How long will it take to make a feature-length animated film with AI?

It was only a matter of time: OpenAI is producing the first AI-driven feature-length animated movie, and it has a target timeline that would be unheard of for traditional animation.

The generative AI firm is reportedly in production on a film called Critterz, with the aim of premiering it at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2026. The script is from the writers of the 2024 movie Paddington in Peru, and AI will largely be doing the more tedious animation tasks traditionally undertaken by human artists. While the idea of a computer doing the work is of course controversial, it’s hard to argue with the numbers: Produced traditionally, Gizmodo estimates the movie would take “three times the time and maybe 10 times the money on something that fails in the same way.”

Critterz began three years ago with characters created by OpenAI employee Chad Nelson, working with the DALL-E image generator and intended for a short film. Since then, he decided to go bigger.

“OpenAI can say what its tools do all day long, but it’s much more impactful if someone does it,” Nelson said. “That’s a much better case study than me building a demo.”