Big Idea Entertainment plans to expand digital programming for its VeggieTales brand this year. The company has partnered with mobile kid-play experts Playful Own and marketing company GorillaSpot to create more apps for fans.

VeggieTales is the first property to launch with Playful Owl’s Step-by-Story, a mobile app that promotes reading readiness through word, picture, and sound association. Step-By-Story, available for andriod, iPhone, and iPad, lets children create their own animated short story by offering 500 different story combinations.  VeggieTales has already launched VeggieTales: The Goofy Gift and VeggieTales: Larry’s Missing Music, and will release six more titles throughout the year.

VeggieTales e-cards will also be available to fans later this year. ReelCards, powered by GorillaSpot, will create a Facebook application that allows fans to send personalized video cards using short clips from popular VeggieTales titles. GorillaSpot hopes to make this a mobile app for andriods and iPhones by this summer.

RRKidz has partnered with publishers Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Holiday House, Charlesbridge Publishing, and others to launch the first Reading Rainbow app this spring. The Reading Rainbow app will feature an assortment of titles, curated by actor LeVar Burton, and the app library will feature lightly enhanced digital books for children, including both fiction and non-fiction titles. The Reading Rainbow app will be available for iPad and select Android devices.

Hasbro, Inc. will turn one of its timeless brands into a multimedia entertainment property this year with the release of Universal Pictures’ epic action-adventure Battleship. Hasbro will augment the experience of the film with an action-packed line of Battleship-themed toys—both in the gaming realm, where the Battleship brand originated, and in a brand new line of KRE-O building sets—as well as an expansive line of licensed goods, several of which debuted at Toy Fair.

Battleship-themed products include:

• Classic Battleship Movie Edition Game
• Deluxe Battleship Movie Edition
• Battleship: Hidden Threat Card Game
• Kre-O Battleship building sets
• Battleship video game from Activision Publishing, Inc.
• Updated version of the Battleship application from Electronic Arts for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
• T-shirts, hoodies, and shorts from Rocawear
• The Battleship Crew Series, Hasbro’s “behind-the-scenes” apparel and accessories collection inspired by the gear worn by the filmmakers and crew, features exclusive fashions from New Era and Red Monkey Designs

In addition, Hasbro is working with licensees around the globe to bring to market an amazing array of lifestyle products in key categories that will resonate with consumers worldwide. Products will range from T-shirts and caps to costumes, backpacks, and publishing from licensees including Disguise and Random House.

Warner Bros. Consumer and ScrollMotion introduced DC Super Friends’ first-ever interactive storybook app, DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas, for iPad, available exclusively on the App store.

This interactive reader app features tap-able surprises, puzzles, digital coloring pages, sticker activities, and hidden DC Super Friends points that users can collect to receive an in-app reward, an exclusive email-able holiday postcard. The app also includes professional narration, sound effects, word highlighting, and record-your-own audio.

ScrollMotion Kids’ stickers feature enables kids to create their own superhero scenes by placing digital DC Super Friends stickers atop animated backgrounds. Children can use multi-touch to grow, shrink, and spin the characters, and can also save and share their creations. Additionally, users can personalize their app by taking a photo with the DC Super Friends or importing a picture from Photos.

DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas is made available through ScrollMotion Kids’ platform. Children acquire knowledge best through discovery and play, and ScrollMotion Kids apps provide hands-on interactivity to promote learning through technology.

To celebrate the launch, a 99 cents promotional sale of DC Super Friends: Race to Save Christmas app will take place November 29 through December 4 on the App store. iPad users can now download at http://j.mp/DCSFXMAS.

CNNMoney.com’s Parija Kavilanz wrote a story on Angry Birds back to school items, calling it the hot new trend. And: of course it is! The introduction of Angry Birds licensed merchandise dovetails perfectly with back to school. (Angry Birds back to school merchandise is available to preorder.) According to the story, sales of Angry Birds-related goods have risen 500 percent in the past five months.

As we’ve written before, while back-to-school spending will likely ebb this year, licensed products are the natural exception. Licensing is a stable industry because it has the tendency to break the curve when consumers are pinching their pennies. The entire children’s television industry is built upon this foundation, and its dominance is unquestioned as a supplier of licensed product. Angry Birds, which we covered extensively in our spring issue, has fought its way into a fairly prestigious club. It’s a brand for people of all ages, the Super Mario Bros. of its time.

Will it have the staying power of Super Mario Bros.? Only time will tell. It’s one thing to reach the mountaintop, but it’s another thing to stay there. Survival is tough, and no one survives by accident. Angry Birds netted $42 million in March on the strength of the game’s performance—do they have a Super Mario Bros. 2 up their sleeve? We’re not talking about Angry Birds Rio. We’re talking about a game that builds upon the gameplay and themes of the original to create something entirely new and exciting.

This back-to-school season figures to be Angry Birds’ moment, and the property is still exploding. Last week, TCC signed a deal to undertake worldwide retail loyalty promotions for the property in supermarkets, hypermarkets, drug stores, health and beauty chains, and more.

New Street Fighter Animated Film Set for September Release

A new Street Fighter animated film, Street Fighter: The New Challengers, will be released September 6, Pacific Entertainment Corp. announced.

The film will be released as a standalone DVD or offered in a special collector bundle package that includes Capcom’s Street Fighter IV PC Game.

—Bryan Joiner

I’ve heard that young children quickly pick up on the swipe and touch techniques of iPads and smartphones. A friend of mine frequently updates Facebook with stories of his toddler son’s video game mastery. Baby Genius knows young kids have a knack for technology and is adding a learning experience to kids’ fascination with touch-screen devices.

Baby Genius now has iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad apps available for free from the Apple App Store. These two apps, MyPal Temp and MyPal Frankie, are musical games in the style of “Simon Says,” teaching children memory skills. Frankie and Tempo repeat anything the tot or parent says. The apps also allow users to record videos and share them on Facebook, YouTube, or email.

While teaching any kid the game of “Simon Says” has its own potentially obnoxious consequences, channeling children’s craze for games on the latest devices into intellectually enthralling experiences seems worthwhile.

—Melissa Tinklepaugh

I could be a bit taller. Your house is probably cleaner than mine. Your car is definitely nicer. (I don’t own one.) You probably call your family more often than I do. You could likely beat me in basketball, unless your game is Twister, in which case you could certainly beat me. I’m realistic about my abilities.

I can, however, say this: I will beat you in Fruit Ninja.

That’s not quite right: I’ll humiliate you. I’ll cut virtual fruit like you’ve never seen it cut before, and likely never will again. The Angry Birds only got angry after watching me play. They thought they were so good, especially boomerang bird. They weren’t.

I’m happy to announce, then, that Halfbrick Studios has signed multiple licensing deals for Fruit Ninja. They’ve teamed with Hybrid for apparel, Loungefly and Basic Fun for accessories, Bioworld for accessories and bags, and MJC for men’s and women’s family sleepwear.

That’s the good news. The bad news in that the time it took you to read this I probably just got another high score. Unless it’s during work hours. In which case I definitely didn’t, nope, not at all, no ma’am.

—Bryan Joiner