Ellipse Animation Partners with Château de Versailles for ‘Belfort & Lupin’

Ellipse Animation (The Smurfs, The Garfield Show), Média-Participations’ French animation production company, announces a partnership with the historic Château de Versailles for the new series Belfort & Lupin. Co-produced by Ellipse and Belvision, the series is commissioned by France Télévisions and has already sold to several international partners through Mediatoon Distribution.

Belfort & Lupin relates 26 humorous adventures in the palace of Versailles and its gardens, from the perspective of the animals that live there. At the heart of the stories are Belfort — the King’s favorite, a young spaniel who has lost his sense of smell — and his friend Lupin — a wolf as casual as he is instinctive — who live surrounded by the exotic animals of the 17th-century royal court.

Created by Teddy Stehly, Belfort & Lupin was born from the artist’s fascination with the aesthetic and historical universe of Versailles. Since the beginning of the project, the teams from the Château de Versailles and the Versailles Research Center have worked closely with the creator and the series’ writers. This collaboration allowed them to imagine a fictional, sometimes fantastical Versailles, which is nevertheless always tied to historical accuracy.

“I was keen to create a well-documented series, and the support of the Versailles teams, including their curators and historians, was of great help,” says Stehly, a writer and story supervisor for successful animated series such as Calimero, Barbapappa and The Fox-Badger Family. “I’ll never forget capturing the unique sounds of Versailles  —the creaking wooden floors, the resonant echoes of the Hall of Mirrors — and witnessing a Château clockmaker activate centuries-old mechanisms for our recordings.”

The collaboration with the Château was also essential during the production phase, particularly for the animation of historical sites. The Château de Versailles, shaped by successive changes over time, was reinterpreted and incorporated into the universe of Belfort & Lupin, with a strong foundation in historical documentation. The archivists also ensured the accurate representation of the many personalities encountered in the series. Finally, each episode ends with an educational segment, providing historical insights into the theme and characters mentioned.

“Thanks to this significant partnership, we had the unique opportunity to anchor the creation of the series in a historical and heritage context of exceptional richness. Fiction and reality blend to take children through the surprising and thrilling adventures of the Sun King’s animals,” adds Caroline Duvochel, General Director of Audiovisual & Innovation at Média Participations.

Christophe Leribault, President of the Château de Versailles, comments, “What could be more magical than entering Versailles through an animated series? It is with great curiosity that the Château embarked on this project, and it is with enthusiasm that we discovered the first images. I cannot wait for generations to follow the footsteps of this charming duo!”

Belfort & Lupin is directed by Philippe Vidal (The Garfield Show). Commissioned by France Télévisions, the show will be available on Okoo before its French broadcast premiere on February 7.

Mediatoon Distribution has already secured several international presales for the series during its production. Belfort & Lupin will be launched worldwide by partner channels including SWR (Germany), VRT and RTBF (Belgium), RTS (Switzerland), MTVA (Hungary), YLE (Finland), RTVS (Slovakia), Ceska Televize (Czech Republic), as well as Radio-Canada and TV5Monde. Final delivery of the full series is expected to Q2 2025.

In addition, original stories of Belfort & Lupin will be released in comic books by Editions Dupuis, a subsidiary of Média-Participations. The first volume will be published in May 2025, written by Stehly and illustrated by Lesdeuxpareilles. An audio series project is also in advanced discussion.