diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/megacartoons.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/megacartoons.py
index ea6161b7b..672bccbdd 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/megacartoons.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/megacartoons.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # coding: utf-8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
-import json
 import re
 
 from ..utils import (
@@ -10,8 +9,10 @@ from ..utils import (
     merge_dicts,
     NO_DEFAULT,
     RegexNotFoundError,
+    try_get,
     url_or_none,
 )
+from ..compat import compat_str
 
 from .common import InfoExtractor
 
@@ -82,9 +83,9 @@ class MegaCartoonsIE(InfoExtractor):
 
         if 'url' not in info or 'thumbnail' not in info:
             # Video data is stored in a json -> extract it from the raw html
-            url_json = json.loads(self._html_search_regex(r'<div.*data-item=["/\'](?P<videourls>{.*})["/\'].*>', webpage, 'videourls'))
+            url_json = self._parse_json(self._html_search_regex(r'''<div\b[^>]+\bdata-item\s*=\s*(["'])(?P<videourls>\{.*})\1''', webpage, 'videourls', group='videourls', default='{}'), video_id, fatal=False)) or {}
 
-            video_url = url_or_none(url_json.get('sources')[0].get('src') or self._og_search_video_url(webpage))   # Get the video url
+            video_url = url_or_none(try_get(url_json, lambda x: x['sources'][0]['src'], compat_str) or self._og_search_video_url(webpage))   # Get the video url
             video_thumbnail = url_or_none(url_json.get('splash') or self._og_search_thumbnail(webpage))            # Get the thumbnail
             info = merge_dicts(info, {
                 'url': video_url,