Allumette
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Allumette is a 2016 animated virtual reality film directed by Eugene Chung and made by Penrose Studios, the San Francisco studio he founded in 2015.[1] Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl", it follows an orphan girl in a city floating in the clouds who lights enchanted matches and relives her past.[2][3] The film runs about 20 minutes, which UploadVR described at its release as by far the longest VR film then available.[4]
The viewer watches the story as a giant standing over a miniature world and can walk around and lean into the sets on headsets with positional tracking.[4][5] A preview was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016, and the full film had its world premiere in the Virtual Arcade of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.[6][2] Penrose released it free of charge on 13 October 2016 for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR.[7][8] In February 2017 it won first place in the Experience category of HTC's first Viveport Developer Awards.[9]
Plot
The film is set in a city loosely modeled on Venice that floats in the sky, where clouds lap against the buildings like waves in the canals.[3] Its central characters are a girl and her mother, who make glowing, baton-like wands that they sell to the townspeople. The mother teaches her daughter how to sell them and, by giving one of the wands to a blind man to use as a cane, shows her what kindness means.[7] In the preview shown at Sundance, the girl huddles in the cold with her box of oversized magic matches and strikes one, lighting up the toy-sized scene, before a flashback follows her riding through the sky in her mother's airship.[5] Tribeca's synopsis describes an orphan who "endures tragedy" and, as she lights the matches, "relives her past and grasps at future hope", with the story exploring the sacrifices people make for the greater good.[2]
The characters do not speak words. They communicate through mumbles, hums and groans, and Road to VR noted that the mother and daughter are never given names.[7][4]
Production
Penrose Studios was founded by Eugene Chung, formerly head of film and media at Oculus VR and executive producer of Oculus Story Studio's first short, Lost.[10] Allumette was the studio's second VR film, after The Rose and I (2015).[10][11] Tribeca's festival listing credits Chung as director and project creator, Jimmy Maidens as VFX supervisor, Shannon Jefferies for production design, Annmarie Koening as CG supervisor, Devon Penney as lead FX developer and Terry Kaleas as FX developer.[2]
According to Penrose, the title was an accident: allumette is French for "matchstick", and it began as a temporary name for the title character in a private screenplay. The name stuck as the world was built around her.[3] Chung said the story came from his own family, in particular his mother, who "sacrificed a lot for us while we were growing up".[4] He told The Creators Project that the themes of sacrifice and morality were "very deep and dear" to him.[12]
The look of the animation came from an accident in production. Penrose wrote that an animator showed rough "blocking" animation with a jagged, stop-motion quality, and the team found that it made the characters seem to live in a miniature, hand-crafted world, so the stepped style was kept for the film.[3] Chung told UploadVR that animation had to be checked in a headset constantly, because a motion that works on a flat screen at one angle can look very different in VR.[4] Penrose built its projects with Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4, and Chung described it to Fortune as "the longest experience of its type and category in virtual reality".[13] In March 2016, while the film was in production, Penrose announced an US$8.5 million seed round led by Accelerate-IT Ventures.[6]
Depiction of virtual reality
Allumette uses a third-person viewpoint in which the characters and sets are small relative to the viewer. TechCrunch wrote that making them tiny lets the viewer feel like an invincible giant who can lean close to the action, and that the viewer can poke their head through the airship to see the gears turning inside.[6][5] Vice described how leaning in makes walls vanish to reveal additional scenes inside the boats and houses.[12] UploadVR compared it to a "living dollhouse": the viewer can move around, crouch and look behind curtains and windows, or ignore the airship and miss some scenes.[4]
Most of the film takes place on a stage area in front of the viewer, with the rest of the village around them; in Ben Lang's account for Road to VR, the surrounding scene gives the viewer something to look at without pulling attention from the main action.[7] Chung told Vice that the studio was "combining the best of video games and stage plays and cinema", and that looking into the boat was "not something you can do in cinema".[12]
Interaction is light. In the 10-minute preview shown at Sundance on an HTC Vive, the controller became a wand at the end of the experience, which could be used to keep exploring the set.[10] In an abridged 10-minute version shown at a Sony PlayStation VR event during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in March 2016, the viewer controlled a magic matchstick with the PlayStation Move controller.[13]
Release
| Date | Event or platform | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| January 2016 | Sundance Film Festival | Preview of about 10 minutes, shown on HTC Vive[10][6] |
| March 2016 | Sony PlayStation VR event at GDC, San Francisco | Abridged 10-minute version[13] |
| April 2016 | Tribeca Film Festival, Virtual Arcade | World premiere[2][12] |
| 2016 | Annecy International Animation Film Festival | Demonstrated with Pearl in a Virtual Reality and Animation session[14] |
| 13 October 2016 | Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR | Free release; also on Steam for SteamVR and Oculus PC headsets[7][8] |
| 2016 | PlayStation VR demo disc | Included on the free demo disc packed with every retail PlayStation VR unit[15] |
| October 2016 | Viveport | Added to HTC's Viveport store in the week of 14 October 2016[16] |
| October 2017 | 22nd Busan International Film Festival | Screened in the festival's VR Theater with Arden's Wake: The Prologue[11] |
Sony's European PlayStation Blog listed it among the non-game PlayStation VR "experiences", describing it as a "VR movie of love and sacrifice".[17] As of October 2026 the Steam store page lists the film as free, single-player and VR-only, with English audio and subtitles; its minimum requirements include an Intel i5-4590 or i5-6400 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GTX 970, GTX 1060 or GTX TITAN or an AMD R9 290, R9 390 or RX 480 graphics card or better.[8]
Reception
Chris Madsen of Road to VR, who saw the Sundance preview, wrote that he felt a "strong compulsion" to shield the tiny girl from the wind and that the piece connected him with its characters quickly.[10] Josh Constine of TechCrunch called the preview and The Rose and I "gorgeous, enveloping, sensitive, and pioneering".[5] After the Tribeca premiere, Kara Weisenstein wrote for Vice's The Creators Project that the film showed filmmakers could tell "emotional, multi-act stories in VR".[12] Penrose's press page quotes a Wired headline calling it "the first VR film masterpiece".[18]
Ben Lang's launch review for Road to VR was more mixed. He praised the art direction, which he said "straddles the line between claymation and cardboard handicraft", but found that the low-framerate, stop-motion style animation looked like the equivalent of 10 or 15 frames per second next to the 90 FPS motion of modern headsets, and could make it seem as if the computer was stuttering. He also found the wordless characters hard to connect with and the story rushed for a 20-minute running time, and called the ending "oddly jarring". He concluded that it was "really good" but not great, and worth watching at its free price.[7] Mark Coppock of Digital Trends, summarizing the early reviews, wrote that the film showed what VR is capable of for storytelling while leaving the viewer disconnected from the characters.[19]
Awards
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Viveport Developer Awards (HTC) | Experience | First place[9] |
The first-place prize in each Viveport category was US$50,000 and an HTC Vive. In the Experience category, Pearl by Google Spotlight Stories placed second and Firebird - La Péri by InnerspaceVR third.[9]
Legacy
Penrose's next film was Arden's Wake (2017), which won the first Lion for Best VR at the 74th Venice International Film Festival.[11][1] In its company description, Penrose lists Allumette with The Rose & I and Arden's Wake as its award-winning experiences, available on platforms including Sony PlayStation, Oculus, Steam and HTC Viveport.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Our Story". Penrose Studios. http://web.archive.org/web/20260421105958/https://penrosestudios.com/our-story/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Allumette". Tribeca Festival. Tribeca Enterprises. https://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/archive/allumette-2016. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Allumette". Penrose Studios. http://web.archive.org/web/20260421101610/https://penrosestudios.com/allumette/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Alex Gilyadov (2016-10-13). "'Allumette' Is the Longest VR Animated Film So Far And It May Make You Cry". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/allumette-vr-animated-film-make-you-cry/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Josh Constine (2016-01-26). "Penrose Is The Pixar Of VR". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/26/penrose-is-the-pixar-of-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Josh Constine (2016-03-10). "Pixar-esque Penrose Studios raises $8.5M, VR's biggest seed round". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/10/penrose/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Ben Lang (2016-10-13). "Animated VR Tale 'Allumette' Launches Today, Aims For Your Heart Strings". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/animated-vr-tale-allumette-launches-today-aims-for-your-heart-strings/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Allumette on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/460850/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Thomas Gratz (2017-02-23). "The Viveport Developer Award winners are . . .". VIVE Blog. HTC. https://blog.vive.com/us/viveport-developer-award-winners/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Chris Madsen (2016-01-26). "'Allumette' is a VR Film Which Evokes Character Presence in a Beautiful Virtual World". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/allumette-is-a-vr-film-which-evokes-character-presence-in-a-beautiful-virtual-world/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Jin Min-ji (2017-10-18). "Creating new realities with VR: Eugene Chung is leading the way in film's next domain". Korea JoongAng Daily. https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/entertainment/creating-new-realities-with-vr-eugene-chung-is-leading-the-way-in-films-next-domain/10599009. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Kara Weisenstein (2016-04-25). "'Allumette' Is a Virtual Reality Fairy Tale of Love and Loss". Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/virtual-reality-fairy-tale-allumette. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 John Gaudiosi (2016-04-12). "Penrose Studios Raises $8.5 Million Ahead of Tribeca VR Premiere". Fortune. https://fortune.com/2016/04/12/penrose-studios-allumette/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "Virtual Reality and Animation: 'Pearl' and 'Allumette'". Annecy Festival. https://www.annecyfestival.com/about/archives/2016/2016-programme/index:rdv-200001500229. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ John Koller (2016-09-12). "All the Games on the PlayStation VR Demo Disc". PlayStation.Blog. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://blog.playstation.com/2016/09/12/all-the-games-on-the-playstation-vr-demo-disc/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Thomas Gratz (2016-10-14). "First Viveport Developer Awards Nominations Announced". VIVE Blog. HTC. https://blog.vive.com/us/2016/10/14/first-viveport-developer-awards-nominations-announced/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Fred Dutton (2016-10-07). "The full list of PlayStation VR 'experiences' and video services available soon". PlayStation.Blog. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2016/10/07/the-full-list-of-playstation-vr-experiences-and-video-services-available-at-launch/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ "Press". Penrose Studios. http://web.archive.org/web/20260316033944/https://penrosestudios.com/press/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
- ↑ Mark Coppock (2016-10-13). "'Allumette' immerses you in a floating village, shows off potential of VR cinema". Digital Trends. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/allumette-virtual-reality-animated-short-movie/. Retrieved 2026-10-15.