Montreal: Cinar Corp. has sold 52 half-hour episodes of Arthur to China Central Television in what the company is calling ‘a breakthrough acquisition,’ and at the same time has announced a codevelopment deal for a new animation series with China International Television Corp., cctv’s production subsidiary. Cinar and cctv are currently producing the 26 half-hour animation series, Journey to the West: The Legends of the Monkey King. Monkey King is budgeted at $5 million.

‘We’re talking recognition here in terms of Cinar in a way no other company in Canada has been recognized [in China],’ says Cinar president and co-ceo Ron Weinberg.

According to Weinberg, as little as 1% or 2% of cctv’s current program schedule is foreign. He says Arthur is slated for daily broadcast on terrestrial network CCTV-1, which has more than 900 million viewers. The animated kids series is produced in association with wgbh Boston and is currently pbs’ top-rated kids show. tvontario, cbc and Radio-Canada broadcast in Canada.

Monkey King is ‘selling very well since we launched it at mipcom,’ says Weinberg. The series will show a profit for both partners, and as such, Weinberg says this has led the parties to commit to coproduce and ‘substantially’ cofinance a new animation series, with Cinar distributing internationally. Unlike Monkey King, the producer says the concept for the new series may not necessarily originate in China.

In another China deal, Cinar and Shanghai Animation Film Studio, a production arm of Shanghai Television, are coproducing 13 half-hours of the animated Miss Mallard Mysteries.

Cinar opens in Mexico

In other news, Cinar has opened Fandango Studios, a digital dubbing facility in Mexico City.

Fandango will dub Cinar shows licensed to Latin and South America into Spanish and Portuguese, as well as sell dubbing services to third-party producers and distributors. Fandango’s current client list includes Warner Bros., the bbc, Discovery Kids, Saban, Marathon International, MVS Multivision and Television Azteca. Fandango is managed by vp Gustavo Candiani.

Cinar also announced the purchase of all copyright and distribution rights to 57 feature-length family films in Bonneville International’s Wonderworks library.

Fifty-five of the Wonderworks films are live action and two are animation. The movies were originally produced by a consortium led by pbs affiliate wqed Pittsburgh and broadcast in primetime on pbs over eight seasons.

The library includes Ron Howard’s The Lone Star Kid, starring James Earl Jones; Jacob Have I Loved, starring Bridget Fonda; Frog, starring Paul Williams, Elliott Gould and Shelley Duvall; and the Henry Winkler-produced animated movie Molly and the Skywalkerz, featuring the voices of Carol Burnett and Danny DeVito.

Earlier this year, Cinar acquired the 12-title Leucadia Film Corp. library. The acquisition brings the number of films in Cinar’s library to 76.