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Art Software Reviews

Disney's Magic Artist
Disney

For Ages

See also the Summary Rating Table for comparisons with other Art software titles, and the SuperKids Buyers Guide for current market prices of the PC and Mac versions.


Reviewed on:
Disney's Magic Artist Screen Shot Performa 6400/200 with 32MB and 8XCD

Description
Disney's Magic Artist is a combination software coloring book, and learn-to-draw program, with an emphasis on the former. The program includes three different art studio areas:

Our young testers spent most of their time on the stamping and coloring activities. "I like the whole program, except for the tracing part," was a typical comment. That's unfortunate, because the learn-to-draw section is nicely done, and even illustrates how line drawings are changed to show animation.

Ease of Install / Use
The program installed without any difficulty on our Macintosh test machine. Magic Artist is relatively straight-forward to use, once the user understands how the various tools work -- but a parent's help is probably necessary to get young users started and avoid discouragement.

Educational Value
Disney's Magic Artist provides endless opportunity to explore creative talents. The Desktop provides tools for young users to exercise their aesthetic capabilities. The Lesson Area, however, is the only part of the program which actually offers drawing instruction. But this area is only beneficial for a patient user. Our reviewers found it somewhat difficult to use proficiently. As a result, the most structurally educational part of the program fell short of maintaining the attention of our young reviewers.

Kid Appeal
Outstanding graphics, comical sound effects, and the variety of options within the program will keep users entertained for hours. Users who simply want to experiment with color and medium, while utilizing their creativity, will enjoy the Magic Artist Desktop.

Best for... / Bottom-line
This program is best for the curious artist and the typical coloring book fanatic. To reap the potential drawing education benefits the program offers, users must be able to deftly use their computer on their own, or have someone available to read through the instructions with them. This program is not one we would recommend for the impatient, nor for the easily discouraged. It takes perseverance and patience to use educational aspects of the program. Without much instruction, the program ultimately strives to open a window into the world of cartooning for the artistically interested and eager child.

Educational Value = 3/5, Kid Appeal = 4/5, Ease of use = 4/5
Ratings key, 1=weak 5=excellent

See also the Summary Rating Table for comparisons with other Art software titles, and the SuperKids Buyers Guide for current market prices of the PC and Mac versions.



Children's Software System Requirements


PC

Macintosh
Operating System Windows 95 System 7.1 or later
CPU Type and Speed 486/66 or faster PowerPC
Hard Drive Space 20 MB 20 MB
Memory (RAM) 16 MB 16 MB
Graphics 256-color VESA or PCI local bus 640x480x256 color video display
CD-ROM Speed 2X 2X
Audio 16-bit Windows compatible sound card
Other Needs Microsoft-compatible mouse
color printer recommended
color printer recommended

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