It is an intentionally skeuomorphic design, critical to its entertainment value as a toy. A simple box with a play button would not fulfill the same goals.
Toys should have educational as well as entertainment value; this is because playfulness in young mammals (including humans) is a preparation for adulthood. The old toy achieved this as it was a mechanical machine for making sound.
The new one is just a fake, a lie. The only thing it teaches kids is that technology is incomprehensible magic that they shouldn't try to understand, a form of learned helplessness where people only rights/abilities with respect to technology is to buy it from big corporations. This is contemptible and disgusting.
