Brazil’s LC Barreto, China’s CCTV Animation Team on Animated Projects

Rio-based LC Barreto has unveiled a trio of new titles, including two animated projects with China’s CCTV Animation, a subsidiary of China Media Group, and an upcoming live-action feature from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bruno Barreto (“Four Days in September”).

“Panda HoHo,” a well-known character featured in other China Media Group productions, will star in both projects — a TV series and a feature film — designed for distribution in the global market.

Brazilian helmer João Amorim (pictured above) will direct both projects. Amorim will present the lecture “Creative Orient: Revealing the Potentials of the Asian Audiovisual” at Rio2C on May 29.

Both projects are currently in development, and LC Barreto is working to raise funding for production, Barreto said.

“Hoho & The Tropical Sound Clash” is a 3D animated series aimed at preschoolers. The series is planned for four seasons, each with 13 episodes of 12 minutes, and has a total budget of $8.1 million.

Panda HoHo will form a trio with two Brazilian animals: a golden lion tamarin, a symbol of Brazilian biodiversity, and Capy, an adventurous capybara. In each episode, the trio will embark on adventures across Brazil, discovering unique biomes, cultural traditions and important lessons about environmental preservation and collaboration.

“Amazonika – The Origin” is a CG-animated feature with a budget of 30 million reais ($5.2 million). The film will depict the recreation of the Amazon Rainforest, presented as an ancient link between Asian and Brazilian indigenous cultures. Panda HoHo will help Zo, a young man who can communicate with nature, and Nika, a bold princess warrior, to restore harmony in a world on the brink of collapse.

LC Barreto will also produce “In the Name of My Parents,” the new feature from veteran helmer Bruno Barreto, director of the classic “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands” and the Oscar-nominated “Four Days in September.”

Paula Barreto said her father, Luiz Carlos Barreto, the legendary producer who founded LC Barreto 60 years ago, was the one who envisioned the project.

“He read the book ‘In the Name of My Parents,’ written by journalist Matheus Leitão, and was very impressed. He decided then to buy the book’s rights,” she told Variety, adding that veteran writer Maria Adelaide Amaral is currently penning the screenplay.

Leitão recounts in the book his journey to find the men responsible for the imprisonment and torture of his parents in the early 1970s, during Brazil’s military dictatorship. His parents, Marcelo Netto and Miriam Leitão, are both journalists who resisted the dictatorship and were persecuted.