Wevr, a creative technology company focused on creating virtual worlds and immersive spatial experiences, partnered with HTC VIVERSE to develop The Little Prince: A New Adventure Begins Here, the world’s first free-roam, location-based XR adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s much-loved tale.
NTT Docomo and HTC VIVERSE have collaborated to bring the classic story to Hokkaido, Japan, enabling families to move beyond spectating and immerse themselves directly in the adventure. This isn't just a movie to watch; it’s an experience where guests stand up, explore, and meet the characters in person.
Bringing the story to life
When HTC chair Cher Wang decided that the world needed a new way to experience the Little Prince, she contacted Wevr.
Neville Spiteri, Wevr CEO, says - “Wevr has long believed that VR’s killer app is interactive storytelling—embodied, social experiences that fully transport you.
"With this project, we leaned into the power of VR and set out to create a profound sense of presence as friends and families journey together through the magical, deeply meaningful world of The Little Prince. It’s an extraordinary opportunity to advance the medium from documentary into narrative adventure, and we’re profoundly grateful for it.”
Wevr aims to match top, passionate talent with the right intellectual property. In this instance, the company found a lifelong enthusiast, bringing in Alberto Vittadello, a creative director who still treasures the dog-eared copy of the book his mother gave him at age ten.
He understood that The Little Prince evolves as readers grow older; each reading reveals new paths and raises fresh philosophical questions. Collaboratively, Wevr and Vittadello aimed to capture that timeless quality in a virtual reality experience.
A shared experience
To ensure accuracy, the team explored location-based VR across the globe to identify the most effective features, with a vision of creating something that feels like stepping into a living pop-up book rather than a typical video game or virtual tour.
Since the experience is untethered and shared, it provides a level of connection that no cinema can match: the ability for grandparents, parents, and kids to explore the same world simultaneously.
Wearing lightweight XR headsets, guests physically walk through 16 handcrafted scenes, meeting 14 iconic characters, including the Pilot, the Fox, and the Rose.
As they wander across asteroids in space and stand in the vast Sahara under a sky full of stars, every narrative beat remains true to the story.
Wevr describes this as the New Cinema: it’s physical, social, emotional, and designed for the places where people already gather, such as stadiums, museums, hotels, malls, and neighbourhood family entertainment centres, among others.
It hopes to bring The Little Prince to more locations soon.
Earlier this year, Wevr celebrated the launch of Terracotta Warriors: Secrets of the First Emperor's Mausoleum, the world's first immersive virtual reality experience enabling visitors to explore the sealed chambers of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's legendary mausoleum.
