Disney has released a very timely new app for kids that explains the history of the American presidency using video profiles, text, art and interactive elements.

The iPad app, priced at an “economic stimulus offer” of $3.99, features more than two hours of historically accurate – and allegedly hilarious – presidential profiles, developed by a producer of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and using input from historical experts and White House insiders. While the focus may be on history, the app also explores many of the themes of the 2012 election, bringing things bang up to date.

The app, subtitled the “Unofficial Oval Office Scrapbook”, is intended for children of grades three to eight (roughly eight to 14-year-olds) and for both home and school: it maps to Core Curriculum Value for the relevant grades and is Airplay enabled “for classroom and home use”.

“This dynamic and playful historical journey is packed with educational content, from homesteading to civil rights, from trust busting to bailouts,” the app description reads. “Moving through curriculum-based eras from Washington to Obama, you’ll realise that history is so much more than dates and documents – it’s the dynamic story of the real men and women who together built our country.”