New Kids Edutainment CD Delivers TV-Quality Animation and True Interactivity; "Menlo the Frog" Interactive Learning Cartoon Brings Musical Fairy Tale to Children Ages 3-7.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1995--Windy Hill Productions today unveiled its first product, "Menlo the Frog -- A Musical Fairy Tale," the world's first Interactive Learning Cartoon.

Created by Windy Hill Productions, "Menlo the Frog" is the first title in this new genre within the children's edutainment CD category.

Menlo's creator and Windy Hill Productions President Claudia Marshall explained the concept of the new genre. "An Interactive Learning Cartoon offers a unique combination of linear and open-ended activities. The linear portion of the new genre is an original story, which in the case of "Menlo the Frog" is a musical fairy tale. The open-ended activities deliver true, play-balanced interactivity in a depth of learning scenarios that were designed specifically for children between the ages of three to seven years."

The first in a series of Interactive Learning Cartoons under development by Windy Hill Productions, "Menlo the Frog" was designed to impart solid educational concepts and true interactivity within the first real application of television-quality animation. "In creating the first title in this new category, we were able to meet our goal of delivering an original fairy tale that not only entertains young children, but also enlightens them with early-learning music methodology," Marshall added.

Television-Quality Animation and Layered Sound Deliver Old-Time Cartoon Fluidity

While hand-drawing cartoons is cost-prohibitive today, the "Menlo the Frog" developers found ways to bring back the fluidity and quality of the old-time cartoons using the latest computer technologies in animation and sound. Utilizing WinG, a graphics acceleration tool from Microsoft, the "Menlo the Frog" development team was able to animate and then quickly and smoothly move many large chunks of graphics as part of the program play.

A new proprietary lip-synching technology called LooseLips from Presage Software Development further contributed to the lifelikeness of the characters by matching the digitized recordings of their dialogue to their mouth movements and automatically creating, by computer, the output animation art that matched the dialogue. Using Presage's proprietary editor, Pleditor, the artwork was then finely tuned to match the nuances of the dialogue, thus delivering lip synchronization that equals the quality of old-time hand drawn cartoons at a fraction of the cost.

Together, all these tools provide the characters with a fluid, TV cartoon-like quality that make them seem more lifelike than ever, enriching the product with virtually unmatched quality and cinematic performance.

Advanced Sound Mixing Makes "Menlo" Sound Better Than Ever

In the past, sounds had to be utilized one-at-a-time in multimedia applications, often making for odd sequences where background noise stopped so that characters could converse. With the use of a new tool from Microsoft called WaveMix, Menlo's creators were able to layer sounds to create a rich depth of sound, more like a motion picture than a children's edutainment title.

This advanced wave mixing technology allows sounds to originate from multiple places, i.e., the CD, hard drive and RAM, at the same time, thus enabling the delivery of four-channel sound. Also known as streaming, this technology allows "Menlo" to run a digitized music track, voice-overs, ambient sounds and special sound effects concurrently. Receiving the sound essentially "on the fly" gives the player significantly more realistic sound experience of greater depth and intensity. "Sound is literally delivered on the fly as the action takes place. With these sound capabilities, we were able to aurally and visually animate many things at once, ultimately increasing the fluidity of the cartoon itself," explained Marshall.

"Perfect lip-synching and the full immersion of sound are the keys to Menlo's seamless interaction with the kids," explained Marshall. "There are no strange mouth movements or the absence of ambient background sounds to interfere with their suspension of disbelief."

Intellectually Stimulating to Children in Various Learning Ranges

Unlike many of the storybook-format CDs available today, Menlo the Frog is a story with a moral. This original fairy tale focuses on the age-old battle between good and evil with hero and heroine, Menlo the Frog and Princess Winnicent, confronting the sinister King of Later who has stolen the key to music. With the help of the child, Menlo the Frog and Princess Winnicent must recover the key to music in order to restore the music to their beautiful land. Along the way they will travel through an underwater paradise, a frightful castle, and an ominous swamp, battling a fierce dragon and the evil King.

Friendly Map-like Interface Lets Kids Go Anywhere in the Program with a Click of the Mouse; Also Functions as a Pause Button

Children have the choice of following the linear story through to its conclusion; stopping to play the learning activities along the way; or jumping into endless open-ended play by using a point-and-click "map of the realm" that is always available for activation from the screen. The map also acts as a "pause" button, allowing the child to take a break and then return to the exact same point in the game or activity.

The breadth and depth of the story line and activities are accented by the original characters and music that combine education and entertainment in a seamless musical fairy tale format. Unlike many of today's children's offerings, "Menlo the Frog" is equally attractive to boys and girls. According to Marshall, "While we created the CD with the latest technologies, we went back to basics in creating the story and characters. Our play-testing has found that both girls and boys appreciate Menlo's friendly hero and heroine and are inspired by the story's positive values."

The great depth of interactive activities in "Menlo the Frog" has been designed to intellectually stimulate children of all developmental ranges by providing age-appropriate levels. A great range of options allows children to choose activities that meet their interests and needs and brings a high "replayability" factor virtually unmatched by any other children's software product. Learning activities found in the product include:

-- The High/Low Singing Clams game, where children learn to hear and identify a full range of tones in three different game levels. More than 15 hot spots let children click on sea creatures whose animated reactions provide early learning spelling, reading and counting guidance.

-- The CanBe Critter Bridge game lets children create musical melodies of their own using a harmonically accurate syntax, which is provided through the placement of a variety of wildlife creatures on the musical bridge. Three different instrumentation choices are available as well as a choice between two distinct tempos. A grumpy troll under the bridge helps kids clear the bridge and start over.

-- The Beat and Rhythm Rainbow game helps kids understand the basics of beat and rhythm by having them hear and then play along with the song by using the space bar as the tapping mechanism.

Although children will learn many of the basics of music in this fun and educational program, no special equipment is needed. In fact, not even parental participation is required!

Contributing to the development of "Menlo the Frog" is renowned composer and musician, Ed Bogas. Responsible for composing and recording the theme music, score, and lyrics for "Menlo the Frog," Bogas was instrumental in developing the cinematic-like musical beauty and `feel' of "Menlo the Frog." Bogas's career spans nearly 20 years of varied and rich musical accomplishments, including feature films, TV series (Garfield, Peanuts and Sesame Street, etc.), commercials and video games and utilities.

Club KidSoft Proclaims "Menlo the Frog" a "Winner"

Although not scheduled to have full retail distribution until January 1996, "Menlo the Frog" has already captured the attention and hearts of some of America's most successful avenues to users. KidSoft's director of developer relations Mary Crum said, "We were very excited to see the combination of technological development, entertainment, education and values, all in one CD. Our kid-and-parent testing process clearly indicated that Menlo is destined to be a winner." Menlo the Frog will debut on the Club KidSoft November Holiday CD.

Hardware Requirements

The "Menlo the Frog" InteractiveLearning Cartoon CD (hybrid) is available for both Macintosh and Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 computers.

PC: Multimedia Compact CD-ROM Drive & Sound Card, 256 color video driver, 4 MB Free RAM, 5 MB Free HD Space, mouse required. Supports Windows 95 Auto Play feature.

MAC: Color MAC llci or better with CD-ROM drive, System 7.1 and above, 4 MB Free RAM, 5 MB Free HD Space, mouse required.

Pricing & Availability

Anticipated street pricing for "Menlo the Frog" is $39.95 (SRP $59.95). The "Menlo the Frog" Interactive Learning Cartoon will make its debut to consumers in November 1995 with availability through KidSoft's Club KidSoft November CD and via KidSoft on America Online. After Nov. 1st, orders can be placed by calling 800/354-6150. Full retail distribution is slated for January 1996.

About Menlo the Frog's Creator

New to the children's CD-ROM scene itself, Windy Hill Productions makes its own industry debut with the launch of its first in a series of Interactive Learning Cartoons. Based in Menlo Park, Calif., the company has a corporate value of making a difference in the education of today's children. By designing products, such as the Menlo the Frog CD that deliver foundation-building, early-learning elements, the company seeks to contribute to the overall literacy of today's children. -0-

Note to Editors: Photography Available.

CONTACT: Teri Bruno PR

Teri Bruno, 714/454-8056

Online: [e-mail]