Franklin the Turtle and Rabbit - Toronto, Ontario
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Metro2
N 43° 36.963 W 079° 22.605
17T E 630979 N 4830509
This sculpture is one of several in the Franklin Children's Garden in Toronto.
Waymark Code: WMET6N
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 07/04/2012
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member Math Teacher
Views: 5

The Franklin Children's Garden in Toronto (visit link) has several bronze sculptures including this one - all by Ruth Abernethy. The sculptures are based on the Franklin the Turtle children's books by authors Brenda Clark and Paulette Bourgeois.

This piece, located near the treehouse depicts Franklin the Turtle walking over some sawdust looking at Rabbit (that is the character's full name) who is ahead of him and kicking up his back feet and turning his ears in different directions. Rabbit is about 2 feet tall and Franklin about 2 feet long.

Wikipedia's list of the Franklin characters (visit link) informs us that:

"Franklin Turtle - The show's lead character and the main protagonist, Franklin tends to be very kind and he has a large circle of friends, but also tends to keep things to himself at times. Franklin's friends and his parents generally help to bring out the best in him, and he's also now a big brother (a desire he had expressed multiple times in the past). He takes good care of his pet goldfish, Goldie, and also has a stuffed dog named Sam who, despite growing older, he still hangs onto and communicates with. Franklin enjoys math. Bear is one of his best friends. He is both afraid of and fascinated by thunder and lightning, although sharing this fear with his friends helped him marginally. He is capable of fully removing his shell as apparently all turtles in the show are; his shell is a combination of clothing and backpack. He sometimes wears a hat and also wears a small red scarf around his neck. Noah Reid provided the voice of Franklin for the first five seasons of the television program. In the sixth season and Back to School with Franklin movie, Cole Caplan (who previously had a small role as the one-shot guest voice of Squirrel) voiced him. Cameron Ansell replaced Caplan as the voice in the U.S.-language version of the Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure film."

and

"Rabbit - The best long jumper in the class, Rabbit is a jolly, somewhat goofy individual. Rabbit was voiced by Down With Webster Hype man Kyle Fairlie in the first five seasons and all specials/movies to date, but is voiced by Mitchell Eisner in the program's sixth season."

Franklin's animated television series (visit link) ran from 1997 to 2004:

"The series focuses on the eponymous growing young turtle who, as his television stories and books always begin, "could count by twos and tie his shoes". He goes to school, lives in a small village called Woodland with his friends, and has many adventures playing and learning in the world around him, sometimes with the helping hand of an adult or his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Turtle. Franklin likes swimming, arts and crafts (especially drawing), and loves shoofly pie. He's been known to be afraid of the dark and of thunderstorms. Franklin has a best friend named Bear, as well as a blue blanket and a blue stuffed dog named Sam. Every night he sleeps with his blanket and Sam. During the thunder storms when Franklin is scared Sam and his blue blanket help keep him calm.

Franklin almost always aired with two 11-minute stories (specifically paired together, although usually for no special reason), except on Canada's CBC, which splits the stories apart and shows one at a time. The Franklin DVD and video releases include individual stories grouped together as part of a theme, rather than complete episodes. Unlike many animated children's programs, Franklin has no interstitial segments or end-tags featuring the characters. The scenes shown in the cartoon opening introduction were changed after the show's first season. Many of these scenes featured Otter, a character who left the series early in the first season and was only seen once more in later seasons."

The date of the works is unknown.
Character Type: Literature

Character originator: Brenda Clark and Paulette Bourgeois

Internet Link: [Web Link]

Address or Location:
Franklin Childrens Garden Centre Island Toronto, Ontario Canada


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Metro2 visited Franklin the Turtle and Rabbit  -  Toronto, Ontario 06/08/2012 Metro2 visited it