Disney to broadcast popular Chinese animation series
Shanghai. October 19. INTERFAX-CHINA - China animation firm Creative Power Entertaining Co. (CEP) has signed a three-year television broadcasting license agreement with Buena Vista International to air its flagship cartoon series on Walt Disney's broadcasting channels in the Asia-Pacific region, domestic media reported on Oct. 19.
According China Business News, the most recent 100 episodes of CEP's cartoon series "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf - Joys of Seasons" will be broadcast in over 10 languages in 52 countries and regions including Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the report.
Since it debuted in 2005, "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" has been a popular cartoon series on the mainland and currently has over 7,000 episodes.
Two film adaptations of the series were released in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The film released this year ranked seventh in the top ten domestically-produced films in China by box office revenues after it raked in roughly RMB 126.85 ($18.74 million), according to figures released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).
Jin Delong, director of SARFT's propaganda department, told domestic media in July that the production volume of home-grown animations has grown by 400 percent since 2004, Shanghai Youth Daily reported on July 10.
Between 2004 and 2005, China's authorities issued a series of regulations favoring domestic animation companies. The policies include tightening the imports of foreign animations and prohibiting them from being broadcast during primetime on Chinese television channels.
Buena Vista International is the international distribution arm of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, an American motion picture and television feature distributor.
-YXY