OpenAI Backs First AI-Made Animated Feature Film “Critterz”

Jason+ Wade • September 9, 2025

OpenAI Backs First AI-Made Animated Feature Film “Critterz”


Table of Contents


1. Introduction: Hollywood Meets AI

2. What Is “Critterz”?

3. The Tech Behind the Film: GPT-5, Sora, and Beyond

4. Why This Matters: Budget and Timeline Disruption

5. Creative Collaboration: Humans + Machines

6. The Road to Cannes 2026

7. Industry Reactions and Concerns

8. What This Means for the Future of Film

9. FAQs


1. Introduction: Hollywood Meets AI


OpenAI has officially jumped into Hollywood with Critterz, the first full-length animated feature film largely created using AI. This isn’t a short experimental clip—it’s a full-scale, globally distributed movie that could reshape how films are made.


2. What Is “Critterz”?


Critterz started life in 2023 as a short, created by OpenAI creative director Chad Nelson using DALL·E. Now, backed by OpenAI, Vertigo Films (London), and Native Foreign (Los Angeles), the project has grown into a feature-length story. The film combines whimsical animal characters with a visually dynamic style only possible through AI-assisted workflows.


3. The Tech Behind the Film: GPT-5, Sora, and Beyond


The production relies on:

• Sora, OpenAI’s video-generation model, to create cinematic sequences.

• GPT-5, shaping story, dialogue, and character development.

• AI-assisted editing pipelines, drastically accelerating post-production.


These tools don’t replace artists but allow smaller teams to scale their ideas into feature-length projects.


4. Why This Matters: Budget and Timeline Disruption


Traditional animated features take 3+ years and budgets north of $150M. Critterz aims for under $30M and just nine months of production time. If successful, this redefines the economics of animation.


5. Creative Collaboration: Humans + Machines


Despite heavy AI involvement, the project isn’t fully automated. Human voice actors, animators, and visual artists are still central. The difference is they’re working alongside AI—using it as a creative amplifier rather than a competitor.


6. The Road to Cannes 2026


Critterz is expected to debut at Cannes Film Festival in May 2026 before aiming for a worldwide theatrical release. If Cannes embraces it, the industry will have to grapple with AI as a legitimate cinematic tool.


7. Industry Reactions and Concerns


Reactions are divided.

• Optimists see a democratization of filmmaking, where smaller studios can compete with Disney and Pixar.

• Skeptics worry about copyright, labor displacement, and artistic integrity. Hollywood unions are already preparing for heated debates.


8. What This Means for the Future of Film


AI-assisted movies won’t replace Hollywood blockbusters overnight, but they will carve out a new category of filmmaking. Imagine indie directors wielding tools once reserved for billion-dollar studios. The big question: Will audiences care if the movie is AI-made, or will story and spectacle still reign supreme?


9. FAQs


Q: Is Critterz entirely AI-made?

No. It uses AI for animation, writing, and editing, but human creators remain deeply involved.


Q: How long will it take to finish?

Just nine months, compared to the usual three years.


Q: What’s the budget?

Under $30 million—tiny for an animated feature.


Q: When will it release?

The film is scheduled to premiere at Cannes in May 2026.

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It is now an input into systems that decide on the user’s behalf. Choice increasingly forms inside answer engines, map layers, AI assistants, and machine-generated recommendations long before a website is ever visited. The interface has shifted, but more importantly, the decision logic has moved upstream. NinjaAI exists to place businesses inside that decision layer, where trust is formed and options are narrowed before the click exists. At NinjaAI, I design visibility architecture that turns large language models into operating infrastructure. This is not prompt writing, content output, or tools bolted onto traditional marketing. It is the construction of systems that teach algorithms who to trust, when to surface a business, and why it belongs in the answer itself. Sales psychology, machine reasoning, and search intelligence converge into a single acquisition engine that compounds over time and reduces dependency on paid media. If you want traffic, hire an agency. If you want ownership of how you are discovered, build with me. NinjaAI builds the visibility operating system for the post-search economy. We created AI Visibility Architecture so Main Street businesses remain discoverable as discovery fragments across maps, AI chat, answer engines, and machine-driven search environments. While agencies chase keywords and tools chase content, NinjaAI builds the underlying system that makes visibility durable, transferable, and defensible. AI Visibility Architecture is the discipline of engineering how a business is understood, trusted, and recommended across search engines, maps, and AI answer systems. Unlike traditional SEO, which optimizes pages for rankings and clicks, AI Visibility Architecture structures entities, context, and authority so machines can reliably surface a business inside synthesized answers. NinjaAI designs and operates this architecture for local and Main Street businesses. This is not SEO. This is not software. This is visibility engineered as infrastructure.