When Puss in Book was released on June 20th we tried it out as a family. We did the show two ways. First we watched it all the way through on Netflix but not on a computer, on our TV. This way we were unable to make any choices to the story. It went along the existing track. The story was entertaining but we wanted more. We wanted to have control of the story.
So, the second time around we watched the show on the Netflix app on the iPad. We had a fun time interacting with the story. The kids loved it so much that they went and started watching the Puss in Boots series, something that they had not previously shown much interest in watching. They love the Shrek movies but that did not make them jump over to this series. I’d love to see more of these interactive type programs. The official description of this program and trailer is below.
Netflix will launch its first “branching” narrative title with Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale (today June 20) from DreamWorks Animation Television. Imagine Choose Your Own Adventure books intertwined with internet television. The viewer gets to decide where to take the story next. With Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale, the boundaries of traditional storytelling are being pushed with the opportunity to create non-linear adventures for the beloved Puss and his friends in San Lorenzo. This standalone episode presents various choice points to viewers, granting children complete creative control over some of their favorite DreamWorks characters.
When Puss is sucked into a magical book of fairytales, he must get to “the end” of all the stories in order to escape. But the dastardly and mysterious Storyteller tries his best to make Puss’s journey difficult, using Puss’s friends as fairytale characters and offering him (and viewers) a series of choices that dictate the direction of the story. The viewer must eventually choose between two main storylines – Sinbad the pirate and the Evil Queen – that lead Puss through different adventures and ultimately two distinct endings to his story.
