Appisodes, the next big step for children's entertainment.

Disney recently released what it calls an “appisode” for its children’s television program Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It is an episode of the children’s show tailored for the app market. To my surprise when I looked it up the app was free, I was suspecting Disney to at least have it up for a dollar but no you can download it for no charge which is wonderful! In learning about this app I have come to the conclusion that “appisodes” are easily the next step in todays market for children’s programing, I am sure we will see these popping up frequently with in the coming months. An appisodes is an episode of a show that you can interact with, an easy next step for children’s shows to make as they already encourage interaction by asking questions and talking with the audience. The difference between an appisode and an episode is simple when a character ask a question the viewer can answer and the show will actually understand to an extent, an example would be during the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse appisode the character Daisy Duck is at the beach as spots four sandcastles and ask the viewer to pick the one with four towers. With this app a child can actually click the sandcastle with four towers and the character Daisy will tell the child if they are correct or not and if they are correct the show appisode will move on as it would in a regular episode. This is just such a brilliant idea for children’s show, I am eager to see how much further this can go. I am positive this will become a thing that every children’s show does in the near future and if it doesn’t it really be such a waste because making an interactive episode for the tablet and smart phone market is this perfect thing for this market. I am even excited to see if this could go farther, just think if it’s a success with children shows maybe you could take the same concept for game shows and have viewers play live from home! The possibilities of where an appisode can take television are just endless. This really is a genius creation for Disney and will help push television shows further into the future.

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The Hub and Care Bears

The Hub is a fairly new children’s programming channel that is run by the toy company Hasbro. The Hub shows reruns of old family friendly shows such a Jem and The Holograms and Batman(1960s) it also runs new family friendly series like Pound Puppies and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I think The Hub is one of the best channels on TV right now for children as the shows featuring a wide array of characters and stories and can appeal to several age groups. While many children’s networks are either making their shows go a bit to mature for the target market or dumbing them down to the point when only a very specific age group can enjoy it, The Hub is challenging that and actually focusing on true Family entertainment airing shows and playing movies that a child could watch with an older or younger sibling and even their parents and still have both of them enjoy it to at least some extent. Now the Hub is introducing a new show to it’s line up Welcome to Care-a-Lot a revamped Care Bears show. This show looks to have the same child and family friendly qualities of the rest of the channels line up. Another thing that is good about the show is the Care Bears designs are going back to their more original look, while in recent years Care Bears were released with giant heads and tiny bodies, making them look rather odd, these characters look more like true teddy bears, as they should. The show looks to be very similar the original Care Bears show from the 80s, which could help a parent, enjoy the show while they watch it with their child for nostalgia reasons. Another bonus for the new Care Bear show is that Hasbro can now start selling the toy line again, which I’m sure collectors and children a like are very excited to buy. As The Hub continues to be release new shows it seems like their channel is just getting better and better and I hope they stay on this path of producing such quality programming. They truly are a stand out in the children’s market today.