# The Gruffalo Spotter 2 — user reviews

> 20 indexed App Store user reviews of The Gruffalo Spotter 2 by Magic Light Pictures Ltd., rated 2.40/5 from 73 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-gruffalo-spotter-2/id1501152290/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-gruffalo-spotter-2/id1501152290.md

## Newest reviews (2 of 20)

### 2/5 — Crashes and drains battery

*2021-06-03*

This app crashes all the time. I had a black screen half of the time around the walk. It also takes ages to find the footprint sign which starts the animation. This caused a backup of people waiting to do it which made it stressful. My battery was at 92% when I started and it was at 39% by the end - the walk took 40 minutes. A good idea poorly executed. This makes me wonder how bad the gruffalo 1 app was to have the need to replace it.

**Developer response:** Hi, We're sorry to hear you've experienced technical problems using The Gruffalo Spotter 2. We are currently looking into them as a matter of urgency and it would be helpful to know which site you were visiting and what phone and IOS you use. If you have time to email us these details at office@magiclightpictures.com we can support you directly. Thanks, Magic Light

### 2/5 — Flawed

*2020-11-29*

Great idea, but seems to freeze/crash if screen locks during any activity, and also seemed to cause a total battery drain from full charge in under 90 mins (phone’s never done that before) despite most of that time phone being locked with screen off. Hard to explain to a 2 year old that we can’t see the gruffalo because the battery has mysteriously run out.

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — Great idea but poor execution

*2021-10-24*

The concept is great but unfortunately the app does not work particularly well. The AR is too temperamental and we just could not get it to work on 3 of the 5 locations on our walk. The allows the user to auto play the animations, it is a shame we could not force the app to play the animations manually for each location. At the end of a walk we had a very upset toddler who could not see the Gruffalo at the end of the trail!

The app really struggled with bright light and / or dirty sign. I suspect the app was unable to distinguish contrasting pixels robustly enough.

**Developer response:** Hi there, thank you for taking the time to leave a review, we are sorry to hear that you had some trouble while using our app. We are trying to fix these issues to make sure families have the best possible experience when using our app, your feedback makes it much easier for us to trouble shoot the problems. If you wish to get in contact with us directly please email us at office@magiclightpictures.com, best wishes, Magic Light

### 1/5 — Slow & tedious: Moors Valley Country Park

*2021-10-17*

App is incredibly slow and kept crashing, very slow and tedious, same as others that son wanted to see the characters with him so selfie mode needs to be introduced. Also when he was doing what the characters tell to do, jump, stomp etc to wake them, make them dance or what ever, despite him moving lots only one of them moved, he got bored this part needs to be more sensitive to movement.

**Developer response:** Hi there, we are so sorry to hear you had such difficulty when using the app. We are aware that some people are have had similar issues and we are working hard to try and resolve them. We always appreciate feedback so please get in touch with us directly at office@magiclightpictures.com if you would like to discuss this further. Best wishes, Magic Light

### 1/5 — Couldn’t get it to work at all!

*2021-08-31*

Totally disappointed. After taking over half an hour to download (not the app’s fault at all, this was due to signal) I was really looking forward to the Gruffalo trail with my toddler for her birthday today. Unfortunately, after telling me how to use the app, it all went blank. No camera showed, literally nothing. I tried on two of the footprints, then gave up. The concept of this is brilliant, and I really think my toddler would love it, if it would work!

**Developer response:** Hi there, we are so sorry to hear you had some technical issues using our app. We know some people are having issues with it and we are doing our best to try and rectify them so families can have the best time possible when using our app. It is easier for us to do this if we have more information. If you can email us at office@magiclightpictures.com and tell us what site you were visiting, what model phone and OS you have that would be very helpful. Thanks in advance, Magic Light.

### 1/5 — Very disappointing - wouldn’t bother

*2021-08-27*

A bit baffling to be honest. Didn’t work properly, it cancels out if you cross the sign at all (difficult to explain to a toddler!) We gave up after the second sign as it was ruining an otherwise perfectly lovely walk. Also slightly baffling as surely on a forest walk you’d want to avoid screen time?! We had a LOVELY walk and enjoyed seeing all the animals, but I wouldn’t bother with the app at all.

**Developer response:** Hi there, sorry to hear you did not enjoy using the app. We are aware of some technical issues people are having with it and we are working hard to try and resolve them as quickly as we can. We want the app to be fun for the whole family. If you are able to tell us which site you visited by emailing us at office@magiclightpictures.com it makes it easier for us to troubleshoot the issue. Thanks in advance, Magic Light.

### 1/5 — Not fit for purpose

*2021-07-31*

It’s great when it actually works, unfortunately incredibly unreliable though. Crashed a few times and when we got to the Gruffalo at the end it was so glitchy that we just abandoned the app and gave up. If you’re going to give it a go make sure your phone is fully charged as it absolutely drains your battery at a ridiculous speed.

**Developer response:** Hi there, we are sorry you had some issues when using our app. We are currently working hard to try and improve the app so families have the best experience possible. If you are able to email us at office@magiclightpictires.com with more details of the issues you faced it makes it much easier for us to troubleshoot the problems. Thanks in advance, Magic Light.

### 1/5 — Disappointing at best

*2021-05-10*

So disappointed with this.
1. The app crashed every time my screen locked. 
2. The toddlers with us wanted to see themselves with the characters but can’t use it in selfie mode.
3. The pictures and videos haven’t saved anywhere. 
Spent too long messing about trying to get the app and features work. Had my partner not thought to take lots of photos outside of the app we wouldn’t have any pictures from what was otherwise a lovely day out at Thetford forest. In hind sight I just wouldn’t bother with the app and simply enjoy spending time in the forest exploring with my toddlers.

**Developer response:** Hi, We're sorry to hear you've experienced technical problems using The Gruffalo Spotter 2. Thank you for bringing these to our attention. We are currently looking into them as a matter of urgency and it would be helpful to know what device and version of IOS you were using. If you have time to email us these details at office@magiclightpictures.com we can support you directly. Thanks, Magic Light

### 1/5 — The non-working confusing Gruffalo app 😖

*2021-04-18*

WORST GAME EVER. The foot prints were hard to catch into the camera, when we could; the screen froze between each screen play and went of the app😢.We think the problem with this was the internet and it is not very good in a forest. 

It’s a pleasure for you to read this review on GRUFFALO SPOTTERS 2 (aka: The non-working confusing Gruffalo app😖)

### 1/5 — Photos and videos not saved

*2020-11-28*

We were so excited to try the app with our toddler. Had a few problems with crashing but the wood we were in, Beechenhurst, had poor signal for our phone (EE). Took videos and photos all the way round but none saved to our phone. Tried again with a couple of animations, looked like everything worked ok and then disappointed to find we had no pics or video when we got home. It’s a great idea, just disappointed it didn’t work for us

### 2/5 — Unfit for purpose, nice idea, good animations

*2021-12-19*

This is a lovely idea, but unfortunately it is not fit for purpose. It crashes frequently, has difficulty picking up the on screen motion and resets itself if someone walks in front of the camera. This makes it almost impossible to use with any success and turned a pleasant walk through the forest into a fraught and upset-children-filled drama. In addition the children of course want to see what is on the screen, not be in front of it. There is an automatic play option, which is helpful, but it should just play through without interruption or delay. All in all it was a disappointment, which is such a shame because a lot of work has clearly gone into the animation. It also stop working if you lose the signal, which is obviously quite often in the forest. A real shame.

### 2/5 — Could Be Great - But Needs Major Work

*2021-07-17*

Issues: 

1. Only 3 out of the 5 characters work (Not just us. Lots of other people there saying the same)

2. You record one, then 5 mins later you open the app again to do another and you have to sit through the whole startup sequence again. Every. Single. Time. Zzzzzzzzz

3. It’s not clear when recording is actually happening. Had to take several attempts to get the video. 

4. And biggest issue. The characters do NOT respond to the interactive stomping, clapping, etc.

**Developer response:** Hi there, we are so sorry you have had some problems with the app, we are aware of people having some issues while using it and we are working to try and resolve them as fast as possible. If you would like to discuss this further please email us at office@magiclightpictures.com where we are able to help you more directly, thank you, Magic Light

## Most praised reviews (8 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — My mind is blown sooo good 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

*2024-08-26*

Ok so my dad and me went on a walk to do the game we did all of the footprints the graphics were so good and if you go home and trace the footsteps on paper and colour really accurately it works at home so I’m happy I can do it at home know do get the game soo good and epic

### 4/5 — Nice animations

*2021-11-23*

The app worked for me at Moors Valley Country Park. It didn’t crash and I captured videos and photos. It didn’t always react to movements to move the dialog on but putting it in auto play was fine.

### 3/5 — Great concept!

*2021-08-02*

Wonderful engagement for the family, few issues with the interaction cutting out in the middle of use and also I have been to two locations to complete the hunt and both times the snake wouldn’t open despite lots of attempts to scan the posts 🥲

**Developer response:** Hi there, sorry to hear you had some trouble scanning the markers using the app, we are aware other families have had similar issues and we are working hard to try and fix this. If you can email us at office@magiclightpictures.com with the location you were visiting it makes it easier for us to figure out how best to fix this issue. Many thanks, Magic Light.

### 3/5 — Great idea needs some work

*2021-07-24*

We used the App yesterday at whinlatter forest. It worked ok but a few trail markers wouldn’t pick up and we spent several minutes moving the phone to pick up the marker (don’t know if it was an issue with the sunlight as the ones in the shade picked up fine) when we did pick them up if we moved slightly the animation stopped and had to try and pick it up again. A few times it took a while for the app to kick into life and sat with a black screen. 
It also took a while for it to pick up the actions my daughter was doing and she flapped her arms for the owl and span round for the snake quite a lot before it recognised her actions. 
We loved the idea and the videos and photo functions were good but could be better.

**Developer response:** Hi there, thank you so much for your feedback, we are aware of some of the issue people are having when trying to pick up the trail markers. We want families to have the best possible experience when using our app so we are currently working on this issue. If you are able to email us at office@magicligtpictures.com we can discuss these issues further, thank you, Magic Light

### 3/5 — Needs a selfie mode

*2021-05-29*

Tried this out with my little one in Fineshade Forest. I think it is probably meant to be either for slightly older children or, more likely, families with more than one adult and one child.

I 100% agree with other reviewers that this app needs a selfie mode - it would make the experience 10x better. My little one couldn't understand why I was asking him to stamp his feet or clap or dance or whatever because from his point of view he didn't have anything to interact with. (Also we didn't seem to have a "selfie" bit at the end of our trail so we didn't get that reward either.)

By the end of the trail he was beginning to get the idea and enjoying himself a bit more, but we still had problems with him standing in the right place (if he stood a little bit in front of the sign it would cancel the animation and we'd have to start again)

Both these problems would be solved if there was a selfie mode! I feel that maybe 2 stars would be a more accurate reflection of what I think of the app but we still had a nice day out so I'm being generous. It would probably go up to a 5 star review if the selfie mode was an option!

### 3/5 — Gruffalo app

*2021-04-24*

Downloaded this app is a great idea my nearly 5 year old loved it. Easy to use 3 downsides to the app though it drains my phone battery life and hen never had a problem before!... 2nd is my son loved it but he wanted to keep seeing him self would be a great idea to have camera having two options with the pointing to face as son wanted to see and was hard to take photos... 3rd is took photos but didn’t no where they were stored too lucky realised after the first marker and decided to screen shot instead but was still hard to do would of been nice to have the original pictures and video tho. 3 stars as the idea is great and son did love it

### 3/5 — Wendover woods

*2020-10-25*

Used the app today at Wendover woods. It’s very simple to use and has some nice graphics, however it would be much better if you use it in selfie mood- my toddler wanted to see the screen and be in the photos and that’s not possible without being able to use the front camera. 2nd the animation have a tendency to stop if you move off the “circle print” which is a pain as with kids you’re constantly moving! It would be better if once launched the animations lasted a few minutes.

**Developer response:** Thank you so much for your review and we hope you enjoyed the Gruffalo Spotters trail in partnership with Forestry England. At the end of the trail there is an opportunity to take a selfie with the animations, its a small reward for completing the trail. We appreciate your feedback and are always looking for ways to improve our apps and experiences, feedback like this really helps us do that!

### 2/5 — Ok first two, kept crashing for last 3 footprints

*2021-07-15*

This is a great idea and the graphics are super, when it works! 

It drains your phone. I have an iPhone 7 and IOS 14.6. I started the walk with 80% battery and by the end had 20%, around an hour later.

The app found the first two footprints ok but had real trouble recognising the owl and snake, and then the animation kept crashing. My toddler eventually ran out of patience, and we moved on.

The app takes ages to load up and I found I needed to reload it each time we found a new footprint to get it to work, so you need to be ready in advance if you have impatient small children about. Also none of the gestures my children made were recognised by the app so we had to auto run the video every time. 

Also, none of the photos I took saved to my photos. Thankfully my toddler didn’t ask! 

App developers: what would be helpful is:

1) if it runs more efficiently in airplane mode, please add a note to the app to say this!
2) can you reduce the time the app takes to load?
3) if the phone has trouble recognising the footprint, could you add a function to choose the appropriate animation? It would have been much easier for me if I could have just selected it from a list.
4) please sort out the photo storage.

**Developer response:** Hi there, thank you so much for your feedback and we are sorry that you had trouble while using our app. We are aware of some of the issues people are having at the moment with our app and we are working hard to try and rectify them. We are able to help you get the photos from the app, if you email us at office@magiclightpictures.com we are able to help you directly, thank you, Magic Light

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*