Kartoon Studios, which formally announced a name change from Kartoon Channel last month, have announced on Thursday that they will be creating several original full-length animated features for children based on Kartoon Studios properties, taking advantage of AI technology. While the purpose of using AI is to animate more content in less time while reducing expenses, Kartoon Studios strives to stay true to their main focus on human creativity and positive content.
Here are the current animated features set to come out in years 2024 and 2025:
- ‘Stan Lee’s Cosmic Crusaders’ (featuring Stan Lee)
- ‘Stan Lee’s Superhero Kindergarten’
- ‘Llama’s Big Adventure’ (Llama Llama)
- ‘An Omaha Yankee In King Arthur’s Court’ (Warren Buffett’s Secret Millionaires Club)
- ‘Fix And Foxi’
- ‘Rainbow Rangers Hot Concert To Cool Global Warming’ (Rainbow Rangers)
Kartoon Studios CEO Andy Heyward said, “We have observed a strong appetite for recognized brands that began in either television, toys, video games, or publishing, to become full-length animated feature films. We have seen this with top brands like Super Mario Brothers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spiderman, the Grinch, and Hotel Transylvania, which were translated into animated movie hits. Much of our catalogue has such roots and pedigree, with a number of brands coming from successful books like Llama Llama or Rainbow Rangers and from brands and pedigrees like Stan Lee.”
Multi-Emmy-winning producer and director Mike Maliani added, “By using both AI, human creativity, and the existing assets that have already been developed with the brands, production costs will be reduced, while upholding the highest levels of quality.
Previously the costs of producing an original full-length animated feature for a streaming service were prohibitive, however with the advent of AI technology, and using existing key materials, footage, and animation cycles already in place, we now have an incredibly cost-effective model that we believe is a game changer, which will enable quality animated films to be brought to the consumer for a fraction of what it would have previously cost.
We can do all this while maintaining our focus on content written by proven industry creators. We like this model, because we are investing in our own brands, as we additionally drive awareness for consumer product sales, as well as viewership for our channel, and creating an evergreen asset that can be used again and again.”
The company will also draw titles from its Munich-based affiliate company, Your Family Entertainment. Certain films will feature celebrity voice actors, as well as original music sound tracks, while highlighting a diversity of characters, global names, and a mix of ages, genders, and ethnicities. Additionally, the Company is planning seasonal titles, such as for Halloween and Christmas.
President of Kartoon Channel! Worldwide Paul Robinson, who will oversee global distribution, stated, “Full-length animated features have consistently been one of the most successful genres of all entertainment, and are very attractive to broadcasters worldwide. They steadily over-index, attracting large audiences. Whether the timeless classics from Disney, or hits from Pixar, DreamWorks, and Illumination, we know they perform well. The films will be family friendly, non-violent, and embrace positive themes. We view the animated feature film business for global services as the game changer catalyst to propel the channel forward to significant earnings.”
This is not the first time Kartoon Studios has delved into AI. In March, they released their first AI-generated children’s series called Kidaverse Fast Facts, utilizing OpenAI’s ChatGPT, along with other AI technologies. The series is geared towards the ages 4-11, with using AI for scripts, images, voices and animation. The series includes new and exclusive shorts hosted by History Henry, Science Sally and Sporty Steve, and each video will educate children, featuring lessons and facts about science, history, music, literature and more.
When this series was announced in February this year, CEO Andy Hayward said, “We’re excited to bring this innovative series to market and, by using ChatGPT, the series is able to quickly and effectively adapt and deliver our content and concepts in a kid-friendly, snackable format. The future of children’s entertainment is here, and we’re thrilled to be at the forefront of this revolution.”
President of Genius Networks Todd Steinman added, “AI is a game changer for us, providing significant cost efficiencies and speed to market, allowing us to expand our content initiatives and fuel our programming pipeline in a way that couldn’t have been possible before. These AI tools and the content they create will certainly have a huge impact in children’s entertainment and beyond. With its innovative use of AI, we are confident that Kidaverse Fast Facts will be a hit with kids and parents around the world!”
Kartoon Channel currently has six videos of Kidaverse Fast Facts uploaded to their YouTube channel. Here are two of the videos:
This is the same company who came out with NFT’s for kids last year, calling it KFT’s. The company doesn’t seem to be shying away from using AI at this point, advancing into greater usages of this technology that people are either excited or very concerned about.
What do you think about Kartoon Studios using more AI to create animated movies and content for kids? Do you think it’s a good thing? Or a bad thing? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Kartoon Studios
ClownfishTV.com strives to be an apolitical, balanced and based pop culture news outlet. However, our contributors are entitled to their individual opinions. Author opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of our video hosts, other site contributors, site editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. This website contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. We disclaim products or services we have received for review purposes, as well as sponsored posts.
