LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Trigger Happy, the creators of platforms that enable social animation on mobile devices, launches Toon Hero, an app for iPad users of all ages to create their own animated stories using world famous characters without any training or artistic ability. Today, using exclusively licensed characters and properties from studios such as The Jim Henson Company, Hero: 108, Mukpuddy, and National Geographic among others, animated creations can be shared as status updates, stories, jokes, greetings and more.
“For years, major studios have produced their own storylines and limited their licensing of characters only to manufacturers and advertisers. Now, with the Toon Hero app, people from the ages of eight to eighteen to forty eight will have the opportunity to bring these characters to life by using their own creativity and imagination,” says Shona Grundy, CEO of Trigger Happy. “We are changing the game of animation as we know it and putting the power of social storytelling in people’s hands with many of the animated favorites they know and love.”
The highly intuitive app makes it easy and fun to share through social media. While animation can often require years of training, expensive software, complicated tool-sets and more, the Toon Hero app breaks down these barriers by making animation as easy as tapping, swiping, dragging and talking. Additionally, with the application being offered for free and premium characters and backgrounds available for purchase for as little as 99 cents, this animation platform is also cost effective.
Beginning today, Toon Hero users will experience a new way to express themselves through social media that's not limited to 140 characters or static pictures. They now have the ability to share a video that was created using their own imagination. Additionally, launch of Toon Hero gives aspiring filmmakers, authors, and animators of all ages an outlet for storytelling and a new platform to be discovered.
With exclusive partnerships with major studios and brands, including Jim Henson’s Doodles, Hero: 108, Mukpuddy, and more in the queue, the app allows people to access licensed characters, referred to as “toys,” within the app’s digital toy store. To enhance the users storytelling experience, their partnership with National Geographic allows users to have access to a selection of scenic backdrops to be the virtual backdrops to tell their story. For these major studios and brands, Toon Hero is providing deeper brand connections to their characters while opening up a new revenue stream for their properties.
Melissa Segal, Executive Vice President of Global Consumer Products at The Jim Henson Company says, “Through our partnership with Toon Hero, people will have the tools to give personalities and storylines to a portfolio of doodles created and inspired by Jim Henson’s actual drawings. ‘Jim Henson’s Doodles’ share many familiar features of Jim Henson’s most beloved characters and that will resonate with consumers. We’re looking forward to giving the storytellers of tomorrow brand new characters to imagine and create with.”
Coming soon, Frederator Studios’ Bravest Warriors will also be added to the Toon Hero lineup.
"Frederator loves for fans to remix content. Toon Hero gives Bravest Warriors fans a great new way to do it," said Fred Seibert, CEO at Frederator Studios.
Toon Hero is available in 14 different languages and free to download from the App Store on iPad or at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toon-hero/id581413681?ls=1&mt=8.
For more information about Toon Hero, please visit: www.toonhero.com.
About Trigger Happy
Established in December 2010, Trigger Happy develops platforms that enable social animation on mobile devices. Toon Hero is their first iPad app to launch and is poised to be the go-to platform for people of all ages to interact with world-famous characters and background images without any artistic ability or training. Available in 14 languages, people can easily bring popular characters to life to by creating their own stories, as well as share thoughts, jokes and more, by simply tapping, dragging, and talking. These creations can be shared virtually anywhere on the Internet. Trigger Happy is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand. For more information please visit: www.iamtriggerhappy.com
