Montreal: Motion International and France’s Marathon Productions have announced the start of production on the 26 half-hour animation series Marsupilami. The series is an adaptation of the comic book collection from Belge author Franquin, best known for Spirou and Gaston Lagaffe.

The show is a majority France coproduction budgeted at $11 million, with Motion investing $4 million.

Andre Belanger, president of Motion’s youth and animation division and the show’s exec producer, says the deal ‘reinforces our position as a key player with our European partners.’

Belanger says Motion currently has six animation series in production, representing a Canadian production investment of $26 million.

Tele-Quebec has picked up Marsupilami, with additional sales slated for English Canada, the u.k., Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.