OpenAI Backs AI-Made Animated Feature Film

"Critterz" has a budget of less than $30 million, far less than what animated films typically cost

- Jessica Toonkel

OpenAI wants to prove that generative artificial intelligence can make movies faster and cheaper than Hollywood does today.

The startup is lending its tools and computing resources to the creation of a feature-length animated movie made largely with AI that is expected to be released in theaters globally next year.

"Critterz," about forest creatures who go on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger, is the brainchild of Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI. Nelson started sketching out the characters three years ago while trying to make a short film with what was then OpenAI's new DALL-E image-generation tool.

Now, he has teamed up with production companies in London and Los Angeles, aiming to debut a feature-length version of the film at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The team is attempting to make the movie in about nine months instead of the three years it would typically take, said James Richardson, co-founder of London-based Vertigo Films. Vertigo is producing the film along with Native Foreign, a studio that specializes in using AI along with traditional video-production tools.