This project was launched in 2007 and over 50 classes participated. The idea of the project was to email a template of Ming the Minibus to classrooms around the world. Classes would then fold the template to make the Ming the Minibus character. They would then photograph him near some tourist attraction of place of interest near their school. They would then email the photo back to this school. The photos were then used to create online books that were used in Hong Kong and China to make reading and learning English more fun.
The Ming the Minibus character gained the attention of a local company who then developed stories from the books. These were then animated in Dubhai and made into a cartoon series. The voices and sound tracks were done in Los Angeles and each cartoon contained three songs. The songs were popular and are a good way for students to learn English.
The 52 episodes were inspired by schools world wide and we would now like to create another 52 episodes of the Travel of Ming the Minibus.
Therefore I am re launching the project with the hope that we can get some schools worldwide involved.
The project does not require a lot of time or effort and we are looking at launching the project before the summer break as some students actually took their Ming the Minibus fold up with them on holiday last time and filmed him in plavces they visited. One school from Romania took him on their educational tour to several European countries and sent some excellent location shots.
Some of the books and ideas generated from the previous project can be seen at the following link. They are free to download in PowerPoint format and used by school.
http://www.west-web.net/hkpnetsforum/index.php?topic=820.0
The cartoons themselves can be seen at http://ballooniac.wordpress.com/2010/02/
You need to look in archives for cartoons already broadcast.
If interested in participating please email me at minghk@epals .com and I will forward you the template.
Best Regards
Thomas Beckett
