Disney has never been afraid to experiment with new media. After all, their animation studio has been famous for pioneering new techniques. Still, taking their most lucrative franchise into virtual reality? Talk about a step into the unknown!

Disney Animation has crafted a brand new experience telling the story of Northulda’s nature spirits, and the legendary origins of Frozen II‘s Arendelle!

The new short is called “Myth: A Frozen Tale”, and recently premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Set entirely in VR, this new short places the audience in a shadow-box style world. The Fantasia-inspired tale follows the four spirits of Northulda: Gale, Bruni, Nokk, and the Earth Giants, as they face a destabilizing fifth element… humanity. The largely wordless short is framed as a bedtime story, described by director Jeff Gipson as “a fairy tale within a fairy tale.”

Gipson isn’t new to VR, having previously directed “Cycles”, a VR short about the life and times of a family living in a single home. Gipson is an adherent to VR for storytelling, but forgoes some of the more interactive elements you might see at The Void or similar experiences. Instead, “Myth” casts you as a stationary observer, watching the tale unfold around you.

Currently, “Myth: A Frozen Tale” is only available at the Sundance Film Festival, and requires cutting edge VR hardware to view. There are plans to port it to other VR platforms in the future, and a possibility that a “flat” version might come to Disney+. However, no formal release dates have been announced. Hopefully this new experiment heralds a renaissance in Disney VR content… and increased adoption of the tools to view it, of course!

What do you think of this new venture into VR? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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