Teletoon is traditionally associated with animated television, having been originally established for the purpose of encouraging original output from the Canadian television animation industry. However, even longtime viewers of the channel might not be aware of the fact it has also commissioned music videos. Not a musical cartoon, or a music for a cartoon, but genuine bonafide music videos. And music videos for the works of one of Canada's most famed songwriters, we might add.
A Treasure In My Garden (or Un trésor dans mon jardin) is the title of an album of children's songs released in 2000 and composed by Gilles Vigneault
, a Quebec poet and singer-songwriter whose works are iconic to French-Canadian culture. 14 songs were written and performed for the album, each one about 3 minutes long, give or take. In 2003, Teletoon commissioned a series of music videos based on these songs, each one featuring an animated short in a different style that the song was played over. They began airing on the network on September 3, 2003, and were produced in both English and French, with a total of 13 music videos being made.
The production of the songs and music videos was also accompanied by the publishing of a hardcover children's picture book of the same name. With 36 pages and watercolor illustrations courtesy of Stéphane Jorisch, the book was authored by Gilles Vigneault himself and consisted of a collection of nursery rhymes, poetry, and such. It also came with a 36-minute CD that included 10 of Vigneault's original 14 songs, as well as several additional nursery rhymes and stories.
A Treasure In My Garden contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: Of the 14 songs Vigneault featured in the original album, only one never received a corresponding animated short, that being "Un soir d'hiver" ("A Winter Evening" in English).
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The episode "Scuttlebutt, What A Nut" has a blue cat as one of the main characters.
- Black Bead Eyes: Used in some episodes.
- Giant Food: In "The Man from Leeds", the titular character has an apple that's about half his size.
- Girlish Pigtails: The girl in "Scuttlebutt, What A Nut" has these.
- Lethal Chef: The boy and man chefs in "The Pot" made a stew that, after two bites, makes them sick three days and nights.
- Rapid Aging: In "Boxes", when the boy's cart gets sucked into a tornado, he's seen first as a boy, then as a young man, then an old man.
- Samus Is a Girl: The child in "Scuttlebutt, What A Nut" would be believed to be a boy because of the bowler hat. The child is revealed to be a girl when she removes said hat, revealing her Girlish Pigtails.