Creativity App Overflowing With Whimsical Humor
Showcasing the whimsical humor of New York Times illustrator and writer Christoph Niemann, Petting Zoo creates a wonderfully zany and interactive experience for both kids and their parents. The app starts with a pencil appearing on the screen to draw a magician's hat. Out pops a rabbit drawn with simple, black lines. It sits there wiggling in anticipation for your touch. When you touch it, funny and unpredictable things happen. If you touch its face, the bunny falls back and then springs forward as if it is tapping the glass from inside of the iPad. Petting it by swiping sideways creates a silly animation about the rabbit stretching sideways and then bouncing back into position.
How to Play
When you touch the move forward button on the bottom of the screen, the black lines flow into another animal. You might be petting a break-dancing dog, a lion drying his mane or a deer with giant antlers that spin. This zoo offers 21 animals and each has a unique set of animations for you to discover by poking, taping, and swiping. With an alligator, you get to strum his teeth to create music. With a chameleon you can tap on different parts of its body to make its square-tiles change color. The porcupine has no quills until you pet them into existence.
What Makes It So Good?
Part of the magic of this app is how one animal flows into another. Sometimes it is simply fluid lines that reform into something new. Other times the transition leads you to open a closet door to find a bear waiting to be petted. Each animal has its own musical riff, which adds to the fun.
Best For
Petting Zoo is fascinating to explore because of its creative use of the features found on the device. With built-in silliness and novel reactions to being touched, these animals will produce wonder and giggles from users of all ages.
This kids' app review of Petting Zoo - Animal Animations was written by Jinny Gudmundsen.
All tech products are judged on a five star scale by looking at the following factors: fun, education, ease of use, value, and technical.
