Disney's Fairies Get an Online Home at Pixie Hollow
Posted on October 30, 2008
Disney has launched a new virtual world or MMOG called Pixie Hollow that let's children create their own fairy. Children choose the eye color, fashion and hair style for their fairy and then pick a name using the name selector. Pixie Hollow has parental controls that lets parents control chat levels and permissions. Parents can also set what kind of content children can upload and control what they can post to Pixie Hollow's message boards.
Disney has released several products - including jewelry - that work with Pixie Hollow. The International Herald Tribune says Disney's new line of jewelry, called Clickables, lets kids interact with Pixie Hollow.
Each Clickable toy connects to a PC and allows a child to unlock parts of the Pixie Hollow site. In addition, certain parts of the site can be downloaded to the toys and played with offline. The charms are sold in sets of three for $6, but they require the additional purchase of a special USB dock in the form of a watch-size bracelet ($20) or a jewelry box ($30). For it all to work, the child (or parent) will have to be adept at creating passwords, managing an online account, downloading and installing software on a Microsoft-based computer and managing a USB connection. Hey, perhaps this is educational after all.Some of the Disney Clickables contain Tink Points which can be transferred to Pixie Hollow. Other Clickables unlock virtual gifts in the Pixie Hollow world.
Another product that works with Pixie Hollow is Disney's NintendoDS game called Disney Faires: Tinker Bell. This game includes codes that unlock items inside Pixie Hollow. The release of the Pixie Hollow universe and the games and jewelry are also tied-in with the debut of the Tinker Bell movie starring Mae Whitman, Kristen Chenoweth, America Ferrera, and Raven. Rest assured that if Pixie Hollow is a success these won't be the last products that tie-in with Disney's new fairy universe.