The handful of coloring pages and puzzles supplementing the stills that serve for illustrations and minor interactive features serve as poor substitutes for the original film's swinging (if period, now) songs and lively voice-over performances.
Read optionally in cultured British accents by a single narrator over a background of generic light jazz, the tale does retrace the movie's overall course—though so sketchily that none of the cats, from Duchess and her three kittens to their rescuer O'Malley and his raffish buddies, have a chance to establish much individuality. Furthermore, it's all paced...so...deliberately that many readers will inadvertently swipe ahead and so miss some delayed pans and passages of text. Along with an abbreviated piano keyboard featuring a preprogrammed tune, three (savable) coloring pages and five multileveled jigsaw puzzles provide additional story-derailing distractions. For children with a yen to personalize, the app includes a self-record option and a "bookplate" with spaces for a name and a photo.
Pure commercialized product, offering barely a hint of any literary, dramatic, musical or emotional experience and stocked with a scanty assortment of off-the-shelf interactive elements. (iPad movie storybook app. 5-7)
