Cartoon film released after delay in China´s quake-hit region

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Most of 1,590 pandas living in the wild in China are in the mountains regions of Sichuan province, also home to the famous Wolong Giant Panda breeding centre.

The film, which features a panda in ancient China, who becomes an unlikely martial-arts hero, was released in Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu on Saturday and on Sunday in other quake-hit cities of Mianyang, Deyang and Dujiangyan, state-run Xinhua news agency said, quoting Wang Jianping, of the Sichuan Pacific Cinema Circuit Co. Ltd.

The film was released in Beijing last Thursday and from Friday across China but not in Sichuan to "appease the survivors (of the quake)," a State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) official said earlier.

The quake that has left about 69,200 people dead so far according to the official death toll, had damaged the habitat of giant pandas in Sichuan, including the Wolong reserve, 30 kms from the epicenter of the 8 magnitude temblor.

A SARFT official had called the postponement decision "market oriented" and said it was made after the provincial cultural authorities consulted the local cinemas.

The cinemas had said they postponed the release of the film as, "some people do not comprehend the film." Chinas internet bulletin boards buzzed with the debate on whether the cartoon comedy should be boycotted as some people complained that it "snatched the necklaces and watches from the corpses of the disaster victims," Xinhua said.

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