Interactive storylines feature the world’s most popular animated cat and mouse duo.
Warner Bros. Digital and Plumzi have teamed up to release the first-ever Tom and Jerry appisode, Tom and Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers. Featuring the world’s most popular animated cat and mouse duo, this is the first appisode to be published by Warner Bros. Digital, drawing upon a rich library of renowned Warner Bros. properties.
Appisodes transform passive entertainment into interactive storylines. Users guide characters through adventures using tap, tilt, swipe, shake and pinch functionality. User participation -- particularly for children -- requires learning and critical thinking skills. Varied activities throughout appisodes make every session a new experience. Parents can also track their children’s progress and success in each activity.
Plumzi, a 2013 graduate of Media Camp -- the accelerator program by Turner and Warner Bros. -- partners with the foremost animation studios to turn their existing TV episodes into appisodes. The Palo Alto-based start-up is funded by Silicon Valley investors along with The Walt Disney Company, Turner Broadcasting, Fuji TV, and KDDI.
In the Tom and Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers appisode, users help Tom and Jerry ring in a wild wintertime celebration. Jerry Mouse lives the good life in Santa's workshop -- until the day Tom Cat is rescued by the Claus family. With Tom in the house, merry mayhem commences at the North Pole. When the dust settles, can the comically destructive duo become friends and work together to save Christmas?
Tom and Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers features dozens of interactive moments, such as:
- Guiding Tom to the North Pole
- Fixing toys in Santa’s workshop
- Delivering Jingles the puppy to his new family
Tom and Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers is available for iOS beginning December 11 for $5.99, with an Android version on the way. The appisode will be released globally in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese language versions.
Created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the original Tom and Jerry short films garnered seven Academy Awards for Animated Short Film from 1940-1957. The Tom and Jerry Show currently airs on Cartoon Network, and a Tom and Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers DVD special was released in 2014.
Source: Warner Bros. Digital
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
