The app market may tilt more heavily in the direction of young teenagers and preteens than any other demographic, but most of those apps seem to treat them only as game players or social networkers. The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore is the most well-known exception to that, but I recently found another excellent book app, The Artifacts ($2 on Apple), that’s aimed squarely at a younger person’s imagination, and it’s well worth the download. The app tells the story of a boy, Asaf, who collects random “treasures” that clutter his room and his family’s home. When his family moves after Asaf’s 13th birthday, his parents leave his stuff behind and bar him from collecting again. The balance of the story shows Asaf’s response to his new reality, which is in turns bleak, imaginative and hopeful. Any young person who has ever been misunderstood, even temporarily, by a parent, will Read More

There’s been a lot of talk about the divide between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but at least one upstart animation studio seems to have one foot comfortably in both worlds — Moonbot Studios, which was just nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short. The film in question, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” was also released as an iPad app, and will be published a traditional book, too. Co-founder William Joyce is an established children’s author, and he first conceived the project as a book, but when he teamed up with Brandon Oldenburg to start Moonbot in 2009, they decided to work on a short film as well. And in the middle of all that, Apple announced the first iPad, so Joyce decided that the story would make a great app, too. Working on so many versions of the same story at once sounds a little nuts, but Joyce says Read More

There’s been a lot of talk about the divide between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but at least one upstart animation studio seems to have one foot comfortably in both worlds — Moonbot Studios, which was just nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short. The film in question, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” was also released as an iPad app, and will be published a traditional book, too. Co-founder William Joyce is an established children’s author, and he first conceived the project as a book, but when he teamed up with Brandon Oldenburg to start Moonbot in 2009, they decided to work on a short film as well. And in the middle of all that, Apple announced the first iPad, so Joyce decided that the story would make a great app, too. Working on so many versions of the same story at once sounds a little nuts, but Joyce says Read More

Is it as good as Morris Lessmore? No. Is it worth $6? Yes, if you have children under age 10. Like Morris, Numberlys is heavy on video — this time with a distinctly retro vibe. Numberlys is cut stylistically from the cloth of Metropolis and the original King Kong, all gray and black, with lots of art deco lines set against an urban backdrop. The animation is nothing short of arresting. As a piece of storytelling, though, the app is uneven. It focuses on five cute, whimsical characters, called Numberlys, who build the alphabet one letter at a time. Readers help the characters build roughly 20 letters, and at those moments the narrative incorporates simple games. On one page, for instance, you slide a cursor along the bottom of the screen (a la Pong) to deflect falling letters. The letters ricochet and chip away at a gear that eventually becomes the Read More

...@RinconSalfate MORRIS http://t.co/2A4X1wnV <--- ah\u00ED esta, pero cuesta US$4.99.-... Read More

In a very neat collaboration, Moonbot, the developers behind the book app The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, has teamed up with DODOcase to produce a custom book-bound iPad case that's based on the app. Morris Lessmore is a story of people who are devoted to books, and in turn the books are devoted back. The US$4.99 book app made its debut at the end of May and has had good reception since. The Morris Lessmore DODOcase is $64.99 and is handcrafted from red faux leather with Morris Lessmore's hat and cane mark on the cover and his "M" on the spine. The case is available now, and the book app recently updated to version 1.2 with a new puzzle. We have one of these cases on its way, and a full review of both the case and the book will be on TUAW soon. Read More

In a recent App Smart column on children’s book apps, I lauded The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore, which doesn’t struggle to follow the metaphor of traditional books. Instead, it’s part film, part written narrative, part oral tale, and, as a whole, something that eludes easy description. For adults, it might be the best glimpse yet into what iPads can deliver to the storytelling experience. The latest of the series, “This Too Shall Pass,” is a good lens through which to view the entire set. The story is a retelling of a traditional tale about a king’s transition through emotional hardship. You could move through the app and be done with it in 20 minutes. But if you’re anything like me, you will return to it repeatedly. The animation, directed by Matthew Talbot-Kelly, is frequently arresting and consistently interesting. The writing, by Jacqueline O Rogers, is strong enough to warrant Read More

Morris Lessmore, the short film by Moonbot Studios is now an iPad app that shines with vivid graphics and entertaining interactivity never seen before in iOS book applications. William Joyce is the creator of the book and has a deep resume filled with book animation and most notably working with Pixar on Toy Story & A Bug’s Life and with Fox Studios on Robots. The story of the Fantastic Flying Book of Mr. Morris was based on the lives of two real world characters that had given their lives to books and children’s story telling and inspired by Hurricane Katrina. The iPad app utilizes computer animation, stop motion, and 2D animation and brings those aspects into an magical digital iPad book that will delight and engage any child or grown-up. The experience of reading this eBook is unlike any other book I’ve seen to date. Having won a series of awards Read More

‘The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore‘ (3.99 €; App Store-Link), eine zauberhafte (Kinder-)Geschichte, versüsste mein heutiges Frühstück. Wer noch Argumente für einen iPad-Kauf sucht, wird hier fündig. Das animierte Buch basiert auf einem prämierten Kurzfilm – natürlich nur im US-Store zum Kauf-Download – und natürlich angeführt von einem ehemaligen Pixar-Mitarbeiter. Read More

What would our world look like if books could fly? That’s a question that’s at the center of the a new iPad app called that was added to the iTunes app store on Thursday. The app is based on the animated short film of the same title, in which a book lover finds himself catapulted into a world where books are alive, capable of flying, dancing and playing piano. It’s an interesting metaphor, especially during times where some people bemoan the supposed death of the traditional paper book in light of the growing importance of tablets and e-readers. “An iPad app book is sort of like a book that flies,” said Moonbot Studios co-founder Brandon Oldenburg when I talked to him and two of his colleagues on the phone today. However, Moonbot didn’t mean to provide cultural commentary with its app; instead, the company just tried to explore new avenues of Read More