A film made by hand over five years
Wildwood, the new feature film from stop-motion studio Laika, known for Coraline and ParaNorman, is described as the company's most ambitious project: a fantasy adventure that took five years to make, with more than 230 puppets, 36 of them for the protagonist Prue alone, moved by 49 animators. According to the source material, more than 1,000 artists took part in the film in some form. The production will be previewed on October 23.
The comparison with generative AI tools, which promise immediate results, is the starting point of the interview Travis Knight, director of the film and CEO of Laika, gave to The Verge. The question concerned what it means to release such a work at a time when these tools seem omnipresent.
Technology, yes; replacing the artist, no
Knight rejects the accusation of hostility toward technology itself. The material emphasizes that Wildwood introduces technical innovations compared with the studio's previous films: many puppets are equipped with diaphragms that allow animators to simulate breathing, the joints have more elaborate musculature, and the materials for clothing, hair and fur are more durable and flexible, for a more realistic result. The pencil, the brush, the 3D printer and the computer workstation are all technological tools, the director observes, but they acquire value when handled by an artist.
The distinction he proposes is therefore between tools that expand creative work and tools that perform it in the artist's place. It is on this second case that his opposition focuses: according to Knight, when a system has absorbed material produced by artists and reproposes it in another form, the result lacks soul and spirit, and this, he says, amounts to theft. His thesis is that only those who have lived through human experiences such as loss, bereavement or romantic disappointment can recount them.
Hopes and cautions outside the arts
With respect to sectors other than the arts, the position reported is more nuanced: Knight calls AI an extraordinary technology, capable of bringing benefits in medicine and science, but also potentially disruptive and destructive for society. He says he fears the second scenario and hopes for the first, subordinating the outcome to human beings' ability to manage technology responsibly. The article links his stance to that of other directors who have criticized these tools, and cites as ongoing phenomena in Hollywood digital replicas of actors, the training of models on studios' films and heavy investment in the sector, without providing further details.
Several elements remain to be verified: the source does not quantify AI's impact on audiovisual productions nor document specific cases of use at the major studios, and does not clarify whether Knight is referring to specific practices or a general trend. Moreover, the scope of his statements is that of a personal opinion from a studio executive, not a formal position by Laika or the industry.
