This is the story of how my rejected pitch script to Cartoon Network for a Pookie and Tushka cartoon series became my book Tushka’s Tooth Trouble.

So, as I continued my never-ending search for success, I started writing cartoon bibles and pilots about my characters to present to animation studios. This would require that I attended animation conferences such as Kidscreen in Miami and MIP in Cannes, France. I live in Peru, so, not quite around the corner.

Luckily, I had just been pre-approved for a 20k Chase MasterCard and, suddenly, money was not an issue!

These conferences were incredibly fancy. MIPCOM Cannes for sure was the fanciest I’ve ever attended. They even had movie stars in attendance, and some booths gave out free food and drinks. One had freshly baked lasagna, and they didn’t yell at me when I asked for a free serving for the third time.

To try to stand out, I walked around the conference halls with colorful mini Blobbies (transforming plush toys I created) around my neck while dragging a carry-on bag with a big Blobbie on top (sometimes “blobbiemorphed” into a Unicorn or a Tyrannosaur). I was a bit self-conscious to do this, but I sucked up and I did it.

At the conference, everyone else was professionally dressed, so I did stand out. I’m going to assume this was a good thing …

I guess it was because, during a Q&A session, I raised my hand and a VP at Cartoon Network said “You! The colorful man in front!” and selected me to ask a question. (I did see her again in the streets of Cannes the following year. So, excitedly I caught up to her and I yelled her name a few times. She turned around looking startled, probably wondering if she should call security. I realized my error and just said “I-I … wanted to say hi.” She replied “It’s always nice to say hi.” I awkwardly waved goodbye and kept walking. In retrospect, not my finest moment).

At the end of each day at conferences, there was a small mixer party meant for networking. Oh man, I hated those!

I’m very much an introvert and even the 3 mojitos didn’t make me want to socialize (maybe tequila would’ve worked better?). But people did approach me, usually saying “what are those things on your neck?” and I would proudly blobbiemorph a Blobbie, they would be wowed and then we’d start talking.

I had learned this trick for remembering names and to create “warmth” when meeting someone new, which is to look into the other person’s eye and try to notice their eye color, while you shake their hand and say their name. That simulates interest on the other person and you are “liked” more. I guess it works, but I was embarrassed to do it.

I did make a few contacts in this way and I met lots of important people from Disney, Nickelodeon, Sony, PBS, WB, etc.

I will say that I felt that most of the people in this industry are very nice (and I think women were in most of the top executive positions, which was nice to see since I don’t think other industries are as “even”). I think people that want to make cartoons are, in general, nice people.

Through the years, I was able to secure several pitch meetings and I was even invited to Nickelodeon in LA for a pitch meeting!!! (Nothing came of this meeting, so I don’t know why I put 3 exclamation marks).

But something positive did happen: around the time of the “unfortunate Cannes encounter”, I had written to that same VP of Cartoon Network and said “Hello! It’s me! The colorful man!” and asked for a meeting.

She was nice enough to not block me on the spot and went above and beyond and got me a meeting with the lead acquisitions person on her team!

So, on September 30th, 2022, I had this meeting and it went pretty well! The acquisitions person loved Pookie and Tushka and she said that it could be a good fit for Cartoonito! She liked the sentimental aspect of the stories. I had mentioned that each episode would have a song related to the story and she really liked that!

She wanted me to write a sample script about “children’s first experiences”. She mentioned things like “first holiday”, “first visit to the dentist”, etc. I asked her to give me a couple of months for this and she agreed.

As I tried to come up with a story, I remembered that I have a nephew that HATED brushing his teeth, he would cry about it, lie about it, whatever it took to avoid it. I particularly remembered that he said that the toothpaste burned his mouth. “Funny” thing is that he is 25 now and … he still doesn’t like to brush his teeth.

So, I did some research to find out why kids don’t like to brush their teeth, and found out the main reasons were: that toothpaste burns, that toothbrush bristles hurt, and … that it’s boring!

I figured I could make a funny episode about Tushka (the polar bear cub) not wanting to brush his teeth, with all the common excuses kids make, and Pookie (his older penguin best friend) finding a solution to each of his excuses, while simultaneously giving real solutions to kids and parents.

As part of the story, Pookie composes a song to help Tushka brush his teeth. Initially, all that was requested from me was a script, but I really wanted to give it my best shot, so I went all in! Not only did I write the script, but I created a “shooting script” with sketches for each scene, and I even wrote, played and sang the song for the story! There was NO way Cartoon Network would turn me down now, right? RIGHT!?

So, on December 7th, I sent an email to the CN acquisitions person to set up our follow-up meeting. 2 days later, her assistant replied saying that Pookie and Tushka was a sweet concept but they wouldn’t be prioritizing it for Cartoonito at the moment. I was welcome to submit my new materials, though.

I was like … what!? Two months ago the acquisitions person had been enthusiastic about Pookie and Tushka and now the reply was coming from her assistant. 🙁 It was disappointing … but I sent my materials anyway.

On January 20th, 2023, I got their final reply. Basically, they liked the relatable challenge, they appreciated the song and the research it was based on. But ultimately, they said, the theme and tone felt “too educational” for what Cartoonito needed.

So, my story was TOO educational? Shouldn’t that be a compliment!? I was crushed! 🙁 I’d even made a song!!! And it was actually a good song!

No hard feelings, but after this rejection, and many more rejections in 2024, I figured this was a waste of time and especially money. I was already in debt big time because, contrary to popular belief, Cannes is not cheap! I decided to stop attending these conferences and stop sending pitches. I had to find new ways to succeed.

I did make a lot of contacts, though, but I’m not a social person and I’m very bad at networking, so, besides having the top executives in the industry as connections on LinkedIn, I lost touch with everyone.

On March 20th, 2023, I celebrated the 20th anniversary of my characters and my first book, so I decided to relaunch my books at Amazon and I finally published the prequel to my first book, which I titled When Pookie Met Tushka.

I wanted to make more P&T books, so I decided to turn my Dental Dilemma script into a book. I created sketches for all the pages, and formatted the book in Adobe InDesign, but making the final illustrations would take me months, so I shelved the book for the moment.

Cut to 2025, when I was having a friendly chat with ChatGPT and fed him information about my many, many project ideas, and then I asked him which of them could be the most successful in the short term.

ChatGPT said, and I quote: “You clearly have gold in terms of Intellectual Property … You’re sitting on a purpose-driven, multi-IP empire in the rough.” OMG! ChatGPT REALLY believed in me!!! But then I remembered that ChatGPT is a suck-up, so I took the compliment and demanded a strategy!

ChatGPT said that Tushka’s Dental Dilemma would be the best project to focus on first because of its “Emotional, relatable topic for parents” and the fact that I have a song and I was planning on making a brushing video. I bet he also liked that the story was “Too Educational” (No, no. I’m not still bitter).

Since I have bills to pay and I can’t leave my design clients, finishing the book and making the video would take me a long time, so I had to accept that I had to delegate. I paid an illustrator to finalize my sketches and an animator to make a video with my illustrations. But I’m a “perfectionist”, and I wasn’t happy with the final results, so I still spent a couple of months improving the illustrations and the animation.

I decided to change the book’s name, because … I realized that there wasn’t really a “dilemma” in Tushka’s Dental Dilemma (D’oh!). I liked “dilemma” because it started with a “D” like “dental”. So, I came up with Tushka’s Tooth Trouble all with a “T” now! Genius!

In the story, I had drawn Tushka brushing his teeth with a “blobbiebrush”. This was meant to be just a cute Easter egg with the Blobbies, but then my fiancée saw the blobbiebrushes and said “Wow, they look so cool! You should sell those!” This surprised me because my fiancée is my harshest critic. So, I figured, if my fiancée doesn’t hate them, the world is going to LOVE them! Now I’m working with a certified toothbrush manufacturer on the prototypes! 😊

But then I was like, why don’t I just create a COMPLETE brushing experience!? I could make kids love the experience so much that they would be like “Why go to Disneyland when I can brush my teeth!”

So, I went all out and created the Blobbies’ Emotional Toothbrushing System™, which includes a brushing chart, reward stickers, and an emotion chart that lets kids express their feelings as part of a playful brushing routine. (No, I can never create anything simple). All included inside Tushka’s Tooth Trouble. And when the Blobbiebrushes come, by year’s end, the full system will be complete!

But as I published my book, I had a couple of setbacks, because why would life decide to get easier now?

One setback was that I had released the video for Pookie’s “You Must Brush” Song on YouTube and all seemed good until I played my video on the TV and I could barely hear the voices against the instrumentals 🙁 It so happens that YouTube on a TV sounds very different and you need to account for that. I had to pay a sound mixer to improve the voice levels, so it would sound good on all devices.

Also, my YouTube analytics showed that I had under 20% retention, which meant that a lot of kids skipped my video because it seems the TikTok generation needs spikes in adrenaline every 2 seconds, or else they get bored. So, I had to improve my video (now, after my changes, I have over 75% in retention! 😊)

The other major setback was that a few months after publishing, I ran into Amazon’s notoriously ruthless automated compliance bots. 🙁 Platform guidelines for indie authors shift constantly, and an algorithmic update suddenly flagged my listing over formatting and community review compliance. Anyone who publishes on Amazon knows how terrifying that automated email is!

Rather than spending weeks on an appeal, I took this as an opportunity to improve my book, add more educational content, and republish it. The only sucky thing is that I had to start over with the book promotion and get reviews again (and no, cousin Evita, you cannot leave me 5-star reviews, because friends and family are not allowed to leave reviews. Thank you, though!)

Cut to now, where I’m planning my promotion strategy for the book with Claude AI (ChatGPT is SO 2025) and among the many things that Claude suggested I do, was to write the story of how I created Tushka’s Tooth Trouble for a TikTok, newsletter, and blog article. So, here it is! (I hope I made you proud, Claude!🥰).

In the end, I guess it all worked out for the best, otherwise there wouldn’t be a Tushka’s Tooth Trouble book … Oh, who am I kidding!!! I still want my Pookie and Tushka cartoon!!! 😭

Moving on … all I have left to say is that I hope you enjoyed this story and I invite you to check out Tushka’s Tooth Trouble at Amazon (the Kindle version is currently free and the paperback is discounted). And if you enjoy the book and find it useful, please leave me a review (those things are gold to an indie author!).

And be on the lookout for the Blobbiebrushes!

Take care,

Jorge

PS1: You can get “Tushka’s Tooth Trouble” here: https://www.amazon.com/Tushkas-Tooth-Trouble-Brushing-Preschoolers/dp/1932179372/

PS2: You can listen to Pookie’s “You Must Brush” Song here: https://youtu.be/_2kBWOwdkoM

PS3: I’ll make sure to send a copy of Tushka’s Tooth Trouble to my 25-year-old nephew. Maybe I can finally get him to brush his teeth.🤞