But thanks to the little guys in the app, we have an infinite supply of letters and words to build and weave together in wonderful ways. There simply aren’t enough positive words I can heap upon Numberlys. I assume this will be fixed in a future update Moonbot has been great about updating and patching their apps in the past. I did experience one glitch: the app crashed on my first generation iPad every time I reached the mini game for the letter B, no matter how many times I tried to access it. It’s a passion they do a marvelous job of passing on to their fans. It beautifully conveys a child-like wonder as each new letter is completed - a thinly veiled reference to Moonbot’s passion for words and storytelling. Numberlys is a storybook in structure, even though it feels more like an interactive short film. The app also comes with a lovely original soundtrack that plays non-stop throughout the story. These little shifts tell me that Moonbot isn’t interested in tying themselves down to one way of doing things, that they love trying new methods, and that they make serving the needs of a story (or an app) among their top priorities, regardless of what those needs may be. Numberlys also gives Moonbot an opportunity to playfully change the perspective, switching to portrait view instead of the landscape view that Morris Lessmore used. The color red is inserted at opportune moments, representing the things that you can interact with. Moonbot’s insistence on crafting Numberlys in a stylized way works on every level, right down to the grainy, black and white aesthetic. You can go through them one by one, or pull down an index menu (an artistic marvel in its own right that’s designed as spinning gears) to select a letter or scene to jump to. A few letters are created in pairs, but for the most part, your objective is to build the entire alphabet, a single letter at a time. Using crazy and clever tools of their trade, they bend, twist, hammer, and bounce on huge metal beams until they arrive at the desired shape - actions that you control. When they go rogue from society and commandeer a massive factory to build their new alphabet, the viewer is invited to join them in their work. Our five little heroes are a delightful crew who have a tendency for pratfalls and a talent for creativity. The animated scenes - and Numberlys is probably made up of a good 50-60% CGI animation - are utterly euphoric, on a Pixar level of quality and expressiveness. You can turn off the curiously Russian-accented voiceover for the narrated segments, should you want to read it for yourself or aloud to someone else. Numberlys screenshotĪs the app plays, the action switches between silent movie-style “caption cards,” which narrate the Numberlys’ tale, and the animated scenes. It’s a pivotal decision that inspires them to create the first alphabet, an action that will have major ramifications for their world. In this drab but fascinating world, we’re introduced to five characters who grow tired of their humdrum existence and decide that they need something better than numbers to express themselves. Numbers are used for everything, including names, objects, and places. In this invented world, there are only numbers. Imagine the world of Metropolis, if it were inhabited by adorable little round-headed creatures with big, expressive eyes, who know nothing of letters or words. Numberlys is a perfect melding of their glorious animation and the inventive ways they make the reader part of the story. I have no idea how they do it, but I hope they never stop. It’s magical the way that Moonbot Studios, creators of The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore, imbue brilliant creativity and pure joy into everything they create.
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