The makers of award-winning Chinese cartoon "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" are being sued after two boys suffered severe burns acting out a scene from the TV series.

A 9-year-old boy, nicknamed Shunshun, was playing with two brothers, aged 5 and 8, when they decided to reenact the part where the evil wolf tries to turn an innocent lamb into a kebab.

Shushun tied the brothers to a tree, like the lamb in the cartoon, and set fire to the grass underneath. The younger brother suffered burns to 80 percent of his body, the older boy 40 percent.

The injured boys' parents, who live in Lianyungang City in east China's Jiangsu Province, asked lawyer Miao Hongwei to file a lawsuit against the Guangdong Creative Power Entertaining Co Ltd and Shunshun's parents. Donghai County People's Court has accepted the case, local news portal jschina.com.cn reported yesterday.

The parents are demanding 260,000 yuan (US$42,300) to cover current medical bills, future medical expenses and compensation. Doctors estimate that total medical expenses could reach a million yuan, according to the lawsuit.

The parents also want a public apology in a national newspaper and warnings on episodes to prevent other children from injuring themselves.

Miao said the cartoon contained a large number of scenes that could be dangerous if children acted them out, but there were no warnings to tell children they should not try to imitate what they see.

The series has a number of scenes showing the wolf's wife beating her husband with a pan, young goats teasing the elder village head and the wolf taking every effort to hunt goats.

"Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" has been widely cited as an example of how the best Chinese animation can rival Western imports.

It is the most popular Chinese-made animated series, and five spin-off movies have earned around 600 million yuan at the box office.

Last March, two primary school girls in southeast Fujian Province drowned because they thought they could travel to an ancient dynasty after they had seen an actress do the same.

On April 1, a four-year-old girl in southern city of Shenzhen was seriously injured when she opened an umbrella and jumped from the sixth floor because she believed she could parachute safely to the ground.

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