An Upcoming AI-Animated Movie Is Even Uglier Than You Imagined

Ever since AI started making headlines, we’ve been hearing claims that it will completely change how Hollywood works. So far, it’s mainly been used in small ways, like assisting in greenscreen editing or tweaking foreign language speech. But generative AI — which creates fresh images based on its training data — has started to inch its way into mainstream movies, from sci-fi sagas and horror to true crime documentaries.

This has largely been limited to dubious-looking credit sequences and other minor scenes, with fully AI-generated movies existing as experiments and proofs of concept. But a major AI company is looking to bring a full-fledged generative AI movie to theaters, even if no one asked them to.

According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI will provide tools and computing power for Critterz, a feature-length animated movie developed by Chad Nelson, an OpenAI employee. Critterz began as a short film, but is now being expanded into a feature with a script and voices provided by humans.

With only the visuals being AI-generated, what’s the point of using the technology? It all comes down to time and money. Critterz is being produced for $30 million, and the team behind it is trying to finish in only nine months, which is lightning fast for animation. The goal is to screen the finished product at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026.

But if AI is just being used to cut corners, then it shows. Critterz, the short film, has a fun premise — a nature documentarian is shocked by the sassiness of the animals he encounters — but completely falls apart in execution. The characters have the indisputable look of AI generation, complete with misformed pupils and strange, clunky movements. Maybe this could be amended in a feature film, but there’s a reason good animation takes time.

At this point, at least, generative AI in movies remains a gimmick, with the money saved not worth the obvious lack of quality. Significant integration is still far from seamless, and it’s likely this feature will look cheap compared to other animated movies. As a proof of concept, it doesn’t look like it will prove much of anything, beyond the fact that children deserve better.