North Hollywood, Calif., September 2, 2003 -- Disney Online today announced that Disney’s Toontown Online (www.toontown.com), the first massively multiplayer 3D online game created for kids and families, has received the official All Star Software Award and Seal of Approval for the year 2003 from Children’s Software Revue (CSR). 

Now in its tenth year, CSR's All Star Awards are given to the highest-quality children’s products in the interactive media category including smart toys, educational software and videogames.  According to CSR, these are “no fail” products, worthy of their cost, and able to keep children engaged for days at a time.  Products are hand selected by the editors of Children’s Software Revue magazine.

“We are honored to receive such recognition for Toontown at this early stage,” said Ken Goldstein, executive vice president and managing director of Disney Online.  “The All Star Award is especially meaningful to our team because we are being recognized by experts in the field of kids software.  We hope this award will let parents know that we’re working hard to deliver on our promise of providing a high-quality game which offers a unique, ever-changing adventure in a parent-trusted online environment.” 

Previously, Toontown received accolades from the 2003 Webby Awards as the People’s Voice Award Winner in the Kids Category and was nominated for AIAS’ 2003 PC Massively Multiplayer / Persistent World Game of the Year Award.

Disney’s Toontown Online is a downloadable, immersive 3-D multiplayer world designed for both adults and kids as young as seven.  It is rated E, for everyone, with comic mischief and cartoon violence. In the game, players become “Toons,” personalized cartoon characters, who join together to save the world from the evil Cogs, a tightly wound group of business robots unleashed by an unsuspecting Scrooge McDuck.  All Toons quickly discover that the Cogs are attempting to turn the colorful lands of Toontown into a black and white metropolis of skyscrapers and businesses.   Since Cogs can’t take a joke, Toons confront them with gags, such as squirting flowers and a pie in the face.  The game allows participants to play together, communicate in a safe environment, and undertake challenging quests.

Toontown is currently available online at www.toontown.com for $9.95 per month.  Longer memberships are available at reduced rates.  A retail version of Disney’s Toontown Online will be available beginning in October 2003.  The manufacturers suggested retail price will be $9.95 for a Toontown Online CD-Rom and a one-month membership card.  

Disney Online
Disney Online (www.disney.com) produces the number one kids' entertainment and family community destinations on the Internet that consistently reflects the magic that has come to be expected of Disney. Its “neighborhoods”, specifically designed for each member of the family, include Disney's Blast (www.disneyblast.com) and Disney’s Toontown Online (www.Toontown.com), both premium subscription services, as well as Disney Store, Destinations, Playhouse Disney, Kids Island, Entertainment, FamilyFun and Main Street Merchants.

Disney Online also produces FamilyFun.com (www.familyfun.com), the premier online family resource for great ideas, practical advice and fun stuff to do, and Movies.com (www.movies.com), a leading site that provides a broad array of reviews and information to help movie fans make the right choice on movie night. Disney Online is a part of The Walt Disney Internet Group, which provides integrated strategic and operational Internet services for The Walt Disney Company's (NYSE:DIS) Internet initiatives.

Children’s Software Revue

Children's Software Revue (CSR) attempts to help adults leverage the power of technology to support the development of children ages birth to 16 by providing timely, accurate reviews of commercial interactive products, including educational software, videogames, smart toys and web sites. CSR is a print periodical (6 issues per year) and web site (www.childrenssoftware.com), and is published and owned by Active Learning Associates, Inc., a privately held corporation located in Flemington, NJ. The editors are the principals in the company. There are no outside investors. The first issue of CSR was printed in October of 1993 following ten years of research on software design by CSR's editor, Warren Buckleitner at the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. As educational psychologists, the editors’ expertise is in evaluating the quality of the interaction between the child and the electronic experience.