The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

I admit, I am a fan of Disney and Disney-related paraphernalia. Theme parks, figurines, movies, all of them are popular at my house. Our honeymoon was to Walt Disney World, and in general we take vacations to go to Disneyland. Oh, I could go on, but I'll save it for anther post.

Yesterday the Disney.com iPhone app [iTunes link] was released. It's free, and it's pretty snazzy. When you first launch, you're given a ring of apps to scroll around in a nice 3D setup. You can take pictures and place them in character themed photo frames, play "name that tune" with Disney music, and get the latest news from Disney. There's also a section where you are shown an image from Disney's site and if you find that image and snap it with your iPhone camera, you get a little bonus animation. If I were a kid I would play with that all the livelong day. (I'm not kid-aged and I still had fun with it!)

Where it really gets fun though, is the games you can play. I went through all of them: A couple of personality quizzes, a matching up jewels that disappear game, and a trivia game are all included, with the option to buy or download further games. Yes, Dear Reader, in the name of a thorough review, I took the Jonas Brothers Rock Fashion Quiz.

Then there's Tigger Bounce. Tigger, perched on his tail, waits for you to tap the screen in conjunction with a power meter on the side of the screen. Then you tilt him side to side, bouncing off clouds and getting boosts from friends he goes by in the air. Once he runs out of momentum, Tigger falls back to the ground, the whole endeavor measured in "hang time". You are scored based on how long you were in the air. I found myself playing this over and over again to get just a little higher.

Overall what I liked best was that it had a nice mix of older and newer Disney properties. I cannot tell you how refreshing this is. As someone who has braved Disney Stores at the height of the High School Musical craze, seeing that Disney added content older than I am was a breath of fresh air. Bonus points for not using this as another angle to foist more princess or fairy stuff upon me!

My complaints are minor: navigation is super sensitive so the slightest touch sends the ring spinning pretty fast, the "interact" section is not as interactive as I'd like (quite a few characters are limited to photo-frames only), and it's called the Disney.com Mobile App but it isn't really a portal or interface to interact with Disney.com. Like I said, minor.

Even if this weren't free, I'd recommend it for Tigger Bounce alone. There is a lot of variety here, and if you have any young'uns around who like to play a game on your iPhone every now and then, this is a really good option. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to see a tiger about some hang time...