Stray Sheep: Poe's Christmas

(Tokyo, Japan) – November 19, 2010 – ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS INC., one of Japan’s leading production companies and a 2009 Academy Award® Winner for its animated short film, “La Maison En Petits Cubes” , today introduced Stray Sheep: Poe’s Christmas, an interactive e-book App for the Apple iPad (LITE version available on iPhone and iPod Touch).  Based on the tales of Poe, a beloved Japanese cartoon character, Stray Sheep: Poe’s Christmas sees Poe, a small, naïve, independent, and curious ram getting into the most unpredictable situations during the Christmas holidays!  The App, which offers a fun and entertaining interactive experience for people of all ages, also includes two games as part of the e-book experience – ‘Spot the Difference’ and ‘Sliding Puzzle’, both of which can be played at various difficulty levels even after the story is over.  Stray Sheep: Poe’s Christmas is available on the iTues App Store for $6.99USD and also comes in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese versions.

Stray Sheep: Poe’s Christmas starts with Poe waking up to the sound of a ringing bell.  He’s unsure of his whereabouts because he has a funny habit of walking in his sleep!  The town in which he wakes is snowy and quiet, and as he starts to walk along the street, he comes across an electronics shop with its lights still on.  Upon walking up to the shop’s window, he is mesmerized by what he sees on a television screen in the shop.  He ponders, “Who is this man in red clothes?”  Mr. Red (a.k.a. Santa) was giving out presents to children.  When he was done, Mr. Red took off in his sleigh, dashing into the dark night.  From this point on, readers follow Poe in his quest to find and help Mr. Red bring presents to children around the world.

As the reader goes through the pages of the story, each offers a variety of fun and unique ways to interact with Poe and his surroundings.  By simply tapping on the iPad’s screen and/or tilting it, readers can manipulate objects from turning clocks, streetlights and TVs on and off, to waggling reindeers’ tails, opening/closing doors, and getting ornaments to ring and move.  Readers can also manipulate and interact with Poe by making him jump, cry, sneeze, and roll around! 

Stray Sheep: Poe’s Christmas also features two fun and entertaining games – ‘Spot the Difference’ and ‘Sliding Puzzle’.  Spot the Difference is a puzzle where two versions of an image are shown side by side and the player has to find differences between them.  Sliding Puzzle is a game that sees players having to complete a picture by moving puzzle pieces from right to left or up to down to establish a specific end-configuration or image

“Poe the Stray Sheep” was created in the 1990’s by the animation director Tatsutoshi Gon Nomura of ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS INC. as a character for a late-night program on the Fuji Television Network in Japan.

About ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS INC.

Established in 1986, ROBOT COMUNICATIONS INC. is a company that plans and produces visual media in a wide range of fields from TV commercials, motion pictures, animation, CGI, graphic design, websites, to mobile contents.  ROBOT’s best work includes the highly acclaimed feature film “Always: Sunset on Third Street” series, and Academy awarded animation “La Maison En Petits Cubes.”  For more information, visit http://www.robot.co.jp/en/index.html.

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