Disney's first Chinese production, The Secret of the Magic Gourd, is set to debut here next month. This time, the Disney cartoon movie doesn't involve Mickey, Minnie or Goofy, but is all about a cute vegetable. Walt Disney Studios announced in 2005 that they would produce the live-action film in partnership with China Film Group Corporation and Centro Digital Pictures

The film is the second big-screen adaptation of the 1958 same-name novel by Chinese children's writer, Zhang Tianyi. The first one opened in 1963, in black-and-white, and was an instant hit with children.

Disney's version will have the same plot as the earlier version, in which a little boy with a vivid imagination discovers a mysterious gourd that helps him realize his desires. The movie, a mix of live action and animation, marks a departure from Disney's established strategy of promoting its mainstay stories and characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

The new version features a computer animated magic gourd voiced by local comic actor Chen Peisi and has popular Hong Kong actress/singer Gigi Leung starring as the boy's teacher.

"We respect and appreciate the deep-rooted, rich Chinese local culture," Stanley Cheung, managing director of Disney China, said in a statement.

Since The Lion King in 1995, Disney has released 19 films in China, and this is the next logical step. The Secret of the Magic Gourd is produced specifically for the Chinese market, and with the involvement of China Film Group Corporation, is ensured domestic release. China Film Group Corporation is one of the country's main production and distribution companies and the only authorized importer of foreign films.

It is a Chinese story, shot by a Chinese director, with a Chinese cast and crew. In Chinese, and for a Chinese audience.

"We're not trying to make an American movie here," says Mark Zoradi, head of Buena Vista International, which distributes Disney's films worldwide. "We're making a Chinese movie."

Disney's famed animators are not prominently credited in The Magic Gourd. Centro's work may be familiar to Western audiences because it created visual effects for such films as Kill Bill, Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle

The Secret of the Magic Gourd opens in cinemas on June 29.