Jidou studios,Hong Kong to develop animated series on 2010 FIFA WC Mascot 'Zakumi'

2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Mascot "Zakumi" will become an International Animated Series co-produced by Jidou Studios of Hong Kong. Not only is it the Biggest Football Event next year, the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is also the very first Major Global Sports Event hosted on African soil which is scheduled to take place from 11th June to 11th July 2010. And "Zakumi", the Official Mascot of this event, will have its own 26-Episode Animated TV Series scheduled for broadcast globally in June next year.

The name "Zakumi" is a composition of 'ZA', standing for South Africa, and "kumi" translating into "10" in various languages across Africa. Created by independent Cape Town-based artist Andries Odendaal, Zakumi is a jolly, self-confident African yellow leopard with green hair who wants to raise the excitement for the World Cup and to share the passion of football with the World - a mission which will certainly be achieved through this animated series.

In recent memory, only the Official Mascots of FIFA World Cup 2002 held in Japan/Korea had its own animated series, and Zakumi will be the first World Cup Mascot's Animation Series ever to be co-produced by a Hong Kong based Animation Studio. This multi-million dollar (USD) animation is co-produced by Peppermint, a leading Global Programme Distributor based in Munich (Germany) & Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), and our very own Home-Grown Animation Powerhouse Jidou Studios of Jidou Limited from Hong Kong. Scripts are written by Fethi Nadjari and Charles Ballerait of Xeopex based in France. TV Networks around the Globe including U.S.A., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, South Korea, Middle East, Indonesia and Malaysia are already showing vast interest in the programme for broadcast in their country.

"We are really excited about this production and totally overwhelmed by the tremendous response we have received from International Broadcasters at MIPCOM '09 back in October last year and Asian Television Forum '09 in Singapore in December 2009", explains Patrick Keller, CEO of Peppermint.