Disney's Activity Center
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''Disney's Activity Center'' is a series of PC and PlayStation games released by
Disney Interactive Disney Interactive is an American video game and internet company that oversaw various websites and interactive media owned by The Walt Disney Company. History 1995–1996: Formation and beginnings In December 1994, Disney announced that it wa ...
with each title consisting of various activities and minigames to be completed, using aspects of their licensed property.


Development

Disney Interactive was founded in 1994 via the acquisition of Sanctuary Woods, to develop and market a range of interactive entertainment based on their properties. The company's distribution was handled by Disney division Buena Vista. Ex-Sanctuary Woods' 35 staff in their local
Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...
office became a small part of Disney Interactive's 300 employees, handling the programming, sound and graphic design, and art. Meanwhile, Disney Interactive managed the animation and creative from their Burbank head office. The developers aimed to have a "true and fair representation of the original property", having the feature films' directors and producers working alongside their artists and designers. The developer was one of several interactive divisions of film studios sprouting at the time, including Universal Interactive Studios, Turner Interactive, Fox Interactive, Sony Imagesoft, and Imagination Pilots (MGM). Disney Interactive felt the initial success of the Activity and Storybook games would boost the success of their Learning Series (kicked off with '' Ready to Read with Pooh'') and the first game from their creativity line Disney's Draw & Paint.


List of games


Critical reception

On AllGame, ''Disney's
The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...
Activity Center'' received 3.5 stars, ''Disney's
Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...
Activity Center'' received 3.5 stars, ''Disney's
Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the '' Toy Story ...
Activity Center'' received 3.5 stars, ''Disney's
Winnie the Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character w ...
Activity Center'' received 3.5 stars, ''Disney's 102 Dalmatians Activity Center'' received 3.5 stars, ''Disney's
Dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
Activity Center'' received 2 stars, ''Disney's
Tigger Tigger is a fictional character, fictional character, an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic Stuffed toy, stuffed tiger. He was originally introduced in the 1928 story collection ''The House at Pooh Corner'', the sequel to the 1926 book ''Winnie- ...
Activity Center'' received 3 stars, and ''Disney's
Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
Activity Center'' received 3 stars. The Boston Herald thought that by 1999, the titles had become predictable cash-ins to Disney movies, who would generally have voice actor replacements and the same structure as previous games in the series; the newspaper also commented that ''Activity Center'' games were one part of the triad (along with the "action game" and the "print studio" that Disney Interactive would generally release with each new film). Knight Ridder thought the ''Tarzan'' triad weren't groundbreaking yet fun enough to keep kids entertained, deeming the ''Activity Center'' as a pleasant diversion. The Herald News thought the series was catered toward children and kept them in mind during the design process. The Washington Post considered the games as tie-ins that Disney was cranking out at the time, strictly for fans of the film properties. The Los Angeles Times noted the games featured an online component, though noted the Internet content wasn't assured as safe by Disney.


Commercial performance

''Aladdin'' was the 3rd most popular education game in the week ended December 2, 1995, and 4th most popular in the Macintosh category in the week ended December 9, 1995. ''The Lion King'' was the most popular title in the Macintosh category in the week ended February 3, 1996, the 2nd most popular title in the Macintosh category in the week ended March 5, 1996, and the 8th most popular in the week ended May 4, 1996. In the month of May 1997, ''Toy Story'' was the 3rd top-selling software in Home Education (MS-DOS/Windows), while ''Aladdin'' and ''The Lion King'' were the 4th and 8th best-selling under Home Education (MacIntosh). ''Tarzan'' was the 4th top selling education title in the week ended July 17, 1999.


See also

*
Disney's Animated Storybook ''Disney's Animated Storybook'' (stylized as ''Disney's Animated StoryBook'', and also known as ''Disney's Story Studio'') is a point-and-click adventure interactive storybook video game series based on Walt Disney feature animations and Pixar fi ...


References

{{Portal bar, Disney, 1990s 1994 video games Aladdin (franchise) video games Atlantis: The Lost Empire Disney Interactive The Emperor's New Groove (franchise) The Lion King (franchise) video games Classic Mac OS games Software for children Disney video games Disney Interactive franchises Video games based on films Point-and-click adventure games Toy Story video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Children's educational video games