Disney Pixar’s new iPad app is aimed at very young children. As such, it does not have any social network features. But, as I played with the interactive story app, it occurred to me that there is a social aspect that Disney should explore in the near future. But, first, about the app itself.
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After a string of animated hits starting with Toy Story in 1995, it looks like Pixar winning streak might come to an end with Cars 2 in 2011. Rotten Tomatoes average critics rating is a dismal 34% so far. However, the movie audience on opening day has been much kinder giving it an average of 77%. Both, however, are far below the wonderful “Up” movie which had a 98% critic rating and 86% from the audience.
Fortunately, the Cars 2 story book app mixes in enough elements to keep any kid or kid at heart entertained. The app has a 4.5 star average customer rating with 12 people chiming it with ratings so far.
The app features a read-along story that has a read-aloud option (turned on by default). Words are individually highlighted to help early readers. Page art has motion-comics-like minimal animation. And, several pages features optional activities:
- Color book (Paint) on five pages
- Two games
– Tokyo Lights (a “Simon” like follow the color and sound pattern game which is very challenging)
– Mater’s Tire Toss
- Nine part puzzles on five pages
You or the child can also record your own voice for the read-aloud option. And, there’s an easy page navigation to get to a favorite page in this 25 page long story book. The app has an introductory price of $5.99.
Note: Disney’s PR firm provided the app to me for evaluation purposes.
Video courtesy of DisneyDigitalBooks
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Pixar’s Toy Story 3 is set to hit theaters on June 18, 2010 and in preparation Pixar has launched one of the most original ad campaigns the web has ever seen. The campaign comes in the form of a series of fake retro-style commercials, alleged to be from 1983, advertising Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear, one of the new additions to the Toy Story cast of toys.
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