diff --git a/pxtblocks/fields/field_animation.ts b/pxtblocks/fields/field_animation.ts
index c554c8186f7..d6c804b9830 100644
--- a/pxtblocks/fields/field_animation.ts
+++ b/pxtblocks/fields/field_animation.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
 
         filter?: string;
         lightMode: boolean;
+
+        taggedTemplate?: string;
     }
 
     export interface ParsedFieldAnimationOptions {
@@ -19,6 +21,8 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
         disableResize: boolean;
         filter?: string;
         lightMode: boolean;
+
+        taggedTemplate?: string;
     }
 
     // 32 is specifically chosen so that we can scale the images for the default
@@ -71,7 +75,7 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
                 const existing = pxt.lookupProjectAssetByTSReference(text, project);
                 if (existing) return existing;
 
-                const frames = parseImageArrayString(text);
+                const frames = parseImageArrayString(text, this.params.taggedTemplate);
 
                 if (frames && frames.length) {
                     const id = this.sourceBlock_.id;
@@ -115,7 +119,7 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
 
             if (this.isTemporaryAsset()) {
                 return "[" + this.asset.frames.map(frame =>
-                    pxt.sprite.bitmapToImageLiteral(pxt.sprite.Bitmap.fromData(frame), pxt.editor.FileType.TypeScript)
+                    pxt.sprite.bitmapToImageLiteral(pxt.sprite.Bitmap.fromData(frame), pxt.editor.FileType.TypeScript, this.params.taggedTemplate)
                 ).join(",") + "]"
             }
 
@@ -236,6 +240,7 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
 
         parsed.initWidth = withDefault(opts.initWidth, parsed.initWidth);
         parsed.initHeight = withDefault(opts.initHeight, parsed.initHeight);
+        parsed.taggedTemplate = opts.taggedTemplate;
 
         return parsed;
 
@@ -248,10 +253,10 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
         }
     }
 
-    function parseImageArrayString(str: string): pxt.sprite.BitmapData[] {
+    function parseImageArrayString(str: string, templateLiteral?: string): pxt.sprite.BitmapData[] {
         if (str.indexOf("[") === -1) return null;
         str = str.replace(/[\[\]]/mg, "");
-        return str.split(",").map(s => pxt.sprite.imageLiteralToBitmap(s).data()).filter(b => b.height && b.width);
+        return str.split(",").map(s => pxt.sprite.imageLiteralToBitmap(s, templateLiteral).data()).filter(b => b.height && b.width);
     }
 
     function isNumberType(type: string) {
diff --git a/pxtblocks/fields/field_sprite.ts b/pxtblocks/fields/field_sprite.ts
index b063d1b9328..5453e4c69a7 100644
--- a/pxtblocks/fields/field_sprite.ts
+++ b/pxtblocks/fields/field_sprite.ts
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
 
         filter?: string;
         lightMode: boolean;
+
+        taggedTemplate?: string;
     }
 
     interface ParsedSpriteEditorOptions {
@@ -26,6 +28,7 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
         disableResize: boolean;
         filter?: string;
         lightMode: boolean;
+        taggedTemplate?: string;
     }
 
     export class FieldSpriteEditor extends FieldAssetEditor<FieldSpriteEditorOptions, ParsedSpriteEditorOptions> {
@@ -45,7 +48,7 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
                 return project.lookupAsset(pxt.AssetType.Image, this.getBlockData());
             }
 
-            const bmp = text ? pxt.sprite.imageLiteralToBitmap(text) : new pxt.sprite.Bitmap(this.params.initWidth, this.params.initHeight);
+            const bmp = text ? pxt.sprite.imageLiteralToBitmap(text, this.params.taggedTemplate) : new pxt.sprite.Bitmap(this.params.initWidth, this.params.initHeight);
 
             if (!bmp) {
                 this.isGreyBlock = true;
@@ -72,7 +75,7 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
             if (this.asset && !this.isTemporaryAsset()) {
                 return pxt.getTSReferenceForAsset(this.asset);
             }
-            return pxt.sprite.bitmapToImageLiteral(this.asset && pxt.sprite.Bitmap.fromData((this.asset as pxt.ProjectImage).bitmap), pxt.editor.FileType.TypeScript);
+            return pxt.sprite.bitmapToImageLiteral(this.asset && pxt.sprite.Bitmap.fromData((this.asset as pxt.ProjectImage).bitmap), pxt.editor.FileType.TypeScript, this.params.taggedTemplate);
         }
 
         protected parseFieldOptions(opts: FieldSpriteEditorOptions): ParsedSpriteEditorOptions {
@@ -139,6 +142,8 @@ namespace pxtblockly {
         parsed.initWidth = withDefault(opts.initWidth, parsed.initWidth);
         parsed.initHeight = withDefault(opts.initHeight, parsed.initHeight);
 
+        parsed.taggedTemplate = opts.taggedTemplate;
+
         return parsed;
 
         function withDefault(raw: string, def: number) {
diff --git a/pxtlib/package.ts b/pxtlib/package.ts
index 61eacbb7353..0b3639e5b17 100644
--- a/pxtlib/package.ts
+++ b/pxtlib/package.ts
@@ -996,7 +996,7 @@ namespace pxt {
             return r;
         }
 
-        protected patchAppTargetPalette() {
+        patchAppTargetPalette() {
             if (this.config.palette && appTarget.runtime) {
                 appTarget.runtime.palette = U.clone(this.config.palette);
                 if (this.config.paletteNames) appTarget.runtime.paletteNames = this.config.paletteNames;
@@ -1294,6 +1294,10 @@ namespace pxt {
             const functionOpts = pxt.appTarget.runtime && pxt.appTarget.runtime.functionsOptions;
             opts.allowedArgumentTypes = functionOpts && functionOpts.extraFunctionEditorTypes && functionOpts.extraFunctionEditorTypes.map(info => info.typeName).concat("number", "boolean", "string");
 
+            for (const dep of this.sortedDeps()) {
+                dep.patchAppTargetPalette();
+            }
+
             this.patchAppTargetPalette();
             return opts;
         }
diff --git a/pxtlib/spriteutils.ts b/pxtlib/spriteutils.ts
index a9c54d897bb..0be7956ce07 100644
--- a/pxtlib/spriteutils.ts
+++ b/pxtlib/spriteutils.ts
@@ -601,11 +601,12 @@ namespace pxt.sprite {
         return result;
     }
 
-    export function imageLiteralToBitmap(text: string): Bitmap {
+    export function imageLiteralToBitmap(text: string, templateLiteral = "img"): Bitmap {
         // Strip the tagged template string business and the whitespace. We don't have to exhaustively
         // replace encoded characters because the compiler will catch any disallowed characters and throw
         // an error before the decompilation happens. 96 is backtick and 9 is tab
         text = text.replace(/[ `]|(?:&#96;)|(?:&#9;)|(?:img)/g, "").trim();
+        text = text.replaceAll(templateLiteral, "");
         text = text.replace(/^["`\(\)]*/, '').replace(/["`\(\)]*$/, '');
         text = text.replace(/&#10;/g, "\n");
 
@@ -733,14 +734,14 @@ namespace pxt.sprite {
         pxt.sprite.trimTilemapTileset(result);
     }
 
-    function imageLiteralPrologue(fileType: "typescript" | "python"): string {
+    function imageLiteralPrologue(fileType: "typescript" | "python", templateLiteral = "img"): string {
         let res = '';
         switch (fileType) {
             case "python":
-                res = "img(\"\"\"";
+                res = `${templateLiteral}("""`;
                 break;
             default:
-                res = "img`";
+                res = `${templateLiteral}\``;
                 break;
         }
         return res;
@@ -776,10 +777,10 @@ namespace pxt.sprite {
         return res;
     }
 
-    export function bitmapToImageLiteral(bitmap: Bitmap, fileType: "typescript" | "python"): string {
+    export function bitmapToImageLiteral(bitmap: Bitmap, fileType: "typescript" | "python", templateLiteral = "img"): string {
         if (!bitmap || bitmap.height === 0 || bitmap.width === 0) return "";
 
-        let res = imageLiteralPrologue(fileType);
+        let res = imageLiteralPrologue(fileType, templateLiteral);
 
         if (bitmap) {
             const paddingBetweenPixels = (bitmap.width * bitmap.height > 300) ? "" : " ";
diff --git a/pxtlib/tsconfig.json b/pxtlib/tsconfig.json
index 3e8468af3af..25e5cc86b6b 100644
--- a/pxtlib/tsconfig.json
+++ b/pxtlib/tsconfig.json
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@
             "dom.iterable",
             "scripthost",
             "es2017",
-            "ES2018.Promise"
+            "ES2018.Promise",
+            "ES2021.String"
         ],
         "types": [
             "highlight.js",