Interrobang News

A much loved children’s story about a family of dieting elephants was controversially removed from a collection of audio stories purchased by Toniebox owners – only to be reinstated five weeks later, Interrobang News can reveal. 

‘A Piece Of Cake‘ is one of five audio stories to feature on The Large Family Series tonie – which plays on the Toniebox, a cube-shaped digital audio device hugely popular with kids and families.

In the story, Mrs Large – the mummy elephant – announces she is “fat” and seeks a healthier lifestyle for her whole family. However, the new regime – including family jogs around the park and watercress soup – ultimately proves unpopular with the family, who end up getting too tempted and eat a pink-iced cake as a late night snack.

The story was quietly removed from the tonie in early July, “eating” into a 43 minute running time and leaving only four elephant-themed tales remaining. This caused surprise and dismay for many families tuning in to hear the story. It then reappeared last week (August 7) following questions to the company from Interrobang News, and negative feedback from many Toniebox owners on Facebook groups dedicated to the audio device.

The initial decision to remove the story – made on July 2 – followed a single one-star review posted to the product page on the Tonies website, which called for the book to be removed from circulation. The review expressed concern about themes of “fat shaming, dieting & negative body image”.

However, subsequent reviews praised the story – with several specifically calling for its reinstatement.

On Amazon, the book itself has an average review rating of 4.4 stars; and has long proven a popular kids tale. Lyn Gardner once wrote in the Guardian that the books boast “beautiful illustrations, finely-honed prose”, and that readers “just couldn’t get better”.

Tonies told Interrobang News that the story about how the elephants attempted to shed the pounds had been subject to a “formal content review” after feedback – and was disabled as a “precautionary measure”. They say that the story was reinstated to the tonie after a “comprehensive evaluation” – and had the decision been different, that the removal would have been communicated to Toniebox owners.

A warning now appears on the product page flagging that some titles may “contain outdated cultural references, language, or themes that reflect the historical context in which they were written”. Presumably, however, elephants being large animals who should probably avoid fad diets is not a dated concept. 

The decision to remove the story will not only ignite debate around over-zealous ‘Cancel Culture’, but raises interesting question marks about Tonie’s ability to remove audio from story collections already purchased by users.

Crash diet: cancelling dieting elephants, for a few weeks anyway

First, that ‘Cancel Culture’.

A Piece of Cake is a very funny story that gently juggles topics like family dynamics, self worth and the challenges of eating healthily. Discussions around eating well and trying to be healthy shouldn’t be baulked at, but the book’s final message is very much that Mrs Large’s crash diet was madness. 

Kids could take away any number of positive messages from the story – elephants embracing being themselves, that a balanced diet is probably a good idea anyway, or that the family do both fun and challenging things together – or just perhaps that it’s a funny bedtime story. There’s also any number of positive discussions parents can have with their kids after reading the story – or, equally valid, they could just laugh together when the baby says “wibbly-wobbly, wibbly-wobbly” and not overthink things too much.

A fair bit of children’s literature has fallen victim to some form of cancellation, censorship or limited rewriting in recent years, including – prominently – texts by children’s literary greats like Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss,. And while any decisions about the suitability of a book for children should be considered on a case by case basis, anachronistic criticism has sometimes been at play. But – until now – Jill Murphy’s stories simply haven’t been at the races from even the most ardent fans of retrospective censorship. Her vibrant and fun books are a mainstay of public libraries in the UK – including A Piece of Cake; while lovable stories like “Peace at Last” or “On the Way Home” don’t contain an egregious word or theme on their colourful pages.

Content removed from afar 

Second, the act of deleting the story from pre-bought audio collections.

Part of the joy of tonies is their simplicity. They act as a form of physical media that my youngest daughter mastered as a toddler, and are enjoyed by both of my children every evening – after their regular storytime – as the soundtrack to their sleep! 

You pop the character or tonie on top, and it plays. If you take it off, it stops. Pop it back on, and the box remembers where you were, unless you put a different tonie on top – and then the process starts again. The ears control the volume, and a slightly unpredictable slap to the side of the box skips tracks. You can also tilt it to fast forward and rewind. The process is like owning cool, advanced, modern cassette tapes. The characters are collectible and double up as toys – while the innovative Creative tonies allow families to produce their own 2025 version of a Mix Tape.

But – despite this simple, and beautifully executed concept – Tonieboxes are connected to the internet. 

When you buy a new tonie, the box needs to be connected to the web to gather the audio. It then downloads the music, stories or episodes and stores them on an internal 8gb hard drive – allowing for offline listening, and storage of between 140 and 200 hours of content. 

But, so long as the box remains online, a tonie’s audio can be updated, changed or tinkered with the next time the character is popped on top. This works great for collections like the excellent ‘Today with Tonies’ podcast – which downloads a brand new episode every day. But it seemingly also means pre-bought collections of stories – like the Large Family of elephants – can be tinkered with from afar.

This raises some interesting ethical questions. It is not quite the same, or perhaps as expected, as a streaming service taking down your favourite show. When you buy a Toniebox, you don’t feel like you are subscribing to a service. Instead, the individual tonies invite you into a specific collection of songs, stories or otherwise you have specifically chosen to buy – an equivalent to purchasing a book, a CD or a DVD you can keep forever. But that isn’t strictly the case. 

Tonies is sort of a hybrid – the only way to indefinitely ensure downloaded audio can’t be altered is to disconnect the Toniebox from the internet – reducing its functionality. Otherwise, content can technically be altered from outside your own home and, crucially, your own control. The problem is, any such occurrences will leave many product owners feeling like a book store had ripped some pages out of the novel they’d already bought; or the record store has cut a big scratch onto a new vinyl on their deck. 

Tonies’ response – a ‘formal content review’ that ended after our questions

A few days before a decision was made to reinstate the story, we asked Tonies SE about the disappearance of ‘A Piece of Cake’’.

A spokesperson for the company told Interrobang News: “At tonies®, we place the utmost importance on the feedback we receive from our community – especially when it relates to content that may be considered culturally dated or not fully aligned with today’s values. We are committed to ensuring that the stories we share remain inclusive, thoughtful, and appropriate for young audiences.

“In response to recent feedback regarding the story “A Piece of Cake” from The Large Family tonie, we initiated a formal content review. As a precautionary measure, this particular story was temporarily disabled while the review was underway. This review was conducted in collaboration with the licensor and our internal tonies® content team, with further consideration given to public sentiment and community insights.

“As a result of this comprehensive evaluation, the decision has been made to not remove the story. We would like to emphasise that, had the outcome of this review been to remove the story permanently, our tonies® community would have been informed at the time the decision was made.

“We remain committed to curating high-quality audio experiences that reflect the needs and values of today’s families, and we thank our community for continuing to share their voices with us.”

Tonies, however, did not respond to our queries about whether they had remotely removed audio from any other prerecorded tonies – so perhaps one for listeners to keep an ear out for. 

Cloud-based tech: a server-ous issue?

A slight segue, but it’s also a reminder of an issue covered by first class tech reviewer Techmoan in his Toniebox review back in April 2022. He (coincidentally) described it as the “elephant in the room” that Tonies are server-based – so their future relies on the cloud-based infrastructure remaining in place. If the Tonies server was ever turned off, then if your box still works, you can keep playing content already saved on the 8gb of internal storage, and using characters you’ve already used on the device. But otherwise, the wider ecosystem would be immediately rug pulled. 

But while that’s a risk taken with investing in any cloud-based technology, having content you’ve already bought tampered with feels like another issue altogether.

Hugely popular – and well worth buying

The ‘Piece of Cake’ controversy aside, Tonieboxes remain a great addition to any family home, including for us at Interrobang HQ. They have been flying off shelves in the United Kingdom since 2018 – with more than 300 different Tonies available to Brits alone on the tonies store, including some of the nation’s favourite franchises. And while the technology relies – at least in terms of new tonies – on their servers, there’s no suggestion Techmoan’s fears will be realised any time soon. In fact, Tonies SE – based in Düsseldorf and Luxembourg City – seem to be flying; establishing new link-ups with prominent personalities like Ms. Rachel, amid a broader picture of surging revenue growth, profitability in 2024 and impressive international expansion. 

Tobias Wann, CEO of tonies, singled out “new products and strong customer loyalty” in driving customer demand. Let’s hope his fantastic device continues to perform well for years to come – but also that families don’t have to make a habit of tuning into their favourite tonie, only to find a story has disappeared! Park that, and looking after a dedicated customer base should be a … piece of cake!