http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/tech/weekly/2580855
Frankie and Bean are hipster hamsters with a penchant for swing music and hula hoops and a shot at software stardom.
Their debut, the Hula Hamsters (Age 3-8, $14.95, 3A Studios, Win/Mac, www.hulahamsters.com ), deserves abundant acclaim. It's seriously funny, cunningly simple, enjoyably educational and dead fresh, in a retro kind of way.
All that and "in color" too, as its deliciously Space Age opening screen proudly proclaims to the strains of a rollicking big-band-era tune. Somehow, both period allusions work.
"Sh," Frankie says conspiratorially. "The kids are gone." Absent human keepers, the rodents romp, along with virtual visitors to a bedroom that's stocked with all the modern accoutrements — of the 1960s, that is.
Singularly lacking are electronics. Instead, books, toys, posters, games and gadgets lying around the room serve as the basis for all the activities. Many work as expected. Others offer amusing twists on their usual capabilities.
Clicking on a perpetual motion gizmo causes the balls to click-clack. A windup rocket sounds as if it's going to blast off. A fish swims around in a bowl. The bookshelf holds classics like On the Rodent and A Midsummer Night's Bean as well as the more obscure Gravity Returns and Physics for Gerbils . (Everybody knows they're dummies.)
Another tome, Gravity Takes A Holiday , is out on the desk, begging to be opened. It's the story of poor, stressed-out Gravity, a magnet with frown lines and the ultimate 24/7 job: holding the world down. He pines for a permanent vacation. But what would we do without him?
The hilarious and illuminating tale of a gravity-free world proceeds in page-by-page fashion, with narration and animation augmenting the words and pictures. After looking and listening, children get to play within each scene.
Clicking on Shecky the Worm unleashes riddles and laughably lame jokes, designed to cheer up Gravity. Clicking on a cuckoo clock prompts the duck inside to pop out and taunt, "Quack, forever, quack, forever."
Elsewhere in the bright, inviting room, a microscope leads to Mini Moeba's quiz game, in which kids guess what extreme close-ups depict. A telescope reveals planets competing in the Miss Galaxy Talent Show.
A target on the wall draws children into a math activity called Velly Balls, a clever combination of throwing and addition. And there's more, as the saying goes, including an interactive comic book, Hula Hamster Heroes , and a board game recommended for ages pi to 99.
The Hula Hamsters has so much going for it, including an original concept, imaginatively executed; playful and yet edifying pursuits; material for both beginners and their big brothers and sisters; witty bits that repay parents for keeping kids company at the computer; the nostalgia appeal of its old-time cartoon style; and the user-friendly nature of the disk itself, which doesn't require hard-drive installation and runs on older machines and newer ones.
But times are tough for children's software, unless it's got name recognition and a track record to go with. Without either, the Hula Hamsters' maker, tiny 3A Studios of Romeoville, Ill., couldn't wring a distribution deal out of a major software company. Thus its first release won't be in stores.
The two-person company is so low-budget that family and friends were pressed into service for character voices, said Marc Pasillas, the content and graphics half of the team. He and Joseph Burza, two childhood pals who grew up on Pac Man and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, have returned to their day jobs in video editing and computer programming, respectively.
The inspiration for Frankie and Bean came from their old cartoon favorites, Hong Kong Phooey and Felix the Cat, Pasillas said. He and Burza bear no resemblance to their rodent creations. "Neither one of us is as bright and cheery as Frankie, and neither one of us can quite keep our mouth shut all the time like Bean does."
Anne Reeks is a Houston-based writer and reviewer. Her e-mail address is A4anne@swbell.net .