Franklin: Difference between revisions

[[File:Franklin_Turtle_-_Soccer_Heroes_8893.jpg|frame|Franklin, his friends, and their two teachers.]]

 

 

In 2010, Nelvana [http://www.awn.com/news/television/nelvana-s-mipcom-slate-features-new-cg-franklin-and-more 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.

 

* [[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''.

* [[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."

** 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".

* [[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.

* [[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, [[Deceased Parents Are the Best|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 [[Nightmare Fuel|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.)

* [[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 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."

* [[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.

** [[Edutainment Game|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.

* [[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.

* [[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.

** Happens too with the Latin American Spanish version, but with a [[Inconsistent Dub|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.)

* [[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.

* [[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 Distillation|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.

** 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."

* [[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.

* [[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 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

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Canadian Series]]

[[Category:The Nineties]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]

[[Category:Nelvana]]

[[Category:Literature]]