Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Take on AI in Animation
Jeffrey Katzenberg has been a prominent figure in feature animation since the 1980s, with a career that parallels that of Walt Disney. His work is credited with numerous beloved films including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King, and the Shrek and Kung Fu Panda series.
This week, he shared his thoughts on the use of AI in animation via a lengthy post on his verified account on X, exceeding 2,500 words.
Katzenberg acknowledges the concerns of those facing job losses due to AI but believes that much of the fear surrounding the technology stems from this impending job displacement.
He recalls how John Philip Sousa had once criticized the gramophone as a “substitute for human skill, intelligence, and soul.” Yet, after Sousa secured his copyrights and saw financial benefit from mechanical music, those complaints diminished.
For nearly two decades, musicians across the U.S. were employed in silent films, which led to resistance against talking pictures. However, their opposition often masked the truth, framed as concerns over the “menace” of “canned music.”
Katzenberg reflects on his tenure where computer-generated films replaced many illustrators. At DreamWorks, he mentions a challenging shift away from hand-drawn animation to a fully digital approach, a decision that, although necessary, caused pain and job loss for many talented individuals. While some adapted and thrived, others struggled to embrace the new technology.
He argues that AI animation can significantly reduce the time and expenses involved in producing high-quality animation, potentially by up to ninety percent. He urges Hollywood to face the reality of AI rather than attempting to ignore it:
Hollywood needs to accept that AI is not going away. The energy they are spending trying to make it disappear is energy they are not spending deciding the terms on which it will exist. And the terms are everything. The north needs something from it that they cannot build and cannot buy: creativity. The kind that takes a blank page and conjures a single right answer where there was none and has held audiences for a century. Without it, the most powerful reasoning engine ever invented will still be missing the only thing that makes a story worth telling.
He emphasizes the enduring need for artists:
The artists who learn to wield these new instruments will do things the engineers never dreamed of. They always have. Edison invented the motion picture but made terrible movies. It took Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton, and so many others to make movies emotional. Now, the canvas is about to expand yet again. We should decide now that we intend to paint on it.
However, there’s a notable omission in Katzenberg’s arguments regarding Hollywood’s ongoing struggle against AI, a battle they engage in while still using it behind the scenes. The key motive seems to be maintaining their control over entertainment production.
With accessible story-telling tools available for a reasonable price, Hollywood risks losing its longstanding monopolistic hold, which largely stems from the prohibitively high production costs.
Eliminate these costs using AI, and any artist with a compelling narrative and some visual directing ability can produce their own content, breaking away from the traditional Hollywood system.
