La Fabbrica delle Storie is a nice green box with yellow buttons. From his loudspeaker they come out stories – interactive – for children. It was created by the French designer Maelle Chassard, who together with three friends – and with the help of crowdfunding – then founded the start-up Lunii in 2006. It is the beginning of a beautiful fairy tale: they have since been sold over a million pieces of its talking box.
Operation is really simple. Let’s talk about asoft interactivity, not binding, light years away from that required by a video game or tablet. A three-year-old child is able to learn this in a short time. Once the storyteller is turned on, it appears on the surface of the green box la bright silhouette of the protagonist of a story. You can confirm the first character proposed, or you can turn the larger yellow knob to choose another one. The operation, then, is repeated three more times to determine the place where the story will take place, who will meet the protagonist and what will be the object around which the story will revolve.
There are no other visual stimuli or other distractions. Once the choices have been made, you can actually only turn the volume up or down or stop the story. The writer received a Stories Factory as a trial on the occasion of the arrival of the stories on Lunii Disney from “Mickey and his friends“. You can choose characters such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Pluto and Donald Duck. And you can build them up to 12 audio stories different. The product immediately passed the most demanding test: distracting a three-and-a-half-year-old girl from the hassles of a high fever. The magic of stories has pampered her. When the fever passed, the tales have long captured her attention.
The storyteller of Lunii it has no wi-fi or bluetooth. They are not a lack but a choice in favor of the health of the little ones. The management of the stories is entrusted to a platform from which download (for a fee) the albums more suitable for their children: there are adventure stories, bedtime stories and even educational paths such as those that take up the cartoon “That’s how we are done” to discover the human body.
Il catalog of Lunii audio stories it is rich and well divided between contents for ‘small’, ‘medium’ and ‘large’. In fact, there are albums that are also suitable for 8-year-olds (the recommended age limit): an example is “Le storie fantastiche del signor Rockteller” inspired by music legends like David Bowie and Beatles. Lunii has developed a real one over the years publishing house that aims at inclusiveness. A few months ago the French startup added a new album called “The Bright”a story written by Afro-feminist author Laura Nsafou about magic and a group of women living in African deserts.
“We work with authors, actors, studios and sound designers to create a catalog of stories that develops auditory memory, enriches imagination, culture and vocabulary, thanks to a totally immersive autonomous audio path” said the founder and CEO of Lunii, Maelle Chassard .
The cost of each album is around 10 euros but it can also go up to 15 euros if the stories are particularly numerous or long. The Mickey Mouse album, which has just been released, costs 11.90 euros, for example.
Il language adopted by narrating voices is sometimes too refined, but never so complex as to compromise the understanding of the story itself. If desired, parents can record a story with their own voice. And then transfer it to the storyteller – as you do with albums – connecting the device to the computer with a supplied cable. The volume of the Fabbrica delle Storie is amply sufficient for listening to its speaker, but a more intimate use or in a noisy place is also possible through headphones – sold separately – designed by Lunii for children. Alternatively, any other headphones with a 3.5mm jack connector can be used.
La Fabbrica delle Storie di Lunii is available in La Città del Sole stores and online on Amazon and on the Lunii website, at a price of 64.90 euros. The cost of the device includes an immediately usable story album and another as a gift (“Sweet dreams”worth € 9.90) to be downloaded from the Lunii platform.