The makers of Toontastic figured out one thing; if it makes kids laugh and feel like THEY are creating something, they’ll love it. Toontastic takes this idea and gives kids the ability to create their own cartoons, complete with settings, characters, music, voice-overs, intros and credits. Then adds the ability to share with a growing group of Toontastic inspired kids.

What you have with Toontastic is prime example of why the iPad and kids are a perfect combination….What you have with Toontastic, is a winner.

Toontastic is the perfect app for parents and kids to share time together. After the first time we created a cartoon together my oldest daughter kept asking over and over to make another. She LOVED taking the stories she has built in her head, which are normally displayed through the use of dolls, and transporting them onto the iPad to show her grandparents, friends, and other family members. At first she was a little hesitant to speak, you know some kids and being recorded, but after a while, no problem. She needed some guidance with the whole creating process, as she is a little young, but after a few times through she nailed it.

From princesses, queens, knights, pirates, monsters, and more, she took the characters and made her story, as she wanted. She decided on a setting, a castle, and picked some music to go with it. While the music selection group isn’t huge, it does the job and even helps kids by putting a facial expression with each to help pick one appropriate for the scene. It would be nice to allow use of music on the iPad itself though. But what is available does the job just fine.

Actually creating the story takes practice, as after you’ve chosen your setting and characters one has to “move” them to animate the scene. By touching and dragging the character it moves as desired, even arms and legs move to simulate the process. You can make things grow or shrink, move fast or slow, come into the frame from outside, and more. My 6 year-old loved making the animations do what she wanted. While you move the characters you’re supposed to either narrate or speak the parts of the characters in the scene. This is recorded along with the movements to create a full story. If you mess up, no problem, start again. Once you have completed a few scenes, you finalize the cartoon, and you’re done. Watch it, share it, create another.

The app is amazingly great, I love it, my kids love it, and I love using it with my kids. It’s fun and pretty simple to use after you get the hang of it. However, there are few things on my wish list for future updates. They are not knocks on Toontastic, as like I said, it’s great, but instead recommendations for updates to come.

1. Allow importing of pictures from the photo gallery to be used as a “face” for a character. This would let kids put THEMSELVES in the cartoon. No hands or feet, just a face selection tool.
2. Allow for on the go narration/voice overs, OR after the fact. Right now, as far as I could tell, one has to record the audio while animating the scene…which works fine, but it also hinders the ability of younger kids who have a little trouble doing the multi-tasking. Allow for the scene to be animated and THEN narrated…just as an option…
3. A wider selection of scenes and characters. I’m sure this is already in the works. While there are a good amount of options here, it would be great if there were more. Sure, the app allows you to change the appearance of characters, or create your own scene by drawing it…more built-in options would be great.

Overall, after everything is said and done, these few limitations and suggestions are nothing major. Toontastic is a great application for the iPad, and will only continue to get better over time. Hit up the link, grab the app, and let it inspire your kids.