(Beijing / Los Angeles – March 28, 2009) The Chinese animation production powerhouse CCTV Animation and PorchLight Entertainment have entered a co-development agreement to develop and produce the 52 X 12 minutes preschool series Snap! Let’s Go! This agreement marks the first collaboration on the development of a long format TV animation series between CCTV Animation and a North American production company.
“We take the co-development with PorchLight as a very important step for our international collaboration strategy,” The GM of CCTV Animation Wang Ying said, “Both PorchLight and CCTV Animation have successful credits of creativities and experiences in producing animation and programming in their respective cultural territories. The collaboration is a meaningful start for enhancing more international projects for both companies.”
“We are very pleased to be announcing our partnership with CCTV Animation,” said Bruce Johnson, President & CEO of PorchLight. “CCTV has the largest children’s audience of any broadcaster worldwide and has shown exceptional quality in their animated programming. They bring enormous expertise and experience to this historic collaboration. With international interest in China roused during the Summer Olympics, the timing is perfect for this type of show.”
Snap! Let’s Go! follows the adventures of a Chinese girl named Mandy (Wang), a western boy named Matt (Johnson), their life-sized Panda bear mentor, and a mischievous, surprise-loving dragon named Snap as they explore new locations and learn about each others’ culture. Intertwined with the adventures, the series will teach Chinese viewers English phrases and all other worldwide viewers the same phrase in Mandarin Chinese. In each episode, the kids, Pandy and Snap will travel to a preschool friendly location like a fire station, library, or zoo, where they will join in the fun of each new place they visit. If appropriate, they will visit the same type of place in both China and the western world, out of which will arise enriching experiences of a new culture.
“Snap! Let’s Go! shows preschoolers that although we may come from different places across the world, we have so much in common,” said Shea Fontana, Vice President of Children’s Programming at PorchLight. “But this program celebrates the differences, like the food we eat, the games we play, and the words we use. But no matter how we say ‘This is fun!’ the feeling is the same across the globe.”
Snap! Let’s Go! is based on the Mandy & Pandy book series created by Chris Lin and illustrated by Ingrid Villarta. The Mandy & Pandy book series introduces preschool and elementary age students to Chinese words and phrases with pictures books that include an accompanying CD which reads the story in both English and Chinese.
About CCTV Animation
CCTV Animation Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCTV (China Central Television). CCTV is Chinese state TV broadcaster and the largest network, which reaches over 1 billion viewers in China and 100 million overseas families. CCTV Animation has more than 700 hours of high-quality animation series (permanent IP rights) with a steady increasing of over 5000 minutes annually, which are created and produced by first-class creative talent of the country and state-of-the-art equipment. It has the most award-winning animation series in China, such as Journey to the West, The Legend of Nezha, The Adventures of Little Carp, Young Detective Di Renjie, New Fables and so on so forth, which are blockbusters with extensive merchandising market as well. CCTV Animation’s core business includes original animation production, distribution, merchandising, licensing and cooperation in new media. Its main broadcasting platform is CCTV Children’s Channel, which covers over 96% of mainland China, and is in the top eight of satellite television channel share. For more information, visit http://ysdh.cctv.com.
About PorchLight Entertainment
PorchLight Entertainment is a multi-faceted company focused on the production and distribution of high-quality family entertainment and licensing and merchandising representation for children’s and family brands and trademarks. Since its formation in 1995 by veteran entertainment executive Bruce D. Johnson, PorchLight has produced more than 30 live-action and animated movies and major animated series including the Emmy Award-winning series, Tutenstein, for Discovery Kids and Jetix Europe, Jay Jay The Jet Plane for PBS, Four Eyes for France 3, Nickelodeon Asia and Nickelodeon Australia; and Adventures from The Book of Virtues for PBS, and a series of direct-to-videos for Leapfrog, the leading electronic toy company. The company co-produced Animalia for the BBC, PBS, Nickelodeon and Network Ten in Australia and CBC in Canada; Secret Saturdays for Cartoon Network; A Tad of Christmas Cheer for Leapfrog, and a line-up of live-action and animated movies for the international television and DVD market. For more information, visit www.porchlight.com.
