In advance of its in-competition appearance at the Annecy International Animation Festival, the new mixed-reality animated comedy Gargoyle Doyle launched a trailer today. Written and directed by Ethan Shaftel, the 40-minute experience takes place in both virtual and augmented reality settings.
Synopsis: An irritable gargoyle spends 800 years stuck on the side of a cathedral with a decorative metal rain gutter as the world changes for better and for worse.
The project features the voices of Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter, Death of Stalin and the upcoming season of The White Lotus), Oscar-nominated Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense, Silicon Valley, Family Guy) and T’Nia Miller (The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Diplomat, The Peripheral).
Gargoyle Doyle is a stylistic follow-up to Shaftel’s previous animated VR comedy experiences Ajax All Powerful (Annecy 2020, Tribeca 2020), about a genie negotiating wishes with a lawyer, starring Henry Winkler and Chris Parnell; and Kaiju Confidential (Sundance 2019), about the neurotic inner lives of giant monsters, starring Paul F. Tompkins and Blake Anderson.
“The goal with my VR movies is to be just as accessible to a general audience as turning on your TV or sitting down in a movie theater, but yet offering something special that can only be experienced in a virtual world.” Shaftel said. “Comedy is a great genre in which to integrate novel elements of spatial storytelling, changes of size and scale, and elements of interactivity, in a way that delights and engages the audience.”
Gargoyle Doyle premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2023, and won a press association XR Fan Experience award from the Fanheart3 organization, dedicated “to the immersive work that, in terms of content, storytelling and storyliving dynamics, best meets the interests and needs of fan communities in terms of emotional and mental involvement.”
Shaftel’s latest creation utilizes unique features of the newest generation of “spatial computing” platforms including Apple Vision Pro and Meta’s popular Quest headsets; including mixed reality pass through, where virtual objects appear in your own space, and hand tracking, which allows the user to use their own hands to interact with the experience instead of game controllers.
Owners of VR headsets can expect an online release of the experience later this year. “We want Gargoyle Doyle to be the thing you start up to show your friend or cousin that’s never tried VR before, knowing they’re going to love it,” says Shaftel.
