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Disney's 'top secret' Frozen 2 VR short is heading to Sundance this month

The move signals Disney Animation Studios is willing to venture its most valuable franchises into the burgeoning virtual reality medium.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
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Joan E. Solsman
2 min read
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The Frozen 2 virtual-reality short is only the second VR film from Disney. 

Disney

Walt Disney Animation Studios will show off its second virtual-reality project -- a VR short film based on Frozen 2 -- on the sidelines of the the Sundance Film Festival later this month in Park City, Utah. Titled Myth: A Frozen Tale, it's only the second time Disney Animation has ventured into VR storytelling, and it's the first time Disney Animation has moved one of its blockbuster franchises into a VR short film. 

Myth debuted in November at the world premiere of Frozen 2 in Los Angeles but hasn't been released widely. At Sundance, movie-industry insiders and press will get a chance to experience it. 

Last year, Disney exhibited its first ever virtual-reality short film, Cycles, at Sundance, where director Jeff Gipson revealed Disney Animation had green-lighted another "top secret" VR short also directed by himself. Joining Gipson on Myth from the Cycles team is Nicholas Russell, who said last year that Disney's quick green light for a second VR short "is proof that they might not know exactly what tomorrow looks like for Disney and VR, but we're going to keep exploring."

Disney's interest in VR comes as Disney has restructured itself around streaming service Disney Plus, a Netflix-like subscription that launched Nov. 12 for $7 a month. With Disney CEO Bob Iger calling Disney Plus the company's top priority, the Disney's VR experiments suggest its embrace of new tech will reach wider than streaming. 

Disney has shown a tentative interest in VR as a gaming medium over the last year. Disney has produced several Marvel-based VR games and another VR game based on Disney Animation's Ralph Breaks the Internet. Its Pixar animation studio also created a VR project based on Coco in partnership with Facebook's Oculus in 2017.

Watch this: Disney doubles down on VR entertainment