Miramar children’s television company Pukeko Pictures, has inked a deal with Chinese production house Grand Entertainment to produce a kid’s show that will be screened to an audience of 600 million, according to Television New Zealand (TVNZ).

Pukeko Pictures has signed a memorandum of understanding with Grand Entertainment to provide technical and creative assistance in making 200 episodes of Apple Dog’s Adventure (200 x 10′). The show is aimed at the preschool market and will use live-action puppets to tell the story of a dog with a magical apple growing from the end of its tail teaching simple life lessons. The main character is based on a loved series of Chinese books and the screenplay was written by Ge Bing.

Last year Grand Entertainment screened Pukeko Pictures’ The WotWots in China.

“It is not going to employ a lot of people here. It will be fairly small from that aspect but for our purpose it is about understanding the Chinese market, how things are done at a production level, then being able to collaborate with the Chinese on something we actually believe could be a very exciting show,” said Pukeko Pictures Chief Executive, Andrew Smith.

The two companies will review the scripts from China and consider how well they would appeal to an international audience, before giving technical advice about how to put together the show for broadcast.

The Animation School of the Beijing Film Academy is also involved in the show.