BEIJING (AFP) - A cartoon starring China's five Olympic mascots will debut next year in an effort to boost national sporting fervor ahead of the 2008 Beijing Games, state media said.

The three-dimensional 52-episode cartoon series will depict the five creatures helping two leading characters return to the real world after having travelled through 100 years of Olympic Games history, the China Daily said.

The five colorful 2008 Olympic mascots are a traditional Chinese doll, a panda bear, a Tibetan antelope, a Beijing swallow and a "fish child".

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games has approved the 6.2-million-dollar cartoon series, which is provisionally titled: "The Five Friendlies".

"People have great enthusiasm for the Olympic Games and this is promoting the spirit of the Games in an easy way, especially among children," said Jiang Xiaoyu, the executive vice-president of the committee.

Among the stakeholders in the project are a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite TV and the Shenzhen city government in south China.