MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Studios, together with Chinese filmmakers Castle Hero Pictures and Ying Dong Media, have joined forces to create a movie tentatively titled Touch of the Panda. The film, shot at Sichuan in China, features giant pandas.Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures China helped develop the project during the pre production and filming stages creatively with Castle Hero Pictures and Ying Dong Media, and will handle marketing and distribution around the world.

The film revolves around a panda cub separated from his mother and eventually rescued by a young orphaned boy. As the boy struggles to protect the cub from people he believes would hurt it, the two form a strong bond even as the boy realizes that the best thing he can ever do for the cub is to help him find its way home.

Child actor Daichi Harashima portrays the boy in the film directed by Yu Zhong.

The project began production around the Chinese New Year and recently completed principal photography. It is now in post production and will be released theatrically in 2009. The film represents a follow up for the Walt Disney Studios in China after The Magic Gourd which was released in 2007.