French prodco ON Kids & Family and California-based animation studio ZAG are partnering with Chinese animation studio Fantawild to bring the series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir to China for the first time.
Under the joint venture, Fantawild has acquired all Chinese rights to the property and will invest and participate in developing ZAG’s in-production feature film. Fantawild will also launch the series, the upcoming feature, licensed merchandise and location-based entertainment experiences throughout the region, although no launch date has been announced.
Created by ZAG and produced with ON, the 3D/CGI-animated series is aimed at girls six to 12 and boys four to seven. It revolves around two Parisian teenagers who transform into superheroes to protect the city from supervillains. Miraculous airs in more than 120 countries around the world, and Brazilian kidsnet Gloob is co-producing the show’s fourth and fifth seasons. It was previously picked up by Disney Channel US, Disney EMEA and Netflix in the US, among others.
ZAG partnered with Fantawild specifically because in addition to the prodco’s creative reputation—it created the popular Boonie Bears franchise— it also boasts 29 theme parks, which can be used to grow Miraculous’s reach with location-based entertainment experiences.
The California prodco has been growing in recent months, including promoting Ian Lambur to the EVP of production, distribution and co-production role last month to have oversight of ZAG’s TV productions. The studio also inked a long-term partnership with Playmates Toys to develop, manufacture and distribute consumer products for Miraculous and its entire portfolio of brands.