Paper Birds is a VR experience from Gloomy Eyes (2020) developer 3DAR and producers Baobab Studios and Oculus. The long-awaited Part Two of Paper Birds is exclusively available on Quest starting today.
The VR experience was partially released back in December, and introduced the story of a young musician on a quest to bring back his kidnapped sister from dire circumstances.
The heartfelt story, which is described as having ‘light interactivity’, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2021 and La Biennale di Venezia in 2020. It features the voices of Archie Yates, Edward Norton, and Joss Stone.
Now the second installment is available starting today, and is bundled with the original experience on Quest for $7. Overall, Paper Birds is said to feature a 32-minute runtime.
Here’s how 3DAR and co. describe Paper Birds:
PAPER BIRDS tells the story of Toto (Archie Yates), a short-sighted child with an exceptional talent for music. With guidance from his grandparents Robert (Edward Norton), a highly respected musician devoted to his music above all else, and Elsa (Joss Stone), who set aside her dreams of being an artist to care for her family, Toto must find his way through the world of darkness to bring back his sister, taken away by mysterious shadows.
He’ll use the depth of music to open portals to the invisible world. And when he confronts the shadows, they’ll reveal their deeper purpose.
Paper Birds developer 3DAR is the animation studio behind cinematic VR series Gloomy Eyes, which was critically received at Sundance Film Festival in 2019, and was awarded ‘Best VR experience’ at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and winner of the ‘Jury Award for Storytelling’ SXSW that year.
Baobab Studios, which executive produced Paper Birds, is well known for having developed a slew of successful VR shorts and cinematic experiences, including Baba Yaga, Crow: The Legend, and Invasion!.