Well, I must be dreaming. Did you cast a spell on us all and didn’t tell us, Merlin?
But seriously, after finishing my post about the top ten best books in the Magic Tree House Merlin Missions series, I decided to check out the Magic Tree House hashtag on Bluesky, where I found out that an animated television series based on the books was in development. At first, I was like, for real?!? What about the movie?!? That’s still happening, right?!? (Seriously, it’s been a DECADE at this point.) So, after some extra digging, I found out that the art style of the series was already revealed, and I was PUMPED. I was SO ready to check out the discussion on the show…until I saw that everyone was complaining about artificial intelligence being used as a tool in the artistic process on the series.
But despite this, I’m STILL pumped. Sorry, but that’s the truth. If anything, I’m only a little bummed out that this is ALL we’re discussing about a show that’s finally adapting my first ever favorite children’s book series. And to be fair, the complaining is understandable. I hate AI as much as the next artist, believe me. But I also think that at least for now, we’re jumping to conclusions about the show that’s WAY too unfair at this stage in my opinion. So, I’m here to change the conversation a little bit and to put all the rage into a little bit of perspective, if not for the simple fact that it HURTS to see this abuse directed at the first (Western) screen adaptation of my childhood baby.
Who will prove to be right here? Me, or the rest of the fanbase? Whatever you do Jack and Annie, don’t make this the first mission you fail!
The Day the Tree House Returned
In December 2025, it was announced that Magic Tree House would be getting an animated television adaptation through a collaboration with entertainment tech company Spuree, with TV production studio Rideback on board as producer. The deal marks the first major partnership for Spuree, making Magic Tree House their first project (because of course it is). The company was formerly named Cheehoo, a reference to a declaration of pride and unity in Polynesian culture. Apparently, some people complained that the use of the phrase was an example of cultural appropriation, so that wasn’t a great first impression for them. (Maybe now they’ll won’t mess up the High Tide in Hawaii episode. 🙃)
Mary Pope Osborne was also confirmed to be a creative partner on the project. The series will combine her “storytelling vision” with Spuree’s “proprietary technology”, which is, as they describe, “an ethical, AI-enabled 3D platform to accelerate the artistic process while keeping artists in creative control”. I know you might be as ill as a wizard in need of a penguin upon hearing this, but more on that in a bit. Osborne stated that she had received offers from companies to do an adaptation of the series for over three decades, but she kept turning them down because she wanted to wait for the right studio to adapt her books, specifically one that would let her be involved on the project to ensure that the series was done justice, rather than just hand it to the first studio that made an offer:
For many years, I’ve been looking for
the right opportunity to adapt my books into a series for the screen in a way that would allow me a real seat at the table — an experience authors almost never have when their work is adapted for other media. But now, finally, thanks to the forward-thinking teams at Spuree and Rideback, I’m able to have that and bring my handpicked creative team along with me to realize my long-held dream of bringing ‘Magic Tree House’ books to the screen in a way that feels true to their spirit.
Not to make you need two penguins (or even the emperor of the Cave of the Ancient Crown himself), but Spuree co-founder Michael LoFaso tried (and failed) to defend himself as well:
“The ‘Magic Tree House’ universe is a perfect match for Spuree’s vision. It’s rich, beloved, and full of narrative possibility. With Mary Pope Osborne and her team at the heart of the process, we ensure that the animated series honors the legacy while reaching new audiences.
Osborne and her husband Will Osborne will serve as executive producers for the series, which will feature original scripts by Will Osborne and Jenny Laird. “Original scripts” is notable here, as it strongly implies that the books won’t be directly adapted, which I’ll also dive into later. But fascinatingly, Will and Laird also wrote the script to the Magic Tree House live-action movie, which by itself should at least be a good indicator of the show’s writing quality. The series will launch across digital and streaming platforms, and include educational outreach through parent, teacher and librarian networks, much like the books do, though there is currently no confirmed release date or streaming platform for the series. Spuree will also use Osborne’s existing reach to carry out global distribution and localization of the series, which will make its arrival in Japan a bit awkward considering that the anime movie exists…
At first, I assumed that no progress was going to be made on the series for years after its initial announcement like the live-action movie, but to my (initially completely) pleasant surprise, I was dead wrong. On the same day the announcement of the show was made, the official website for the series was launched, revealing the name of the series to be Magic Tree House: The Animated Series. It still doesn’t have much content currently, but what it does have blew me away, actually. Before you rip me to shreds, I saw the images before I found out about the AI stuff, but it still blows me away, and I’ll clarify my stance shortly. But I want to discuss the images themselves before getting into the nitty-gritty of the debate, so please keep this in mind as I discuss them.
If not for nothing, it can’t be denied that Spuree is giving a great first impression. If this is what the final show looks like, it’s going to be incredible visually. From a pure art direction standpoint, this is basically what I imagined the final version of The Magic School Bus 360 Degrees to look like. So, in that respect, it’s REALLY great to see the book series about a magical object that I like more to NOT go the ultra-cheap Rides Again route. The only other image released for the series so far gives us a close-up of Jack and Annie’s appearance in the show, and it was the one that was being posted in most articles covering the show’s announcement (and likely the main target of the scrutiny).
I have to say, I was a bit thrown off by the stark height difference between Jack and Annie, as if only Jack got his Merlin Missions growth spurt. Not to mention that Annie’s pigtails are high instead of low, and they aren’t braided either. But to be honest with you, I almost don’t care that much, because everything else about this image is basically perfect, and Annie could get a more book-accurate hairstyle later in the show anyway. And either way, she looks adorable, reminding me of her appearance in the Japanese version of the series and the anime movie.
Jack retains his yellow shirt (even if the sleeves are a little longer) from Dinosaurs Before Dark. Their appearance in that book is what I consider to be the definitive outfit for both of them, which is why I used those outfits in my drawing of them. Even Annie’s light blue shirt is close enough to that book to feel accurate. I don’t know if this means that the first episode actually adapts Dinosaurs Before Dark, but so far, this is REALLY getting my attention. Overall, the closest comparison to the show’s art style that I can think of is actually the Boxcar Children films, which is a great direction to take for these characters. It’s much more inspired than a more typical 2D animated PBS Kids-style route, which this series absolutely deserves. (Crazy to think that I’m probably the only person on the Internet that’s actually discussing the image beyond the few people pointing out alleged AI details and nothing else).
The only other thing on the website is an option to sign up for a newsletter about the series. I just about never do stuff like that, but I decided to make this an intriguing exception. For those of you who could care less (and I imagine that’s most of you), I decided to paste the message I got emailed to me after I signed up, and it’s actually a little interesting:
Thank you for signing up to the
Magic Tree House: Animated Series newsletter!We’re excited to have you join us on Jack and Annie’s magical adventures! You’ll be the first to know about new episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and special announcements.
Get ready to explore history, discover something new, and embark on incredible journeys through time!
“Behind-the-scenes content” will be CRUCIAL to changing the public perception of the show as it gets closer to release. I don’t know if they were anticipating the backlash and this is their response, but either way, it might do a lot of good, especially if they show actual people actually drawing and animating scenes.
Overall, I hope this project isn’t a replacement for the live-action movie. But I also think a TV show is a somewhat more rational route for a first (Western) screen adaptation than a movie, badly as I want it. It’s much closer to what Magic School Bus did: release an animated TV show first, roll it out into schools (which this show didn’t even have to do), and then release a live-action movie that gets no updates after its initial announcement. Osborne probably didn’t intend it this way, but I can’t help but to notice the parallels.
But what about those “original scripts”? It could mean one of two things. The first thing it could mean is loosely adapted versions of the books in each episode. It seemed a little unlikely that a TV series would just predictably adapt the books in order, as easy as it is to imagine. Even the anime movie didn’t adapt the initial four-book arc of the original series cleanly, strangely replacing Mummies in the Morning with Vacation Under the Volcano. The second thing it could mean is original stories entirely. Original stories didn’t quite work with the Big Nate television series, so I’m weary of it working here. But Magic Tree House has a specific formula that might make original stories safer: new times and places in history that Osborne has not yet covered in the books, which could actually be really great if done right. Imagine more underrepresented times and places in history that Jack and Annie could travel to. As someone of partial Haitian descent, the Haitian Revolution comes to mind (unless that’s harder to tackle for tone, but now I’m just really brainstorming here).
There are other things about the series I’m thinking about, too. What will the theme song sound like? Maybe something inspired by Magic Tree House: The Musical or the other theatrical adaptations? For some reason, I’m thinking the Playhouse Disney show Stanley in vibes (again, really brainstorming here). And what about the other characters? How might they look in this art style? Morgan le Fay appearing in the show is basically inevitable. But will Teddy appear? Pretty likely. Will Kathleen appear? It would be awesome if it happened. Will Merlin appear? Pretty possible. Will King Arthur and Queen Guinevere appear? Maybe, though I wouldn’t be disappointed if they didn’t. Penny and Okie would be cool additions as well. And will we finally see Jack and Annie’s parents? Or will they be more like faceless characters? I know everyone else is simply imagining a mission where Jack and Annie go back to 2023 to stop AI from being made, but I can’t help my thoughts to drift elsewhere. (Maybe someone should write a “Day of the Artificial Intelligence” fanfiction.)
Speaking of which, you probably skipped all this to hear me talk about the AI elephant in the room, didn’t you?
So, Why AI Though? Isn’t It Bad?
I’ve always told myself that if anyone ever requested me to make a post about my thoughts on artificial intelligence, I would write it. Never did I imagine that I would be compelled to write that post in the context of this threat arriving on the doorstep of my childhood baby, so get ready, because this is the straw that has finally broken the camel’s back. Before we even get to the “AI as a tool” debate, it’s worth explaining the problem of AI in general first. You may have seen countless “artworks” produced by artificial intelligence (AI) models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E, Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney, otherwise known as “AI art”. Instead of the hours of work that would be normally required to make these images, they are created by typing a prompt and asking the AI to generate what was described within minutes, which is known as generative artificial intelligence. AI “art” often has disturbing details that a human artist would never put in their actual artwork, making it extremely disturbing to look at. Sadly, it can also be hard to tell the difference between real art and AI art when looking for artists’ work online.
While getting a robot to “draw” your art for you in minutes might sound better than spending hours doing it yourself to a lot of people (mostly people who can’t draw), the truth is that these models are trained on pre-existing artwork in order to generate their images. That means that if your art is posted to the Internet, there’s a good chance it’s being fed to these machines. Artists generally consider this to be illegal, which is why they are trying to do things about it, such as posting certain images like this “Say No To AI Art” image on social media, which I myself did on Instagram in May 2024. I’ve already made it clear in the past that I do NOT produce AI art, and I’m certainly against my art, and anyone else’s art for that matter, from being used by a machine that non-artists can claim credit for as their own. I believe that artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to the visual and literary arts unlike any other in human history. I posted this image in response to finding out that Instagram/Meta is using artist’s images to teach their AI, and there’s currently no option to opt out in the U.S. At the time, this meant that I had a difficult choice: I had to either delete my Instagram and Threads accounts, delete all my images and repost, or stop posting my art on both platforms.
At first, I decided to continue posting on Twitter and Naimoli Universe, but to no longer post on Instagram and Threads until it became possible to opt out in the U.S. Well, that hasn’t happened yet to this day. Many artists were moving to Cara, a new website that was launched in response to all this. Unfortunately, however, Instagram is still the best platform for discoverability for artists. I felt that I was killing my own discoverability by not continuing to post my art to Instagram, so I needed a way to protect my art on the site. Fortunately, there are ways to safeguard your work from being scraped by AI before you share it online. The best known are Glaze and Nightshade. Glaze causes the AI to scrape a distorted version of the art, and Nightshade teaches the AI not to use the art. Unfortunately, you need to apply to use the web version of either program, which only accepts a limited number of users. You can also install the programs as an app on your computer, but their compatibility is just as limited. Because of this, neither Glaze nor Nightshade was going to be an option for me.
A less known alternative is IbisPaint. It is another art program that has a feature called AI Disturbance, which is more similar to Glaze than Nightshade. The only caveat is that it is not free, but its monthly subscription isn’t expensive either. So, I decided to purchase the subscription, and if you’re an artist posting your work online, I HIGHLY recommend it if you can’t use Glaze nor Nightshade. While the process of making art can be long, even hard, that’s the point. After all, the journey is better than the destination. You can read and re-read your finished book over and over again, but chances are that you’ll want to get to work on the next book because making art is your passion. Art is an expression of humanity, and AI risks sacrificing human expression for convenience. And convenience is EVERYWHERE now. The number of websites and even browsers and ART APPS that allow you to create AI art now is staggeringly depressing.
On WordPress and Wix, the very sites that host this blog and Naimoli Universe, you can edit images you upload with AI (because you’d want to do that for some reason). DeviantArt, the best-known art-sharing site, practically BEGS you to make AI art with its DreamUp AI Art feature, and WAY too many people unfortunately use it, which has made the site a total mess (though it was arguably a total mess before AI to be fair). Browsers such as Microsoft Edge similarly beg you to make AI art with its Image Creator feature. Worst of all, Adobe has its own AI model called Firefly, while Photoshop, THE most widely used Western art app, has a Generative Fill and Expand feature, which uses AI to add and remove content from images and extend canvases with new content. This actively dissuades people who might have otherwise used Photoshop to make art, similarly to DeviantArt. Now, I use Clip Studio Paint, Photoshop’s Japanese counterpart, to make my art instead, and while I’m still trying to adjust to it, it doesn’t flirt with AI like Adobe does (Japan is doing better than us at things beyond non-controversial Magic Tree House projects, apparently). And these examples are just the ones at the top of my head; a more comprehensive list would make this post too long, and it would likely get outdated fast.
This isn’t limited to the visual arts. Prose books are being scraped by AI to produce AI text as well. Entire “AI books” are also a concern, and yes, people are trying to do something about that as well. Agents and publishers do not permit the use of AI to create books, which is why I don’t review books created with AI. To anyone in the pro-AI crowd reading this, make no mistake: we are living in a world where artistic labor is being increasingly devalued, whether it’s AI, book bans, the removal of movies and television shows from streaming services for tax-write offs, or even the declining Western box office. Do you believe that artists have the right to freedom of expression? Do you recognize the value in the very idea of entertainment and its role in society? To stand against this madness is important, even if that madness is affecting your favorite book series. Because if we do not fight against this now, a whole generation of IP will never see the light of day. No new stories that even those who don’t care about any of this might end up loving. No new fandoms. The consequences are greater than you think they are. There is still so much I want to share with the world, and all generations of artists deserve to have that chance to share their work, including mine.
Okay, But Why AI As a Tool? Isn’t THAT Bad?
Alright, now that we got all that out of the way, it’s time to discuss AI as a tool specifically and what it means for Magic Tree House: The Animated Series. First, let’s make what should be obvious clear. Based on everything we’ve been shown so far, there is no clear evidence to suggest that generative artificial intelligence is being used behind the scenes of the series. To make it clearer, it’s worth reiterating what Spuree said word for word: “an ethical, AI-enabled 3D platform to accelerate the artistic process while keeping artists in creative control”. It’s important to strictly take these words at face value, because that sounds much closer to assistive artificial intelligence, the formal term for “using AI as a tool”. And generative artificial intelligence and assistive artificial intelligence is NOT the same thing. However, whether the art was generative or assistive DOES depend on how the AI was used and the extent to which the artist used the AI, which I think is at the heart of all the confusion here, as well as the credibility of the series. It is objectively true that AI can be used as a tool, even in the arts. But it should at best be reserved for streamlining smaller, more technical parts of the process, such as shortening a plot into a synopsis, not replacing core artistic labor such as illustration or character design. I think that the unchecked proliferation of AI art has led many people to not trust those who claim to use the technology ethically.
And there are some people who don’t even think that assistive AI is ethical either, counterarguing that it might mean only some artists retaining creative control while other artists don’t, or assets are still being stolen during the process, or it’s even a bid by companies to slowly convince everyone to embrace generative AI in the long term. I will admit that these aren’t bad counterarguments, but what complicates them is that examples of assistive AI already exist, and great ones too even. Look no further than Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, one of the best animated films ever made. Sony used machine learning algorithms to develop a distinctive animation style for the film, which gave the team more control over the line density, roughness, and other elements that affected its overall visual design. And it looks just as good as its predecessor! Compare that to Secret Invasion, arguably the worst Marvel Cinematic Universe television series that straight-up used AI art in the premiere’s opening sequence. (Moral equivalences were also made between the two at the time, go figure, though the director and executive producer of Secret Invasion defending his decision on thematic grounds was just as weak). I’m not saying that Magic Tree House: The Animated Series will be like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. But I’m not convinced that it will be like Secret Invasion either. However, there is a third comparison I’m willing to bet on.
A deeper dive into Rideback reveals something very fascinating, even reassuring. Like Spuree, Rideback also changed its name (from something not so controversial). They were formerly known as Lin Pictures, which was the production company that made The Lego Movie, another great animated film. Spuree was founded by people who worked within Rideback, so even though Magic Tree House: The Animated Series might be Spuree’s first project, it’s not the first project of its founders specifically, and The Lego Movie isn’t a bad film to have on your resume. They also worked on the Lilo and Stitch live-action remake before they founded Spuree during that movie’s post-production. The Lilo and Stitch live-action remake had its fair share of issues, but it wasn’t a fully animated project like Magic Tree House: The Animated Series will be. (Maybe the High Tide in Hawaii episode is in a bit of trouble after all, but that’s pretty much it.) A deeper dive into Spuree’s LinkedIn even shows a video explaining their workflow interspersed with the animation process of The Lego Movie (and some clips of Lilo and Stitch).
Finally, I think it’s worth mentioning Osborne’s attitude towards all this specifically. Some people wondered why it took this long to adapt the books (likely not being aware of how protective Osborne was of the series), while others were aghast as to why she would accept an offer from a company that uses AI. I will admit that I’m a bit bitter that she waited long enough to risk the likelihood of an adaptation being made with something that was once only confined to a science fiction movie. And it does make Osborne look a bit disconnected from the current AI climate, which is especially odd considering that she’s a very educationally inquisitive author given the Fact Trackers alone.
Why is why I’m not buying the idea that she isn’t aware of the AI debates. Given her staunch stance on retaining creative control to the point that she let three generations of childhoods pass before she adapted her books (in the West anyway), it strongly suggests that she believes that Spuree is genuinely committed to an assistive AI approach here. If I’m right, the real oddity is that she was willing to let the series be put up to a level of scrutiny that wasn’t necessary. Rather than simply enjoy this show with the rest of the fanbase, I now have the burden of having to constantly defend it throughout my coverage of it. I can already see the backlash to the first trailer being comparable to that of The Magic School Bus Rides Again, which is why I think that signing up for that newsletter was such a great move.
Am I dead wrong about everything I’m saying about the show? I very well could be. And if I am, then I’ll be more than happy to bash the show and call this adorable Annie an AI abomination. It’s very easy for me to do with truly generative AI slop on places like YouTube. But for the first Western adaptation of my first favorite book series? It’s going to be brutal. If not for that reason alone, whatever you do Jack and Annie, don’t make this the first mission you fail!
Well, I hope I’m still on the right side of art history! But I don’t regret diving into this topic, as I’m passionate about both Magic Tree House and protecting the sanctity of art from AI. There’s no knowing when we’ll get the next update on the show, of course, but I’ll definitely make a new post when the newsletter gives me enough content to share. Until then, avoid the robots, unless you’re picking up a book about OpenAI, pointing to a place and wishing to travel back to 2023 to…well…you know.
Until we see that tree house in the woods again, folks.
