Two of Facebook’s first in-house experiments in VR movie-making, Henry and Dear Angelica, have been uncovered on Oculus Quest. But, in our opinion, you shouldn’t watch them there.
The short films are available to download for free (you may need to search in the Oculus Store on browser to find them but Henry is here but Dear Angelica is here). Reddit users uncovered both apps, though it’s not clear if they’ll get featured release slots on the store.
Note that these are not Oculus Go apps that you can download from the Go store as you can others; they’re full, native Quest downloads. Despite this, both apps are the same 3D 360 video version seen on Go as opposed to Rift; there’s no positional tracking in either experience. We can’t find Story Studio’s very first film, Lost, on Quest at this point in time.
Henry was one of the first releases under the Oculus Story Studios banner, launching on Rift in 2016. The short film, narrated by Elijah Wood, stars a lonely hedgehog looking for companionship on his birthday. It’s a sweet, experimental piece that resembles a Pixar short.
Dear Angelica, meanwhile, was Story Studio’s last release before Facebook shuttered the team in mid-2017. Built inside Oculus Quill, the experience tells the story of a daughter reminiscing over her mother’s Hollywood career. It was a powerful experience that’s still worth watching today.
Both Henry and Dear Angelica’s Go releases used a 5K 3D 60FPS video player code made by John Carmack. We can’t say for sure but it looks like these Quest releases use it too. That said, given that both of these experiences only offer 3DOF movement, we’d recommend instead seeking them out on PC with an Oculus Link cable if possible. Doing this will allow you to move your head around in VR just like you can in other Quest games. That’s really how these films were first intended to be seen.
Members of Story Studio went on to create Fable Studio, best known for its 2019 series, Wolves in the Walls. Facebook, meanwhile, continues to lend support to other VR movies and experiences in production, though to the best of our knowledge doesn’t produce such apps in-house.
