Listen Now: 
Maori Television believes its new cartoon strategy will raise the status of te reo Maori among tamariki.
The channel has secured the rights to run Maori language versions of two of the world's most popular children's cartoons, SpongeBob Squarepants and Dora The Explorer.
Programming manager Haunui Royal says it came after extensive research into what tamariki want to see on channel and what could be available.
He says Dora is already structured as an English-Spanish model.
"So what we've done, and it is a recommendation of Pania Papa who is leading the team around the production, is that we'll take out the English and put te reo in there and leave the Spanish as a component. It is structured as a language learning show so that the format the way that the scripts are written the way its been characterised is a bilingual experience so we thought it was perfect one to lead up straight away and to revitalise and tamariki cartoons on the panel," Mr Royal says.
Broadcast funding agency Te Mangai Paho is paying for the reversioning.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
RELATED NEWS
