The Big Picture Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg drew a massive line in the sand for when The Animation Guild’s contract is up in 2024. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, Katzenberg discussed in a 3-minute video his support for AI for creating feature-length animated movies in the future, cutting 90% of labor. He stated, “In the good old days, when I made an animated movie, it took 500 artists five years to make a world-class animated movie.
The Animation Guild’s Could Strike Next Year Over AI AI was a significant point of contention for the historic WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the latter of which just came to a conclusion this week. The hard-fought battle to protect actors and writers against AI was won in a landmark victory. The AMPTP, along with leaders like Katzenberg are in favor of AI, and it appears that animation is the next battlefield.
Michael Rianda, who wrote and directed The Mitchells vs. the Machines, shared TAG’s sentiment, tweeting: Animation Creators Respond to Katzenberg’s Comments While TAG and other creators were more vague, some animation creators responded directly to Katzenberg’s comments. Helluva Boss animator José B. Rebolledo simply tweeted in response to reporting by ToonHive, “I dare him.”