Increases the bookmark digg Google Delicious buzz friendfeed Linkedin diigo stumbleupon Qzone QQ Microblog The TV series revolves around bears trying to save a forest from loggers.
Parents see violent acts such as people being set on fire and a man waving a deadly chain saw. Illogical events also concern some parents, one of them citing goats beating up a wolf.
What parents want are fun and educational cartoons designed for younger children, toddlers up to children around age 10.
Some want to see more old-fashioned Chinese cartoons and imports such as "The Croods" about prehistoric people.
The most popular productions with children are Chinese cartoons such as "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf," "Boonie Bears" and assorted films and Japanese animation about monsters fighting robots.
High school teacher Wang limits her 7-year-old son to watching TV only Friday and Saturday nights when school is not in session. During summer break he can watch more, but there's a constant loop of the same films.
"He watches them repeatedly on TV, as well as cartoons and animations on the Internet," Wang says. "He has watched many episodes of 'Pleasant Goat' and every time I watch it with him he says he still thinks it's fun. It's really a waste of time."
"Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" is one of the most popular Chinese animation TV series since it was first aired in 2005. It is about a group of goats living on the Green Pasture who are threatened by a clumsy wolf who wants to eat them. Characters include a goat named Pleasant, and a wolf pair Gray Wolf and Red Wolf.
The wolves are always trying to eat the goats but fail, because the goats are clever and manage to find ways out. The goats sometimes beat the wolves up.
Most popular cartoon
Produced by Creative Power Entertaining, a Guangdong Province-based animation company, the series contains 1,050 15-minute episodes. It is praised as one of the best original Chinese animations in the past 10 years. In 2010 it was shown overseas on Disney affiliate Buena Vista.
The franchise has released five successful films, the latest being "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf — Happy Sheep Before the Year of the Snake." It was released in January and the initial box office was 124 million yuan (US$20 million).
Spin-off products, such as dolls, clothing and books, are popular.
"My son sometimes says 'I'm going to hit you with a saucepan,' — that's what Red Wolf always says to the husband Gray Wolf," Wang says. "He also asked me if a saucepan can actually kill someone."
In an extreme example in May, a 9-year-old boy in east China's Jiangsu Province, set fire to two brothers, aged 5 and 8, acting out a scene from the "Pleasant Goat" TV series. They suffered severe burns. The victims' parents are suing the filmmakers and seeking an apology.
Tina Dai's 4-year-old daughter has been watching "Pleasant Goat" for a year and sometimes imitates the characters, her mother says.
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