Partnership between Magic Light Pictures, Forestry England and Nexus Studios sees introduction of The Gruffalo Spotter 2 app.
The Gruffalo is returning to the deep, dark wood in the latest partnership between Forestry England, Magic Light Pictures and Nexus Studios.
The Gruffalo Spotter 2 app is aiming to build on the success of the BAFTA nominated original and brings The Gruffalo characters to life in the forest.
Families will be able to use the new app to follow a trail and learn about the characters from the story. The Augmented Reality app mixes the animated characters with the real world environment and encourages children to drive their own personal narrative.
Responding to instructions such as waving, stomping, flying, dancing and roaring, visitors will trigger the AR characters to magically come to life and interact with them. Through cutting-edge face and body recognition technology, the characters now look at the children directly, encouraging them to play along. Moments can be recorded and saved to mobile devices for families to share via #GruffaloSpotters.
The app has been designed by Nexus Studios for exclusive use at up to 24 of the nation’s forests across England. The self-led trail includes facts about forest animals and activities such as rubbings and interactive activities on some of the panels. It is available for free – with no in-app purchases – from the App Store and Google Play and will be live until winter 2021.
“This is such an exciting development and will deliver a completely different forest experience for our visitors,” said Bridgette Hall, recreation manager for Forestry England. “The Gruffalo is a much-loved story and to be able to once again bring the characters to life in their natural setting is fantastic. We’re thrilled to be bringing the two worlds of technology and nature together again with this new app.”
Barney Goodland, producer at Magic Light Pictures, added: “Following the runaway success of the first Spotter app we’re delighted to be bringing The Gruffalo back to the forest for 2021. We’re always looking to further children’s enjoyment of The Gruffalo and this is an innovative way to incorporate new technology with a real-world experience.
“Working with Forestry England and Nexus Studios has been a real joy and it’s exciting to now be sharing Gruffalo Spotters 2 with families. Most importantly for us the app is completely free, which means that it’s there for everyone to enjoy.”
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