When it comes to airtime, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf is currently shown over more than 70 television channels worldwide, and the big-screen appearances have knocked even imported animation features off their perches at the cinemas.

Soon these pastoral characters will travel even further afield. CPE has already reached an agreement with Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment, the Walt Disney distribution arm outside America. Buena Vista will distribute the latest 100 episodes of the cartoon series in 10 languages to 52 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific circuit through the Walt Disney Channel on cable. This deal will cement the popularity of Pleasant Goat far beyond China.

On the big screen, these characters are also raking in the big bucks. The latest and third film sequel which premiered on Jan 21 in cinemas scored 130 million yuan (14 million euros) in takings, edging past the second sequel which had already broken box office records for animated films with 128 million yuan in total tickets.

It all started with a cartoon series designed for TV. Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf debuted in 2005, and in the years since, the series has chalked up 600 episodes, hitting consistently high viewership ratings in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The storylines are simple and chronicle the attempts of a henpecked wolf who tries every possible means to catch a flock of sheep, all with lovable names and characteristics. Leader of the flock is Xi Yangyang, the Pleasant Goat of the title. His name is homophonic for "joy", and his friends include Lan Yangyang, the lazy glutton and Mei Yangyang, the pretty and elegant ewe.

The success of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf marks the efforts that China has invested in the revival and rejuvenation of its animation industry.

According to guidelines issued in 2006 by the State Council, China intends to establish a world-class animation industry within five to 10 years.

The vice-minister in the Ministry of Culture, Ouyang Jian, says that the production of animated series has increased from 80,000 minutes per year in 2000 to 220,000 minutes in 2010. Twenty-four companies had realized an annual output valued at 30 million yuan by the end of 2009.

It is a productivity and popularity helped by supportive policies.

To promote locally-made animation, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television stipulated that from Sept 1, 2006, all television channels across China were to telecast only made-in-China animation features during the prime-time period from 5 pm to 8 pm. Dedicated children's channels were to show domestically-produced cartoons, according to the policy.

This "close-shop" policy gave domestic animators the platform they needed, but the industry had to find its own levels and catch up with demand.

Even at the big screen box office, not all locally-made feature films enjoyed the same rate of success. As of August 2010, eight domestic animation pictures had hit the cinemas within the year, with total takings of 164 million yuan. Four-fifths of that revenue came from Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, according to the New Culture Industry Club, an industry observer with members drawn from investment companies, animation clubs, media companies and business schools. Most of the other seven did not even recover their investments.