One of the wildest entertainment stories of the year was Niu Lai, a Chinese animated film that immediately became a laughing stock for its incredibly rudimentary animation and character models.
And even though taste is in the eye of the beholder, I find it very hard to believe anyone would like this at face value. “Why is something that looks worse than many Newgrounds animations from the early ’00s even showing in theaters?” You might ask, but it turns out Niu Lai was a family’s labor of love that lucked into a modest distribution. This crucial piece of information turned the tide and got people to see the film in droves, giving it a $9 million theatrical run on a pretty much non-existent budget.
And while one could argue that a lot of people only started to care about the film because they learned the story about its creation, well, that’s completely fair, because film is a vessel for connection.
Niu Lai‘s story becomes even more interesting when you realize China recently saw the release of Sanxingdui: Future Past, the country’s first fully AI movie release, which bombed hard. Sure, it could perhaps make a comeback, but it can’t count on its development tale to pull the heartstrings of moviegoers because its production, like any other AI production, amounts to that of a bunch of guys using a computer to type the plot of the movie they wanted to rip off.
A studio spent $1.5 million on the first-ever theatrical AI film, which ended up grossing 100.000 dollars. A very different outcome from that of the millions of LinkedIn users who claim to have only spent $100 on a Lord of the Rings ripoff too ludicrous to even imagine.
Westerners with only one photo in their profile and no background to speak of often claim China’s population shows way more openness to the prospects of an AI-led future than the people of the West, but that might, fortunately, be bunk.
Unfortunately, however, the theatrical run of Wildwood shows that the West might’ve become too desensitized even for the most amazing displays of true animation prowess of all time. Yes, despite being arguably the most impressive animated film I’ve ever witnessed, and also being the result of many intense years of loving work, Laika’s epic also failed to even recoup its budget. Honestly, I’d normally advise you against seeing the trailer, but if that’s what’ll earn it a few more ticket sales, then so be it:
On top of being as far from using AI as a movie can get, Wildwood is also the best-rated animated movie in a decade. As far as technique and spectacle go, it’s perfectly reasonable to call this the Avatar or even the Star Wars of stop-motion movies—and a work capable of going toe to toe with any live-action or traditional ( or CGI) animated film, but people just didn’t care, or didn’t know.
Yeah, the marketing team either didn’t have the resources, or didn’t do a great job. Still, the stellar reactions to Wildwood should’ve at least granted it a healthy word-of-mouth-fed growth, but it’s yet to pass the $70 million mark worldwide, a number that stops very short of the movie’s budget—and truth is, the real budget has never even been officially revealed, but that can only mean it’s that big. And, if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know there’s no way Laika studio pulled this off with the $100 million budget that some people were floating around.
It’s great to see Niu Lai succeed while an AI-made film crashes and burns, but it’d have been even better if that beautiful event had also sent shockwaves that got people to watch more beautifully crafted stuff, because we might never get to see anything like Wildwood again. Even if that means we might also not be seeing many more AI-made movies, either.
