GRIMM'S RAPUNZEL

Visually unique with engaging computer-generated graphics and thrilling transitions between a virtual book and pop-up playsets, this take on long-haired Rapunzel's tower imprisonment just misses enhancing the well-worn tale by veering too far from the original story. The 3-D employed in the service of this app isn't the kind viewed with special glasses; instead it's the 3-D graphic effects common in video games and computer-animated movies and TV shows. Used here, the effects turn a digital representation of a fairy-tale book into a moving, animated pop-up paradise where trees, hills and objects readers can manipulate with their fingers spring from the pages. In between lightly illustrated pages of old-timey text are the interactive pages, which invite readers to grow flowers for Rapunzel's mother, assist a prince on his quest to find the trapped princess and even drop vegetables into a pot for a romantic dinner. Strangely, there are no interactive pages or mini-games involving Rapunzel's famous hair, a glaring omission. If only the story were as imaginative and full of flair as the beautifully rendered pop-up pages (which themselves seem oddly middle-American next to the old-fashioned look of the text). Instead, this version of the Brothers Grimm story is altered and truncated, exiting on a limp happy ending: The witch gives up Rapunzel without much of a fight, and, except for a brief detour to the Desert of Doom, there's not much adversity to overcome. Disappointing. (iPad storybook app. 3-10)