DreamWorks' portfolio approach to interactive licensing brings Shrek to Launchpad Toys' new iOS app, Toontastic Jr. Shrek. As far as I know, the partnership between DreamWorks and Launchpad Toys represents the first time a major hollywood studio has opened up its properties for kids to remix and retell their stories. According to Andy Russell, co-founder of Launchpad Toys, it is also "a very cool new page in the Tech/Entertainment rivalry between San Francisco and Los Angeles." Chris Hewish, head of global interactive for DreamWorks animation, explained that the partnership with Launchpad Toys is part of a shifting strategy for DreamWorks and "a real opportunity to do more innovative things." He describes DreamWorks interactive strategy as a "portfolio approach." Unlike an old fashioned digital licensing deal in which a giant console game developer partners with the studio, taking exclusive interactive rights to the properties, the portfolio approach makes space for smaller independent game developers and an increased mobile presence. Now Shrek can show up in inventive educational games from small mobile developers. For example: Toontastic Jr. Shrek from Launchpad Toys. Mr. Hewish likes Launchpad Toys "unique point of view" and their "passion and belief in the model." But most of all, he's excited about the app, which he sees as more of a "toy experience as opposed to a software experience." I agree with Mr. Hewish. In fact, I have trouble thinking of Toontastic as a "game." It is more of an play space. The Toontastic Family of apps aims to get kids "deeply engrossed in an imaginary world" by allowing them to animate their own stories. They move characters around the screen, recording their movements while adding voices, narration and sound effects. This is all done through an intuitive touch interface with cool sound effects and first-rate art design. I think of Toontastic kind of like the touch screen equivalent of play therapy. The ipad becomes a virtual box of sand in which young kids are able to express themselves. In the new app, DreamWorks' Shrek characters become like familiar figures from the menagerie of options that children might pick off their therapists' shelves. Based on the Constructionist and Social Development theories of thinkers like Vygotsky, the Toontastic apps teach the basics of grounded narrative structure by nurturing creative social dialogue at "peer level" rather than focusing exclusively on "formal adult instruction." In this way, the Toontastic apps address three learning goals:
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