Hello Kitty to star in global TV series
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-21 08:48

Hello Kitty, the feline icon of cuteness, will take to television sets with her friends in a series to be aired in more than 15 countries, the character's creator revealed.

A man takes a picture of a Hello Kitty banner in August 2005. Hello Kitty's creator said the feline icon will take to television sets with her friends in a series to be aired in more than 15 countries. [AFP]

"Hello Kitty, Stamp Village," a 26-part series on the adventures of the mouthless cat and her companions in a forest, will be completed this month and will air in Asia, Europe and North America, the Sanrio company said.

"The plan is to target a world market. So the program will be created in an easy format to dub or narrate into foreign languages," Sanrio spokesman Kazuo Tohmatsu said.

The series to be done in clay animation revolves around Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters including the red-hooded bunny My Melody and the mischievous penguin Bad Badtz-Maru.

The production is costing 160 million yen (1.36 million dollars), with 30 percent invested by Sanrio and 70 percent by a South Korean investment firm and production company.

Hello Kitty, which started in 1974 in Japan as a moon-faced cartoon cat on a coin purse, has emerged into a global phenomenon with more than 50,000 different products on sale in 60 nations.