'Wildwood' Director Travis Knight Rejects Generative AI as Laika Debuts First PG-13 Film

· Entertainment · United States

Travis Knight, director of Wildwood and CEO of stop-motion studio Laika, said generative AI is "antithetical to everything that we are at this studio" and that he hopes people "see the danger" in the technology, speaking as the film opened AFI Fest. Knight said he sees technology as a tool — citing pencils, paintbrushes and 3D printers — but is "not embracing it at all." Wildwood, about a girl searching for her kidnapped baby brother, is Laika's first PG-13 release; the MPA rating cites strong fantasy violence and bloody images, thematic material, suicide-related material, brief partial nudity and language. The film's release puts a prominent animation studio at the center of Hollywood's debate over AI use in production.

Why it matters：As studios experiment with generative AI across production, a leading stop-motion house publicly drawing a line shows the debate is now splitting the animation sector, not just live-action and visual effects.

Key points

  • Knight is both Wildwood's director and Laika's CEO.
  • Wildwood is Laika's first PG-13 film, per the MPA rating.
  • Knight compared AI to tools like pencils and 3D printers but declined to adopt it.

Sources (original reporting)

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