You may have missed the AI movie Critterz when it appeared as a short animation a couple of years ago. It didn't exactly set the world on fire, with comments on YouTube including “I'd call this garbage, but that'd be an insult to garbage” and “This was the worst 5 minutes I will never get back”.
Nevertheless, it seems OpenAI, the maker of Chat GPT, saw potential in the 'nature documentary turned comedy'. It's putting its name behind the experimental short's expansion into a feature-length movie intended for a debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026 followed by a full cinema release. Will it show that AI is ready to take on Hollywood and slash the costs of filmmaking, or will it do the opposite like 'Netflix of AI' Showrunner?
The original short Critterz film (above) was made by a company called Native Foreign using OpenAI's Dall.E to design the visuals, including characters and backgrounds, which were then “handed to a talented team of Emmy award-winning animators”.
It was an attempt at spoofing a David Attenborough documentary, but the jokes weren't funny and it felt more like a tech demo than a piece of art. It also fell into generative AI's most tired genre: surreal creatures, which was revived yet again when LucasFilm stunned a Ted Talks audience with a cringeworthy AI Star Wars movie back in May.
California-based Native Foreign has now brought in the British production company Vertigo Films to work on the full movie, which is being funded by Vertigo's Paris-based parent company, Federation Studios. The screenplay was written by Paddington In Peru writers James Lamont and Jon Foster. Human actors will be cast for the character voices and artists will be hired to draw sketches as references to be used by OpenAI’s generative AI tools like GPT-5.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the film will take nine months to make on a budget of under $30 million. That's small change compared to Pixar movies, which can have budgets of around $200 million, or even the surprise Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters, which is estimated to have cost $100 million. But it's not exactly cheap for something made with AI. There are genuine animated movies that have been made for less.
Opting for a cinema release will make Critterz a big test for AI-driven filmmaking. If it were released for free on a streaming platform, people might watch it out of curiosity, but people may be less likely to want to pay to see an AI-generated movie at a cinema. And even for Hollywood execs, 'cheap' is only good if it makes money.
It could also test the potential Achilles' heel of commercial AI-generated art. Blockbuster animations from the likes of Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks generate a lot of money from merchandise. But courts have so far ruled that AI art can't be copyrighted.
The studios are hoping that the use of actors to voice the characters and artists to draw reference sketches will provide some protection for the IP. Otherwise it would be fair game for anyone to make toys, posters and other merch in the unlikely event that Critterz becomes a hit.
Inspired to bring your own critter to life? See our pick of the best animation software and the best laptops for animation.
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