A Chinese court has ruled that the producer of a hit kids' cartoon was partly to blame for the injuries suffered by two children when their friend tied them to a tree and set them on fire in an imitation of a scene from the show, state media report.
Two brothers, aged seven and four, from eastern Jiangsu province were badly burned in April by the actions of their 10-year-old friend, who confessed he was copying a scene from "Xi Yangyang & Hui Tailang," which translates as Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The seven-year-old suffered burns over 80 per cent of his body and his brother 40 per cent.
The cartoon, popular among children and adults, features a wolf who hunts a goat and tries to prevent it from escaping, to no avail.
Scenes have included the goat being plunged into boiling water and receiving electric shocks.
The wolf's wife regularly beats her husband over the head with a pan when he fails to bring the goat home for their dinner.
Xinhua said the court ruled that the legal guardians of the boy who set his friends alight and the producer, Guangzhou-based Creative Power Entertaining Co Ltd, are jointly responsible for the two brothers' injuries.
The boy's guardians will have to pay 60 percent of the injured brothers' compensation and the company will pay 15 percent.
Xinhua didn't say who would pay the remainder, nor did it give the total compensation amount, but other media reports said the company would have to pay 39,000 yuan ($A7,250), and that the case was a civil one brought by the brothers' family.
Hao Rui, a lawyer from Beijing Yingke Law Firm who specialises in lawsuits involving the media industry, said it was the first time he had heard of a producer being sued and held liable for a child imitating something seen on TV.
