Grimm’s Rapunzel - 3D Interactive Pop-up Book Review

Grimm’s Rapunzel ~ 3D Interactive Pop-up Book is a universal application which brings the classic Grimm's fairy tale to life, with a version for iPhone also available. This storybook app also includes nice interactions that bring the reader into the world of this tale, as well as some interesting visual affects. Being read to or reading this book to oneself are options, as is autoplay.

Rapunzel has always been one of my favorite stories from childhood, and I have noticed that among Grimm's tales, Rapunzel is one of the stories whose details often change from story to story. Such is true for this application, where some of the information has been changed to create some nice opportunities for interactions to occur. Here, there is a childless couple who lives next door to a witch. The woman desires flowers from the witch's garden, and the man gets caught by the witch while stealing flower seeds for his wife. The witch lets him take the seeds if he promises to give his first-born to her, and he agrees. This allows for the players to do such things as plant, pick, and arrange flowers for the wife, as well as interactions involving the girl later on as she gets trapped in a castle by the witch. While I do think that changing the important details of stealing vegetables for a sickly pregnant woman to simply flowers makes this couple less sympathetic in general, my son, obsessed with the planting and care of flowers, appreciates these interactions and I do think that this adaptation has been done nicely, especially for children.

I also like the look of the application. Pop-up pages are included with a nice 3D effect to them, and I especially like how the details of the page look as if they are popping up out of the page itself, as another take on the word “pop-up” - something my son enjoys, as well as the various interactions which are included among these pages. One can use a finger to rotate the page as well, but I wish this feature were stretched further so one could rotate 360 degrees, making the 3D effects stand out even more.

This is a nice adaptation of the classic story for children. I am interested to see these developers take on other classic tales, as well as how their pop-up technology expands in the future.