Confession: I still like to color. I’m not ashamed of it. I stare at a computer screen for the majority of the day, and usually at a television screen for the other hours I’m not sleeping, so having something analog to do every once in a while probably just helps my brain not melt. Being the nostalgic person I am, every once in a while I think to go buy some coloring books and a fresh pack of Crayolas. Luckily my wife enjoys it too and doesn’t think I’m crazy.

When I was preparing the art for our Top Hat Sasquatch shirts, I realized I could totally make a coloring sheet with our mascot, and I got way too excited. That combined with the new TMNT coloring books I ordered on Amazon, and I was apparently back into coloring.

Then I realized that I’d never bought coloring books online before, and that there had to be a bunch of weird, random, and awesome coloring books that would be way more fun than picking up a Hello Kitty or Dark Knight Rises book at the store. Yeah, turns out there are.

So, here are the 10 weirdest coloring books I found on Amazon. I use weird in the best way possible, so no offense to any of the authors. I run a site called Top Hat Sasquatch anyway, so who am I to talk?
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The fact that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is about to become a hugely marketed property again is finally starting to sink in with me. Everyone loves the new action figures from Nickelodeon and Playmates, and what we’ve seen of the new cartoon looks promising, but I hadn’t even thought about all the other merchandise that is going to be hitting stores very soon.

I was trolling Amazon looking for new TMNT stuff today and found a ton of new kids books. Some are available now, and some say they will be released in January, but I bet they’ll become available a lot sooner than that. If me adding a bunch of coloring books, age 5 and up chapter books, and stickers to my cart isn’t evidence that I’m ready for Turtle Mania Volume II, I don’t know what is.

My wife and I don’t have any kids yet, but that might change in a couple years and that’s a good enough excuse for me to load up on kids TMNT books. Besides, the cover art looks pretty sweet, and who doesn’t enjoy coloring?

Some of the books I found are: Read More

It’s been 10 years since the original Spider-Man hit theaters and helped kick off the superhero movie craze. Many older fans are wondering why we need a reboot of the franchise so soon, but for younger fans, this could very well be the first time they’ve seen the web-slinger on the big screen. And if they love the new take on Peter Parker’s adventures, they might want to check out The Amazing Spider-Man AR (Augmented Reality) Storybook for iOS.

The Story

I haven’t seen the movie yet – I’m more of a second weekend of release type of guy – but I have been reading some of the reviews, so I know the general gist of the plot. From what I’ve gathered, the AR storybook covers about the first half of the movie, ending with Peter saving cars full of people from falling over a bridge. There is a hint that something strange and nefarious has caused the cars to go over the side, but we don’t actually see what that thing is. I can only assume it’s the Lizard, but he doesn’t appear anywhere in the book.

On the one hand, this seems like an odd choice. The story seems to stop just as it’s starting to get good, especially for young, action-hungry fans. But on the other hand, maybe the Lizard would be just a little bit too scary for some really young ebook readers. I know that as the father of a 4-year old with a vivid imagination, seeing photos of the Lizard would probably result in a few late-night visits with stories of the bad green man in her dreams. So while I’d be disappointed if I was a seven-year old reading the book, but it’s probably wise for Marvel to err on the side of caution than face the wrath of sleep-deprived parents complaining that their ebook is too scary.
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Brave is a rather brave venture for Pixar. It’s the company’s first female lead, but more importantly, Pixar is coming off the lackluster Cars 2, a movie so bad I couldn’t finish watching it and my four-year old has never requested it again. So far the gamble seems to be paying off as audiences are embracing the firey-haired Merida and the story of her struggle for independence. If you’re one of the millions who have already seen the movie, you can relive the adventure at home as a Disney ebook, and also as a motion comic, both available for iOS.

If you’ve read my reviews of Disney ebooks before, you’ll know that Disney does a pretty decent job of getting and keeping kids’ interest through the use of quality artwork, good music and sound effects, and interesting animations. Brave is no exception. In fact, in a lot of ways, Brave exceeds any previous efforts I’ve seen from Disney’s ebooks.

First, the artwork is absolutely stunning throughout. I said before with The Jungle Book that many of the “pages” were screen-capture worthy. With Brave, nearly every page would make a great background for your iPad. Read More

Disney has always been a home for great stories. Every decade since the 1930s, when Disney’s first feature animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, debuted, has seen its share of classic films, including 1967’s The Jungle Book and 1970’s Aristocats. Today our kids have grown up on DVD and Blu-ray copies of these films, but now they can also marvel at the same stories told in a new way – interactive e-books on the iPad and iPhone.

Plot

Both books follow the storyline of the movies quite well. They cut the parts that are a bit superfluous, but keep in the important plot points so that the story continues to make sense. If your kids are fans of the movies, they’ll have no problem following along with the e-books.
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