By now, you might have caught wind of Launchpad Toys’ Toontastic, an app from 2011 that garnered lots of praise then and now. The app allows kids to create simple animated stories, while recording their own voices over the action. Toontastic has recently partnered up with Dreamworks, and the result is Toontastic Jr. Shrek.
Like the original app, kids will be creating their own stories with Toontastic Jr. Shrek. This time around, they’ll do so with a full complement of Shrek characters, plus backdrops from 12 scenes from Shrek, like the dragon’s castle and the rescue of Princess Fiona. But, those are just backdrops. The storytelling is all up to the kids, so if they want Donkey and Dragon to swap roles, so be it. Whatever’s in that little imagination of theirs is fair game.
Specifically, kids will be selecting three scenes – a beginning, a middle, and an end. Then, they can play around with those three scenes, adding characters, animations and music before recording their voice to tell their own version of Shrek. The animations are fun and simple for even the youngest Shrek fans – they use their fingers to drag the little figurines across the screen. They can even get started in the world of real-time, online collaboration with StoryShare, which allows the user to connect with another person using the app to talk, share their movie, or work on a movie together.
If you’re familiar with the Toontastic app already, this is the same basic experience, just with a robust offering of Shrek tools. Shrek fans of all ages should be able to have a pretty good time with it. Toontastic Jr. Shrek is available now on the iTunes App Store for $2.99.
