Chinese animated films were received well by domestic audiences in summer, despite facing fierce competition from blockbusters including Transformers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II and Smurfs. Two films, Seer and Legend Of The Moles: The Frozen Horror, proved hits among children. Both derived from online community games. The former secured 43.5 million yuan, while the latter snared a respectable 17.9 million yuan, much more than some Chinese big budget productions. One of the key factors behind both films' success was that their namesake games boast over 10 million users.

Qiyi.com, the video website owned by Chinese internet giant Baidu, said that Seer and Legend Of The Moles: The Frozen Horror will hit their site on September 20th.

Earlier this year, many online video sites declared their ambitious plan to tap into the animation market. Qiyi announced plans to grow the site into China's biggest animation platform. The website has already screened about 500 animated works, or over 20,000 episodes. This time, they hope to go further by obtaining the exclusive online broadcasting rights for 2011's two hottest animated films.

Gao Jing, director of Qiyi's content department, said China is narrowing the gap with Hollywood in producing world-class animated films, but conceded "there's still a long way to go" in its development.

"Chinese animated films have made great improvements over recent years, but they still lag behind overseas successes such as Kung Fu Panda," he said. "Seer and Legend Of The Moles: The Frozen Horror gained over 10 million yuan in terms of revenue, a figure hard to believe in the past. We can see that our children love [these films] more than [Chinese animated TV series] Pleasant Goat and Big Bad Wolf."