Overview
The app opens with three options: Watch, Make, or Browse. Start with Watch to see the GoldieBlox cartoon about how the little girl engineer Goldie saves her town's film festival by creating a zoetrope (a pre-cinema animation machine). Goldie, a little girl who always wears her tool belt, is the star of a series of engineering kits that each come with a book about why girls should build. In this app, which was released in conjunction with the
toy building kit of the same name, kids join Goldie and her friends to make digital short movies, using templates provided within the app.
How to Play
With the free GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine app, kids learn the process of making stop-motion movies. The app has step-by-step tutorials showing kids how they can make their own animated short movies. In addition to templates, the app provides budding Kathryn Bigelows with digital stickers and other drawing materials to let their imaginations run wild. When kids complete an animated short, they can save it and then replay it in the app for friends and family to see.
App Analysis
GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine has a nice combination of providing instruction on how to make movies with the tools kids need to create their own movies. With 12 frames, kids can learn to animate anything within their imaginations. The app nicely shows an outline of what was in the previous frame, so that kids can draw the next screen's movement. It is also possible to photograph something and then make it animate by moving it in a series of photos; or kids can draw on a photo to include their own touches, such as adding a fluttering superwoman cape to their own selfie.
While not as sophisticated as other animation apps already in the market, GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine is simple to use and produces a good result. As a consequence, it is a great app for kids to use to dip the toe into movie-making.
Best For
GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine app works well with both girls and boys; but the focus of the brand is to empower girls to be creators. This app is free, regardless of whether you own the toy kit that it is connected to or not, so don't miss it. GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine is a standalone experience worth exploring. And if you own the toy building kit, downloading this app brings real world and digital play together in a new, fun way.
This GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine app review 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.
