Magic Light and Forestry England Continuing the Magic of Zog

Magic Light Pictures announce their latest collaboration with Forestry England – an exciting new Zog family activity trail and a free interactive app,  designed to make a roaring success of family forest walks.  

Using the very latest augmented reality technology, the free app, ‘Zog: A Forest Adventure’, developed by Arcade, brings to life lovable dragon Zog and some of his friends from the much-loved Zog film, based on the picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, as users follow new interactive trails at 26 Forestry England sites across the country. 

Launching on 30 January, the self-led trails encourage children to get exploring and learn more about forests and the trees, plants and wildlife they contain. Featuring lots of bonus activities, the ‘Zog: A Forest Adventure’ app gives users the chance to interact with the 3D characters from the film as they discover how they can care for the forest and how the forests can care for them in return.

Alex Sanson, Senior Brand Manager at Magic Light said: “Forestry England sites offer the perfect classroom for budding little dragons. The new Zog trails offer a great opportunity to young explorers to learn about all the wonderful ways our forests can look after us and how we can look after them. The AR app adds a fun extra element so that children can explore the character, the story and the forest in a new way.”

Ellen Devine, Wellbeing Projects Manager, Forestry England said: “We are very excited to be working with Magic Light Pictures again and are looking forward to families having a new and exciting reason to visit the forest throughout the year. It’s so exciting to see that the new family activity trail is helping children to develop skills to care for their wellbeing and care for our forests! Playtime is so integral to children’s mental health, and they can also learn so many valuable lessons through play. The new Zog trail provides an excellent opportunity for children to get out in nature and to learn all the lessons that little dragons need to know!”

Jon Meggitt, CEO at Arcade said: “Several of us at Arcade have young children and know first-hand just how much Zog means to them. Bringing him and his friends to life in magical AR, and giving families even more reasons to get out into forests across the country, has been one of the most exciting and rewarding projects we have worked on. We’re very proud of the result and can’t wait to see all the little dragons earning their golden stars just like Zog!”

The Zog app adds an exciting extra dimension to the hugely popular Zog family forest trails –of which the first version launched in 2019, and follows the runaway success of Magic Light’s BAFTA-nominated Gruffalo Spotter apps, originally launched with Forestry England in 2017 when it was the first development of its kind, creating a new, ground-breaking immersive forest experience. 

The brand-new augmented reality app, ‘Zog: A Forest Adventure’, which has been developed by Arcade, is available for free with no in-app purchases from the App Store, Google Play and Amazon and requires downloading before visiting. A Zog trail pack will be available to buy on site which includes a trail leaflet full of fun facts and activities, Zog glasses, a Kraft bag to colour in, dragon wings to decorate and wear, stickers and a pencil and crayon.

The Zog trail and ‘Zog: A Forest Adventure’ app will launch from 30 January. For more details please visit www.forestryengland.uk/gruffalo-spotters.