Ramping up celebrations for Noddy’s 60th anniversary in 2009, Chorion is offering online interactive storytelling application Time for a Story with classic Noddy tales to the 17 million plus users of Windows Live Messenger in the UK. The long-term distribution license is an exclusive for Microsoft, and the app was developed by Chorion and creative agency Digital Outlook, which also created The Mr. Men Show website.

Time for a Story connects two PCs through an animated story that can be used in real time in two different locations. The app launches today with Noddy, while stories with other properties are expected to follow.

Also, to add to Noddy’s anniversary activity, Chorion announced that Sophie Smallwood, the author’s granddaughter, is writing a contemporary-classic style Noddy picture book to be released in November 2009, the month of his official 60th birthday. Noddy’s Birthday Surprise (working title) will be illustrated by Robert Tyndall, whose drawings are featured in a new Noddy exhibit at The Animation Gallery, launched earlier this week.