An AI-Made Animated Feature Film Backed By OpenAI Is Premiering Next Year The feature-length movie, called "Critterz," is being made mainly with AI tools and is expected to debut at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- OpenAI is backing a new AI-made, animated movie called "Critterz," which follows the journey of forest creatures who leave their home.
- "Critterz" will be introduced at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026.
- The film is expected to be more time- and cost-effective to make than a traditional animated movie.
A new animated movie made mainly with AI could challenge the time and resources it takes to put together a Hollywood production.
According to a Sunday report from The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is giving its tools and computing resources to a new feature-length movie called "Critterz," which follows the journey of forest creatures who embark on a quest after a stranger intrudes on their home.
Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI, conceptualized "Critterz" three years ago while experimenting with OpenAI's image generation tool Dall-E. It was originally a short film funded by OpenAI that was released in 2023. Nelson has since joined forces with movie production companies in London and Los Angeles to make his vision of a feature film a reality. It's unclear if OpenAI will be marketing the full-length movie.
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Nelson says that the film will demonstrate what OpenAI's tools can do, creating a highly visible (the plan is to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May) use case for the technology.
"OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it's much more impactful if someone does it," Nelson told WSJ. "That's a much better case study than me building a demo."
After being introduced at Cannes, "Critterz" is expected to be released in theaters globally next year. In a press release on Monday, Vertigo Films said the film will be funded by Vertigo's Paris-based parent company, Federation Studios.
With a budget of less than $30 million, the movie would cost less to make than a standard Hollywood film. For reference, major Hollywood productions like Disney's "Tangled" cost over $200 million to create, while the studio's "Tarzan" cost $130 million. If successful, it could cause Hollywood to take notice and use AI for future films.
"Critterz" would also take less time to produce: The production team is aiming to create it in nine months instead of the standard three to four years. Production has started, with casting decisions aiming to go out within the next few weeks.
Other Hollywood studios have already begun experimenting with AI. In July, Netflix disclosed that it had used AI to generate a scene on an Argentine TV show called "El Eternauta." Meanwhile, Disney has experimented with tapping into AI to create clones or digital body doubles of actors.
Entertainment companies have also pushed back against unauthorized AI use. In June, Disney and Universal filed the first major Hollywood lawsuit against AI startup Midjourney, alleging that the startup copied its characters from copyrighted works without permission.
