* 963-acre Shanghai Disneyland officially opens on June 16
* Out goes American Main Street, in comes Chinese zodiac garden
* Disney cartoons face stiff local competition for young viewers
* Disney will also face 2,500 rival theme parks planned in China
By Adam Jourdan
SHANGHAI, June 12 (Reuters) - As the opening of the $5.5 billion Shanghai Disneyland draws near, Walt Disney Co has a challenge. The hold of rival Asian characters such as China's homegrown Boonie Bears or Big Big Wolf means seven-year-olds like Li Yixuan have less time for Mickey Mouse and Friends.
As Li settles on the living room floor for 15 minutes of cartoons before homework and bed, Disney doesn't get a look-in this time, as his favourite animated hero, Ultraman Ace from the hit Japanese series, does battle with space dinosaurs.
And as the number of competing theme parks in China soars, it will become even harder to win the hearts of Chinese children - and open the wallets of their parents - to fuel long-term traffic after the turnstiles start clicking on June 16.
"When we get kids now to write down their favourite cartoon character, very few put down Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck," said Song Lei, Hong Kong-based director at Animation-Comic-Game Group, the organiser of Asia's biggest annual fair for comics, anime and games.
"Instead it's what is being broadcast on television, what they're seeing in their day-to-day," he said. That means the Boonie Bears duo and mischievous, super-powered pig GG Bond, he said.
That's not helped by a ban on imported cartoons during the late afternoon "golden hour" peak viewing time for children.
China's attitude to Disney is ambivalent, reflecting a clash between nationalistic sentiment and the desire for American-style consumption among the growing middle class.
China's military-linked PLA Daily warned of what it said was "invisible propaganda" in Disney's "Zootopia". Yet Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger got a presidential welcome from Xi Jinping in May, and Disney has been granted "special" trademark protection.
And Disney is still enjoying a banner year at the box office in China. "Zootopia", "Captain America: Civil War", "The Jungle Book" and "Star Wars: the Force Awakens" are among the 10 most-watched movies of 2016, reaping more than $690 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Characters from those films will feature at the Shanghai resort.
"There are people that love Disney and those that don't, for a variety of reasons," said Chris Yoshii, Asia-Pacific vice president for AECOM and a member of the Themed Entertainment Association. He predicts China's theme park market will overtake the United States in the "not too distant future".