The Walt Disney Co., which is building a theme park in China, said Tuesday it had joined an initiative to develop Chinese animation productions.

The U.S. entertainment giant and the state-backed China Animation Group have launched a project to develop animation content for the Chinese and other markets, Disney said in a statement.

Chinese Internet giant Tencent would help market the productions, to be developed for television, film and digital platforms, it said.

China Animation Group operates under the government's Ministry of Culture.

Disney will provide expertise for story writing, screening and market research to create content to an international standard, the statement said.

China has been seeking to build up its domestic animation industry with mixed results.

While local productions have found an audience, movies such as the successful “Kung Fu Panda” series produced by U.S. film giant DreamWorks Animation have sparked soul-searching over why China is not more competitive.

DreamWorks Animation itself announced a Chinese joint venture to make films for the domestic market in February, when China's Vice President Xi Jinping traveled to Los Angeles while on an official visit to the United States.

Disney broke ground on a long-awaited theme park in China's commercial hub of Shanghai in April, 2011, which will be its third park in Asia after Tokyo and Hong Kong.

The first-phase of the $3.7 billion Shanghai park is scheduled to open in 2015, the official Shanghai Daily newspaper said.

滬江英語快訊：動(dòng)畫電影《功夫熊貓》在全球熱映，這部取材于中國文化的電影卻不是中國人所拍，這一點(diǎn)讓很多人感嘆昔日輝煌的中國動(dòng)畫業(yè)如今的“江郎才盡”。4月10日，華特迪士尼（上海）有限公司與中國文化部下屬的中國動(dòng)漫集團(tuán)、騰訊控股有限公司共同舉辦了“動(dòng)漫創(chuàng)意研發(fā)合作”簽約儀式。動(dòng)畫產(chǎn)業(yè)巨頭迪士尼承諾，將向中國提供其在劇本寫作、市場(chǎng)研究等方面的專業(yè)知識(shí)，幫助中國發(fā)展本土動(dòng)畫產(chǎn)業(yè)。?和迪士尼攜手之后的中國動(dòng)畫能否東山再起、再創(chuàng)輝煌？我們拭目以待！