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May 16-31, 1999 MARVELS |
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Toggle'em, Get Tickled Piggybacking on the traditional browsers and E-mail clients, the pint-sized interactive characters smuggle themselves into your desktop to help you, please you and, sometimes, nag you. By Kavita Kaur
Welcome to the world of cute and naughty Interactive Characters (IC) that come to settle on your hard disk via the Web. ICs are a combination of animated cartoon and push technology rolled into one adorable package. Piggybacking on the traditional browsers and E-mail clients, the pint-sized Net-based creatures mostly enter your desktop via free weekly E-mails. They entertain you with a series of one-minute interactive, humorous and re-playable shows, which are often snatches from rib-tickling escapades of skittish cartoon characters. ICs interact directly with users. They deliver beautifully wrapped gifts, steal your cursor, clone themselves, pound on your screen: the list of their pranks is never-ending. The IC Engine What started as a trickle is in spate now. Disney Daily Blast Shockwave cartoons and Spumco comics have already become passé. The New-York based Togglethis' animated cartoons have become a firm favourite: users have to just download the character and proprietary IC engine once (download from www.togglethis.com ). The days of streaming animations from a central server are over, it may seem. But watch out, despite the company's statement that it would take five minutes on a standard modem, it can be quite an exercise in patience. Separate versions are available for Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Macintosh.
Evergreen Favourite The IC rage started a couple of years ago with the first and perhaps the most popular character, Bozlo Beaver, sponsored by the chip giant Intel. The sly beast, once downloaded, resides on your PC and entertains you with its whimsical pursuits. Bozlo is interactive-it behaves differently depending on when and how it is clicked. Regular Boozlo updates appear right in your E-mail inbox as a small script. Click on the file that appears in your E-mail, and Bozlo will automatically appear. You can now view it on- or offline. A recent episode showed the beaver arriving by cab-it not only disables the on-screen cursor but also grins saying "I sent your cursor to Mexico!" Don't get afraid, with just one click of your mouse, you can get your lost cursor back! Today, Bozlo is already in its romantic teens. In the latest episode, Bozlo attempts to make a love connection! It's in your hands to play cupid or foil its attempts. Spitfire on your Desktop For science fiction lovers, there is Lost in Space Robot episodes. The Net's first interactive online movie character takes you on a bold mission: much like its predecessors, it promises to go where nobody has dared to go before. Gear up for the adventurous journey with popular Hollywood stars William Hurt and Gary Oldman in the five-part animated series. It's time to act smart and save your dear PC from the incorrigible Dr Smith. The much-loved Disney's Mushu has also been 'toggled'. Inspired by a centuries-old Chinese legend, this fire-breathing dragon is all about dominion of the heart and spirit. Follow the daring Mushu as it takes on the "bad" guys and finds courage, strength, honour and finally fortune. The going is good as long as you let Mushu do what it wants; one small reprimand and you would have the dragon spitting fire at you! Devil and Pain Want breaking news? Meet Xippy Malone-the devilish-looking blue bat who is also an ace reporter. This 12-part animated series is the result of a tie-up between United Press Syndicate, which syndicates "News of the Weird," a newspaper column that carries bizarre but true news items and Togglethis. But be wary of Xippy, it will try its best to outsmart you and send you on a tailspin. You may think you are the boss, but it has other ideas up its sleeve! Or perhaps, if you feel you've been in an emotional sandwich for long and want to transfer the pain to an online punching bag try Herman. "Hurt Herman," of the "The Freaks" series can withstand any degree of pain. Bob, the ringleader of the series, incites the user to use a range of weapons to inflict pain on Herman, but it does not work. Try every stunt to test its tolerance level, Herman will simply go on murmuring gibberish and annoy the hell out of you. Move on to Honkworm-The Spy Cow. Set in the year 2001, the 3-part series focusses on warfare and food production. Subscribe to this animation and your concept about wars will change for good! Find out which side will win and which will feast on the enemy. Then, right from the bylanes of Hollywood to your desktop, comes the Space Ghost-Cartoon Network's luminary expert. Join the fest as it hosts an exclusive "nothing's-gonna-stop-us-now" Hollywood Hot Tub extravaganza. Interestingly, the site has two download sections-for those below and above 16. Not Just Fun Don't think that playing with interactive characters is a sheer waste of time. They can be great advertising vehicles. At the end of the each cartoon, companies can have short separate "animated" sequences, where characters endorse a product. Warner Bros. Online has acquired the media and merchandising rights to use Bozlo as a promotion vehicle for online advertising. After Bozlo leaves your screen, it is replaced by the much familiar Intel's dancing bunny in a blue space suit. Somewhat similarly, AT&T has sponsored an interactive cartoon character called "The Professor" who describes the benefits of some of the telecom giant's services. The white moustached spectacled prof wants to make your desktop his new lab. The four-part series are full of fun as most of professor's plans go up in smoke-literally! Autodesk rolled off its own animated character, Buddy Dezign, with the launch of Autodesk 2000. Do whatever you want-play with him, drop, drag or poke him but do not mess with his cad designs. In future, each corporate site could have its own IC acting as a pitchman, site guide, or just an amusing mascot. So go ahead, download these cute animated cartoons and indulge the child in you. Say goodbye to mid-day office blues and liven up your day. But make sure that the boss isn't watching! |
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Push Technology has come a
long way from the bland PointCast to the businesslike BackWeb. But the latest push avatar
on the block hardly carries a serious overtone. It's interactive, animated and lots of
fun!! 
Best of all, you do not have
to download the IC engine again and again for different cartoons-the same engine zaps
alive all animations. The list of animated flicks is long in the case of Togglethis, which
offers anything from the feisty bat to the futurist robot. Simply click on the cartoon you
want, register yourself and get ready for free entertainment. 
