YMMV / Franklin

• Accidental Innuendo: In "Franklin's Swimming Party", there is a subplot which involves Franklin being unable to join the swimming party, due to suffering from "turtle foot", which, to some, might sound all too similar to "camel toe".
• Adaptation Displacement: While the books are widely known and highly regarded, many more are familiar with the animated series and films. "There were CD-ROMs? There were music CDs?? There were theatrical musical plays??? There were video games?!"
• Angst? What Angst?: Although Bear was just as close to Otter as Franklin was, he doesn't seem upset or fazed all that much after she moves away while Franklin does not take it well. Actually, Bear doesn't seem to get fazed at all much like his friends. He can be stoic, frivolous, or even hedonistic but when it comes to dishonesty or things that change his personal routine (suddenly being a big brother or getting homesick during a sleepover) is when he becomes emotional.
• Awesome Art: Sure, the CGI series looks great, the films are beautiful, and the original series remains the most well-known with great animation, but what goes unappreciated are the books themselves. Brenda Clark, the illustrator, drew each page carefully by hand and it would take nearly over a year to complete a book drawing by herself! The backgrounds are beautifully detailed, the colors are breathtaking, and the character design is brilliant and adorable. Compare the animated series◊ to the original books◊ and look at how detailed the animals' fur is. She truly deserves more credit than we give her.
• Character Rerailment: This affects Franklin himself in Franklin and Friends at the start of an episode; right after one that contains a Snap Back or an Aesop Amnesia that affected him.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Unlike Franklin's other friends, Skunk and Badger aren't usually present in many episodes with him, with the latter not even appearing in Franklin and Friends. Despite their limited amount of screen time, they are notable to many because their appearances in the series aren't very common and when they do appear in an episode, they usually don't get many lines or in some cases, don't get any lines at all.
• Friendly Fandoms: With the Little Bear fandom. Especially since both were Nelvana productions with similar laid back tones and atmospheres, and frequently aired on Nick Jr. throughout the late 1990s and 2000s in both Canada and America. To the point where fans of both shows actually wished a crossover episode with Franklin and Little Bear could have happened (despite the fact that the shows are set in completely different time periods).
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show is equally popular in America as it is in its home country of Canada, thanks in part to it being broadcasted on Nick Jr. during the late 1990s and the 2000s.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • “Heyyy, it’s Franklin!!”
  • NSFW fandubs of episodes are a trend on Youtube. (For those who speak French.)
  • Starting with "Franklin Ends a Race War.", there are countless parody edits of book covers to make them less family friendly.
• Moe: By far, the most lovable characters are Franklin, Bear, Snail, Badger, Goose, Rabbit, Harriet, and Beatrice. You just want to give them all a big hug!
• Most Wonderful Sound: The theme song, and the various musical cues that play every so often.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: The games are passable at best, but the PS2 game is pretty decent with Scenery Porn, accurate models of the characters (likely even better than the Franklin and Friends models), great music, and it helps that the mini-games give it a bit of Replay Value. ^note It's really a shame that they didn't use the pre-made models of the PS2 game for Franklin and Friends if they were planning to go CGI. They look much more like the original books and cartoon than the redesigned character models they used. But alas, likely due to licensing and copyright issues, The Game Factory owns those models and probably couldn't give them out.
• Older Than They Think: Many more are familiar with the Nelvana adaptation that aired in the 90's and believe that was the beginning of Franklin. They would be shocked to learn that it was based on a book series that goes as far back as 1986, predating the use of computers. The writer used a typewriter and the illustrator painted all of the pages by hand.
• Periphery Demographic: Parents who have seen the show with their children and enjoyed it; those who have grown up with the series; and a loyal core who appreciates it for any number of reasons.
• Popular with Furries: The show has been known to have been a major closet key into the fandom for those who watched it as kids, especially those in the Gen Y/Z crowd.
• The Scrappy: Porcupine from "Franklin and the Secret Club" and Opossum from "Franklin Goes to Day Camp" are heavily disliked by the fandom; former because she was basically bullying Franklin and to extension Snail and the latter for never receiving any punishment for getting Franklin into trouble.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • The titular character was voiced by Noah Reid, who would become famous two decades after Franklin as Patrick Brewer on Schitt's Creek.
  • Otter in season 2 was voiced by Marieve Herington, who would later be known for voice work in anime such as Love Live!, games such as Danganronpa, and other cartoons like Big City Greens.
  • Leah Renee Cudmore, who voiced Beaver, went on to play Alice in the incredibly short-lived The Playboy Club.
  • Redwall fans may recognize Tyrone Savage, the voice of Jack Rabbit, as the voice of Matthias.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Some people don't like Franklin and Friends simply because it's CG.
  • Fans complained that Bear wearing an unexplained flamboyant blue vest. Another complaint is that he doesn't need it since no one else wears clothing.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Franklin and Bear’s friend Otter gets Put on a Bus early in the series, but makes a guest appearance in the second season, showing she hasn’t been entirely forgotten. Sadly, she never returns at any point during the following four seasons.
• Values Resonance: Badger's cerebral palsy. There's no positive discrimination, nor is she Inspirationally Disadvantaged. It's just kind of there, meaning it's acknowledged, but otherwise treated as completely normal and nothing she should be self-conscious about.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • Considering almost no character has any Tertiary Sexual Characteristics, and they all have Species Surnames, the only way to really tell what gender a character is sometimes is by their voice. Considering some of the younger male characters are voiced by women, it's hard to tell sometimes.
  • Snail is the biggest offender. Snail is a boy but voiced by a woman. ^note Though for what it's worth, snails are hermaphrodites.
  • In the Greek dubs, Beaver is a major victim of this trope. She is given a generic voice that can easily be mistaken for a young boy's and her name is translated to its male gramatical form, yet she refers to herself with female pronouns. What's more, whenever the rest of the cast spoke to her they mostly referred to her as male. Needless to say, many viewers mistook her for a boy in the initial runs.
  • In the Finnish dub, both Franklin and Bear were voiced by adult actresses. While Franklin's voice actress was able to give him a fairly boyish voice, Bear's voice actress, on the other hand, couldn't and one could hear that it was a woman voicing him.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure! Beautiful and vivid colors with Scenery Porn and former Disney animators were hired for the animation. It's definitely the best animation Franklin has ever had before they made the jump to CGI.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Well, Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure comes into mind. Let's see here... Granny's home, parents, and personal items scorched to oblivion in a flashback? Granny herself falling terminally ill before her eightieth birthday? Snail being treated as an eagle-hatchling snack? (With implications that he would have been devoured if it weren't for Franklin and Samantha saving him.) Yeah. This movie seems to be aiming for Franklin's Periphery Demographic. It was also promoted in French markets using the song "Tant Que J'Existerai" by Natasha St.-Pier, which, while it has a catchy tune features lyrics which translate to such stuff as "Behind all these barriers / There are also the words / Like so many wounds / Prisons, ghettos"
• The Woobie:
  • If it's possible for an inanimate object to qualify, then how about the treefort? Depending on whether or not you consider Franklin and Friends an Alternate Continuity, the kids are now on their third treefort. The first one was blown down by a stiff wind in the original series in "Franklin Plays it Safe." A new one was built, and this one (possibly) was knocked down (along with the tree that it was in) by a fierce storm in "Franklin Sees a Storm" on Franklin and Friends. One really begins to wonder just what's up with treeforts in Franklin's world. (As an amusing sidenote, Franklin / Franklin and Friends airs on a network called "Treehouse TV" in Canada.)
  • Poor, poor Snail. He is a snail and therefore can’t travel to places quickly, which is why he leaves days early just so that he can get to school or somewhere on time. In "Hurry Up, Franklin", because the other animals were much quicker than him, none of them noticed Snail slithering on the road until Franklin, a turtle, noticed Snail crying because no one else saw him and he won’t be able to make it to Bear’s birthday party on time. There's also the fact that he often tends to end up in the middle of conflicts between Franklin and Bear and sometimes feels left out, such as Franklin and the Green Knight.
  • Badger. An adorable and shy girl who has cerebral palsy and therefore needs crutches to help her walk around. In "Back to School with Franklin," she's stuck on the sidelines, because she can't play soccer. Thankfully, everyone gets along with her and they enjoy being with her.
  • Bear. He is just way too sweet on Franklin, even when he doesn’t deserve it, so when Franklin gets angry at him, he defends Franklin and is unreasonably nice to him. Also, he holds honesty and trustworthiness so dear to him that he gets angry at Franklin when he lies or can’t keep a secret. Considering that most of his friends (Franklin, Beaver, and Fox) aren’t always honest or noble, it must be hard for Bear to find someone like him or even someone to trust.
  • Franklin himself. The original draft for "Franklin in the Dark", aptly titled "The Turtle They Called Chicken" gave him the issue of being verbally bullied by passers for dragging his shell behind him, which was removed in order to focus more on overcoming his fears. In the book itself, he is sad and afraid of going into his shell because of "creepy things, slippery things and monsters" that seem out to get him. The later book "Franklin's Bad Day" is just cruel and makes him a Butt-Monkey when he is already in a bad mood because he dearly misses his friend Otter. "Franklin Goes to Day Camp" where he and Bear meet Possum but ends up being ignored and then punished by the coach many times for minor offenses. His day was ruined and he was practically cheated on. "Franklin's Valentines" has Franklin losing his valentine cards on the way to school and breaks down when he gets a phone call from his mother telling him she found the ruined cards.. "Franklin's New Hat" has him wearing a gaudy hat his sister Harriet made just to keep her happy. Unfortunately it turns out to be a burden to him until he tells his sister that it has many other uses. (This show kind of likes to make Franklin a Butt-Monkey for the sake of a plot...)

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