Arthur. They also ended up replacing the voices of several other characters in later seasons.
 * Happens too with the Latin American Spanish version, but with a very annoying twist: Since the Mexican voice acting studio who dubbed the series during the most of the half of the series went bankrupt and Nelvana were unable to find another cheaper one in the same country, they were forced to send the dubbing of the rest of the series to another VA studio in Venezuela. Due to the differences between Mexican and Venezuelan Spanish dialects, some characters and terms were renamed with proper words used in the Venezuelan dialect. The biggest offender of this was Skunk, since his name in Mexican Spanish was Zorrillo (his name of his species in the Mexican Spanish dialect), but in Venezuela, he was renamed as Mofeta (his name in Venezuelan Spanish, since Mofeta is "Skunk" in that country). Needless to say, many Latin American kids (especially, Mexican ones) were confused and it became a sort of Memetic Mutation the phrase: Mom, why Zorrillo is now named Mofeta?
 * Almost all of the original character voices have been replaced by others in Franklin and Friends, but this isn't surprising, given it's been nearly fifteen years since the originally series debuted. That said, the casting director has done a pretty good job of picking soundalikes for the originals on the whole. All of the kids have new voice actors, but a few of the adults retain their originals. These include, notably, both Mr. and Mrs. Turtle. (Franklin's parents.)
 * Pet Baby Wild Animal: In "Franklin and the Duckling," Franklin tries to adopt a duckling as a pet. He doesn't get to keep it for very long, though, as he's quickly caught by his parents.
 * Picky Eater: One of the shows' stories is focused on Franklin and his entire group of friends behaving like picky eaters and not wanting to try any of the new food that each of them is bringing to a picnic. The stalemate ends when Franklin and Bear unwittingly eat some pizza made with spinach and say that they like it.
 * Playful Otter: Otter.
 * Prima Donna Director: Beaver in "Franklin and the Puppet Play." Asked to direct a puppet play of Little Red Riding Hood, she assigns herself the starring role and doesn't let anyone else have any input. Things come to a head when Beaver catches the others mocking her bossiness. See also Tyrant Takes the Helm for when Beaver is asked to coach the soccer team.
 * Primal Fear: The first book of the series, Franklin in the Dark, dealt with Franklin's fear of darkness. It was later adapted as one of the TV stories. Creator Paulette Bourgeois was inspired to create the story by the events of an episode of MASH.
 * Puppy Love: In-universe example - In "Franklin and Betty," Franklin's friends try to suggest this about Franklin and Beaver's cousin Betty. They manage to get Franklin's goat for a little while, but Bear helps him to see that if he enjoys hanging out with Betty, that's all right, and he shouldn't let it get to him.
 * Put on a Bus: Straight from the original books and done the exact same way in the television series-- Otter moves away to a big city fairly early on. She resurfaces for one episode in the third season and is also seen on a banner in the final season.
 * Recursive Adaptation: Many of the TV stories were later released as books. The TV Storybook releases generally followed the storylines of what was shown on television with only minor changes. The Kids Can Read releases, however, were written with beginning readers in mind and were generally strong Adaptation Distillations that only vaguely resembled the original plots.
 * Removable Shell: Franklin and all of his family members have shells that are removable. Played with in a fire safety story in which Mr. Turtle found that he could not evacuate his house by the window unless he first removed his shell.
 * Retcon: A number of the TV Storybooks insert Franklin's sister Harriet into stories in which she didn't appear in the TV version because she wasn't born until after the fourth season of the program.
 * Ret-Gone: Kit is nowhere to be seen in Franklin and Friends. One of the stories has what is said to be the entire Beaver family staying over at the Turtles and Kit is nowhere to be seen, so it seems safe to say he doesn't exist in this series.
 * Safety Worst: Subverted in "Franklin Plays it Safe." After the village safety inspector, Mr. Marmot, tells them that it's "better to be safe than sorry," Franklin and Bear start becoming militant about safety and, among other things, stop their friends from playing in the treehouse when one of the branches develops a crack. Though their fears are dismissed as silly, they turn out to be justified. When the other kids get tired of being told what to do, they decide to go play in the treehouse, but right before they enter, it gets blown down by a stiff wind. Everyone is immediately repentant to Bear & Franklin and everyone pitches in (with adult help) to build a new treehouse.
 * Played a bit more straight in the fire-safety story "Franklin and the Fire," in which Franklin tries to remove anything from the Turtle family household that he thinks could be a potential fire hazard, including candles and a toaster.
 * Scout Out: The Woodland Trailblazers in "Franklin Wants a Badge."
 * Screwed by the Network - In Malaysia. Sixth season never made it in.
 * Security Blanket: Franklin has a favorite blanket that he can't sleep without, though by the third film, he decides his sister's need is greater than his own and gives it to her to comfort her when she's upset. He still hangs on to his stuffed puppy, Sam, though.
 * Short Run in Peru - The fifth season made it to Malaysia two months before it started airing in the US. However, the sixth season... yeah, screwed by the network.
 * Shown Their Work - Again, in Franklin's Magic Christmas. Not only did they used the original, unaltered lyrics for the songs (of which most have already been heavily "sanitized" due to the abovementioned Have a Gay Old Time trope), they even performed the complete 5-stanza version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." (Which is very rare - in most works that feature this song, you'll get up to the second "How I wonder what you are," but no more.)
 * Slice of Life: The basic format, save the films Franklin's Magic Christmas and Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure. Franklin and Friends retains this, the general feel of the show is the original, just done in high-definition CGI.
 * Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: The characters on the show generally fall somewhere between Civilized Animal and Funny Animal. They exhibit a lot of human behaviors and in Franklin and the Green Knight, Mrs. Turtle was shown pregnant, rather than Harriet hatching from an egg. However, they also still exhibit a fair few animal behaviors, such as Goose being able to fly and the Beaver family building dams. They've also undergone a bit of Anthropomorphic Shift in that they looked much more like animals in the earlier books. Snail is a special case in that he is much smaller than the other characters, whereas most of the characters are pretty much human-sized. Oh, and Franklin has a pet fish and Beaver and Bear both have pet hamsters.
 * Smart People Play Chess: Averted - Franklin becomes his class's chess champion, even though he's not known as the smart one. Not that he's particularly dumb either, but it's Beaver that's really the brainy type on the show.
 * Snow Means Cold: Heavily employed in Franklin and the Green Knight - one of the characters even says that she wouldn't mind seeing some rain because that at least would be a sign of spring.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: A number of viewers have complained that the show's instrumental soundtrack sounds far too depressing compared with the show's generally cheery nature.
 * Species Surname: Except in the case of most of the children, it's not just their surname, it's their only name. It's Lampshaded in Back to School With Franklin. Miss Koala, calling roll, gets through several of the character names and then refers to Franklin as "Turtle" and everyone laughs. He tells her that she's Franklin, not "Turtle." She apologizes and asks if there are any other surprises. Everyone just sort of shakes their heads. Once the kids started getting siblings, though, they had to start coming up with other names. Franklin's sister was Harriet, but the other character's siblings still fit the theme, such as Beatrice (Bear's sister) and Kit (Beaver's brother.)
 * Spelling Bee: Miss Koala, the replacement teacher in Back to School with Franklin, decides to hold one on the first day. Beaver wins by remembering that there's an apostrophe in the word "don't," as she had been studying the new year's speller.
 * Spring Is Late: The biggest theme of Franklin and the Green Knight, other than that Franklin's family is expecting a new member. "Wake up, Spring where are you? Wake up! Come on Spring, let's have some fun! ... Spring, come out, now don't be shy. Oh, Springtime, can't you even try?"
 * Stealth Pun: Two gargoyles named "Gar" and "Goyle" respectively in the Franklin and the Adventures of the Noble Knights stage show.
 * Stock Animal Name: Franklin's pet goldfish is, unsurprisingly, called Goldie.
 * Stock Ness Monster: Michiochi in Franklin's Pond Phantom.
 * Stubborn Mule: Franklin himself in "Franklin in Charge," a story from the sixth season. When Mr. Turtle goes on a trip to see Uncle Snapper, Franklin agrees to do the household work that he would normally do. He tries to do everything and rejects Harriet and Mrs. Turtles' offers of help, eventually leading to madcap situation in which he pours too much powder into the washing machine and ends up upside-down on his shell in a field of bubbles.
 * Technology Marches On: It only sort of does. The characters live in a semi-modern society with electricity and such, but certain modern conveniences don't seem to be found. There are no televisions depicted in the books or the television series, though there is a brief mention of watching TV in a song from one of the stage shows. A computer is seen in one of the TV stories, but it's an incredibly primitive model.
 * Tempting Fate: Franklin's Word has Franklin promising to spend time with Harriet because his bike is broken. Then his bike gets repaired. Then he decides that it's okay as long as he doesn't have to play with Messy Squeakalot, Harriet's doll. Guess what happens next.
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: It's sometimes hard to tell Harriet apart from Franklin when she's not wearing her purple bow. Additionally, Mrs. Turtle is usually seen wearing a purple neckband with a jewel at the center. Beaver's cousin Betty is also hard to tell apart from Beaver (though there are some definite physical differences, such as that she has no facial whiskers), so Franklin lends her his scarf so that everyone can recognize the two different beavers on the soccer field.
 * That Cloud Looks Like...: In "Franklin's Cellar," when Franklin realizes that his imagination allows him to see shapes in clouds, he realizes that it can also help him to conquer imaginary monsters in the cellar. Some of Franklin's friends also do this in "Franklin's All Ears" on Franklin and Friends.
 * That Makes Me Feel Angry: Not as noticeably, or as heavily used as a show like Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, but it is a children's show, so...
 * That Reminds Me of a Song - Franklin's Aunt T. likes to make up songs to sing while she's doing her chores and teaches them to Franklin.
 * These Questions Three: The "Riddle For You All" song in the "Adventures of the Noble Knights" stage show, with Beaver and the Gargoyles
 * Third Person Person: Harriet, because she's still very young.
 * Title Theme Tune: "Hey, it's Franklin, coming to your house. Hey, it's Franklin, coming to my house." Franklin and Friends features a version of the original tune with new lyrics, written by the original composer, Bruce Cockburn.
 * Totally Radical: "Coolio" in Franklin and Friends. Most if not all of the kids use it, and even some of the adults. It seems to be an all-purpose replacement for "cool," at least one character even says "coolio-est."
 * Treasure Map: In Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure, Franklin's Aunt Lucy has one that's supposed to indicate the location of the time capsule that Franklin's Granny buried when she was a kid. Aunt Lucy has been searching for the treasure with no success for years-- it turns out it was dug up a long time ago and kept by a packrat who didn't realize its significance.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting: Usually avoided, but done fairly successfully in Back to School With Franklin. The A story involves Franklin's class and their substitute teacher Miss Koala, while the B story focuses on Franklin's sister Harriet developing a friendship with Beaver's little brother, Kit.
 * Tyrant Takes the Helm: In "Franklin the Coach," Beaver becomes the tyranical new coach after Franklin surrenders his substitute coaching role because he's considered to be too wishy-washy and offers the job to Beaver instead. She gets Drill Sergeant Nasty, among other things telling Bear that he can't eat marshmallows because "You are what you eat and I won't have any marshmallows on my team!" The characters all decide Screw This, I'm Outta Here, but Franklin and Beaver eventually resolve the situation by agreeing to share coaching duties, balancing each other's personalities and skills.
 * The Unfavourite: The subplot of Franklin and the Green Knight involves Franklin's fear of becoming this in the family, and Snail's fear that Franklin will become this to him.
 * Vacation Episode: With a twist. Franklin and his family visit a pioneer village and Franklin is not pleased at first. The spry young turtle then finds that he likes pioneer life, while his parents struggle to keep up with the hard work routine. Franklin's Magic Christmas might also count, as the Turtle family goes on a trip to Franklin and Harriets' maternal grandparents' farm.
 * The Voiceless: In "Franklin the Hero," Franklin and snail meet their favorite superhero, Dynaroo, though it's unclear if she's the real Dynaroo or just someone who plays a character. In any case, she doesn't say a word.
 * When I Was Your Age: Mr. Turtle had to walk two and a half miles to school and back, even in the rain and the snow. It wasn't uphill both ways, though.
 * Word of God: This is all viewers have to explain why the character Badger always walks on crutches. According to the official character description, she has cerebral palsy, but this has never been mentioned in either the books or the television series.
 * You Are Grounded: Franklin and Bear decide to ground themselves after they get poison ivy rashes after taking a disallowed shortcut and then are caught trying to hide them.