WarnerMedia’s Cartoonito has greenlit Tom and Jerry Time (pictured), the duo’s first preschool series.

It will take a different approach to the franchise as a collection of musical shorts in which the cat-and-mouse rivals compete in school while learning math, literacy and emotional learning skills. Format and release date details were not available at press time.

Warner Bros. Animation is on deck to produce the new series, with president Sam Register (Looney Tunes Cartoons) executive producing. Will Finn (Tom and Jerry in New York) is attached as a showrunner and co-executive producer, and Denise Downer (Stillwater) will be the story editor.

WarnerMedia has been leaning harder on the 80-year-old brand in recent years, most notably premiering mixed-media feature film Tom & Jerry in February. On the TV side, HBO Max picked up slapstick toon Tom and Jerry in New York, which aired this summer, and Cartoon Network India added local-language narration to existing episodes of the The Tom and Jerry Show for its lineup.

WarnerMedia announced its first preschool series greenlight at a virtual event on September 13 to celebrate the launch day of Cartoonito on HBO Max and Cartoon Network in the US.

In other news from the event yesterday, children’s author Mo Willems is working on Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Underground Rock Experience under his multi-year deal with HBO Max. This one-hour CG-animated rock opera is about a mole rat discovering how to be comfortable in his own skin. No premiere date has been announced yet.

WarnerMedia previously shared that Cartoonito will launch with 20 original titles, with the goal of getting to  50 more within two years.