Author and director Jorge R. Gutierrez is finest recognized for creating the 2014 animated movie The Guide of Life. A labor of affection and a tribute to Mexican folks artwork, the film took Gutierrez 14 years to make, and it paid off: The Guide of Life’s stunning handcrafted 3D animation was close to universally lauded.
However Gutierrez’s subsequent mission is taking a special strategy. It received’t take him 14 years—in reality, his upcoming animated sequence Punky Duck was green-lit simply two months after he pitched it to Amazon MGM Studios.
How are issues transferring so rapidly? Punky Duck will characteristic AI-generated animation, courtesy of a brand new AI-powered manufacturing pipeline at Amazon.
Mixing AI and animation
At Amazon MGM Studios’ AI on the Lot convention, Gutierrez was introduced because the creator of considered one of three AI-generated sequence accepted by way of the studio’s new GenAI Creators’ Fund.
The fund grants creators unique entry to Amazon’s AI manufacturing platform Venture Nara, which Amazon MGM Studios created in collaboration with Amazon Net Companies. The so-called “collaborative workspace” reportedly blends AI manufacturing brokers with conventional animation instruments, Albert Cheng, head of AI Studios at Amazon MGM Studios, told Variety.
“One of many largest complaints we hear from creators is: AI won’t do what you need it to do,” Cheng stated, including that Amazon is repurposing AI fashions geared towards social media creation “into usable instruments for the business.”
Speaking at the conference, Gutierrez in contrast animating with AI to “having intercourse after which they hand you the newborn.” In different phrases, it helps you to skip over the metaphorical being pregnant—the event, the care, the funding of time—and get straight to the product.
Gutierrez defined his participation within the GenAI Creators’ Fund to Cartoon Brew, saying: “It’s an enormous experiment for me, and I shall be as cautious as attainable with AI. Artists driving tech, and never the opposite approach round, is my purpose.
“I’ve been creating issues at most legacy studios for years, and Punky Duck, to my full shock, went to green-light in two months from my first pitch. [I am] Cautiously optimistic of what we will accomplish with the assist of Amazon MGM Studios,” Gutierrez continued. “Taking an opportunity on an authentic appears like a miracle nowadays!”
Along with Punky Duck, Amazon MGM Studios green-lit Love, Diana Music Hunters, created by Albie Hecht, a former Nickelodeon govt and present chief content material officer at PocketWatch, and Cupcake & Associates, a sequence from BuzzFeed Studios.
“Crucial factor to recollect is, we’re human-centric,” Cheng stated. “AI instruments are supposed to empower human creativity, and permit TV exhibits and flicks that might not have been attainable earlier than.”
“I’m past upset’: Gutierrez faces on-line backlash
Followers of Gutierrez’s earlier work have been fast to name him out on social media after the announcement, calling him a sellout for apparently endorsing synthetic intelligence after such a protracted profession within the animation business.
“Jorge R. Gutierrez has been animating for the reason that early 2000s, with one of the crucial beautiful, distinctive types on the market. The Guide of Life took him 14 years,” one user pointed out. “How does somebody like that assist AI? He, above all, ought to know essentially the most stunning artwork is human-made.”
“Jorge being chill with AI animation has gotta be one of many worst issues I’ve heard this 12 months, dude,” lamented another user.
“That is kicking the ladder down for all future artists by embracing know-how constructed on the exploitation of his friends’ work,” a third user wrote. “He is aware of higher. Or he ought to. Deeply disappointing.”
Customers additionally identified that Gutierrez’s earlier posting about AI appears to contradict his present stance. In 2024, he’d posted a meme saying that AI’s “secret ingredient is crime.” That very same 12 months, he’d commented on an early try at AI-generated animation, writing: “The factor about generic AI stuff like that is that it’s going to completely make distinctive and authentic artists much more distinctive and authentic.” In 2025, he compared AI to a machine gun, saying it “makes killing straightforward and inconsiderate.”
“He’s so blatantly conscious of what AI is and chooses to take part anyhow,” one user commented. “It’s baffling. I’m past upset.”
Gutierrez responded to the backlash with a controversial statement on social media: “I perceive a variety of you’re glad for me and a variety of you’re actually indignant at me for experimenting with AI at Amazon. I’m going to go away the feedback open so you will get all of it out and hopefully really feel higher,” he wrote, including that he’d report any threats towards him or his household.
Nonetheless, many customers took subject with what they noticed as Gutierrez’s obvious dismissal of their issues. “No clarification or something?? No elaboration on what was so precious so that you can sacrifice your morals on??” one user replied. “That is genuinely such an uncaring response. . . . You betrayed your total neighborhood, and that is what you need to say.”
