As a four-year-old, Brian Backus became captivated by the children stories told by Dr. Seuss, a neighbor of Backus’s aunt. According to Backus, Dr.Seuss’s tales inspired him to join the world of cartoon storytelling years later as a producer at Disney Interactive. Now, Backus is launching Kidlandia, web destination where parents and kids can create personalized cartoon fantasyland maps named for the people and places that tell a child’s personal story.
Kidlandia lets parents and kids create maps of a fantasy land, where the child is King or Queen of their own eponymous fantasy kingdom such as “Leenatopia” or “Michaelland.” You can insert family members or friends names into the map, so other areas of the land incorporate family members’ names. The map also features whimsical characters from horned Uniquills and scowling Grumps to long-trunked Yuhoos on the map.
Once created online, parents can order prints of the map for the child, which range from $40 for a small sized scroll to $180 for a larger sized, high quality, framed print of the map. Parents can order the maps to be printed on scrolls, that are easy for the child to carry around, or on canvas that is stretched over a frame to be hung.
Backus says that Kidlandia is driven by what he calls the “Disney Strategy,” which focuses on getting parents and kids emotionally involved with characters and a story line and then merchandising products about the characters and stories to kids who want to integrate the tales into their everyday lives. In Kidlandia’s case, each map tells the child’s own fantasy story, a personalized family story. Backus plans to add additional merchandise to market, including stuffed animals and puzzles. Backus says that there is tremendous revenue potential in fantasy games and toys for children and is hoping to share in a market where Disney makes billions each year.
Investors in Kidlandia include Josh Felser, former CEO of Crackle; Kent Lindstrom, a Friendster exec; and Dave Samuel, founder of Crackle and Spinner.
Kidlandia is a creative idea and the price points for some of the maps are fairly reasonable. But there doesn’t seem to be any integration with the web to create a virtual world for kids alongside the product, which doesn’t make the site very interactive. Webkinz and Disney’s Club Penguin create virtual worlds for children to immerse themselves in a fantasy land, and have become increasingly popular.
“$180 for large, real-life size framed print”
A real-life sized print of a fantasy land. Oxymoron anyone?
Great little business idea.
Really appreciable step for kids entertainment.Good business startup.
finally, the kids has something nice to do online instead of just playing java games.
Bummer…no ‘And a free $180 print for the first 100 readers who enter “TECHCRUNCH”.’
I’m going to give it a try. I’ve got my kids, nieces and nephews into using Geni, but this is a much nicer format for them. We have a reunion coming up…should be fun.
hhhmmm…..
increase the imagination of child
nice…
This is a genuinely a cute product. I bought one for my son, and the map is very imaginative and high-quality. Nice work Kidlandia folks!
I might have chosen a name that sounded less creepy and paedophilia oriented than “Kidlandia”.
awesome! looks great, Brian!
Kidlandia is a great example of how print-on-demand enables affordable customization of creative products for consumers. A smart use of technology to bring a product to a large audience that would have been out of reach for most people just a few years ago.
my 10 year old daughter owns “cartoonsia.com” and we have been planning to build something out as a dad/daughter project.
this would have been a good one. we will probably fall back on a buddypress install…but we’ll see.
Nice work! Now I want to live in Kidlandia…
Slow news day??
I gather you don’t have kids. Why isn’t there more cool stuff for parents & our children? This fills a real need. At least at my house!
Cute idea! “No” your comment is weird – are you projecting?
Great, every time TC covers a story, it brings out the stalkers..
What a great idea for kids! Need to go try it out for myself.
I like the idea. it is kind of cool. :O
oh, man! my kids are going to love this!
That webkins stuff is spendy, these people really know how to soak the youth. Probably a good investment.
We got one for our baby and it turned out awesome (with really heavy canvas and strong colors)- so good that we decided it needs to be nicely framed. We’ve turned a couple friends onto it and they’re going to get some for their kids as well since the maps and characters are so unique.
The Kidlandia site was better than I expected. My kids (ages 5 to 10) used to love to review the names of their relatives and they still like maps, so it’s a solid concept. Some suggestions:
1. Add more personalization to the map; work favorite food, hobbies, other specifics into the scroll text.
2. Add personalized story books to the product line; books make better gifts than wall hangings and can help develop the Kidlandia characters.
3. Add a castle that can be furnished (like rooms on Webkinz) which will keep kids coming back and drive merchandise sales.
4. Promote the site via mom bloggers; start an affiliate program to entice them.
Overall, good concept and easy-to-use site. I will recommend Kidlandia and follow its progress.
My kids love their maps, and they are very different ages. The twins are 3 and the eldest is nearly 8. We are all fascinated, actually — even my husband, myself, and visiting friends.
These maps are incredibly cool. I’ve bought a few now for the kids of some close friends and family.
They’re amazing art and a great way for a kid to see all the important people in her/his life in one fun place. They make great conversation starters for kids to relate to all the people they know and love in their lives.
From the photos, it’s hard to see just how beautiful these maps are. They’re great!