{"id":74382,"date":"2025-07-19T03:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74382\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T03:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:41:16","slug":"china-already-uses-ai-for-animated-film-adaptations-is-labubu-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74382\/","title":{"rendered":"China Already Uses AI for Animated Film Adaptations \u2014 Is Labubu Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture this. It\u2019s Thanksgiving weekend, just five months from now, and American families are already flocking to see The Labubu<\/a> Movie in theaters. Made using 100 percent artificial intelligence<\/a>, this (totally hypothetical) film adaptation<\/a> of the mega-popular monster keychain comes from the Beijing-based retailer Pop Mart. The blockbuster was born out of China\u2019s cutting-edge film industry<\/a> in record time \u2014 putting thousands of butts in seats and raking in millions at the box office before the craze could end.<\/p>\n

Last month, back in the real world, CEO and founder of Pop Mart Wang Ning announced<\/a> his company would start an in-house film unit<\/a>, per Chinese news reports.<\/strong> The collectibles brand saw global demand for Labubus skyrocket after a viral endorsement from K-pop star Lisa in Vanity Fair last fall. Designed by artist Kasing Lung, the baby-faced \u201cLabubu\u201d was partly inspired by Nordic mythology and first introduced as part of a children\u2019s storybook by Ling that\u2019s out of print.<\/p>\n

\"MAN<\/a> \"Joaquin<\/a> <\/p>\n

The hard-to-find \u201cMonsters\u201d stories from 2015 feature a whole cast of cute characters and several illustrated adventures starring Labubu. Now, she (yes,\u00a0she) has a vibrant presence online and loose plans for a TV show. It\u2019s in early development at Pop Mart, but there\u2019s hope for a movie, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested in knowing more about their world,\u201d Laura Sirikul told IndieWire. A movie and TV critic in Los Angeles, she carries her Labubus everywhere, but said, \u201cThe bubble may burst by next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve become so hard to get that the stock went down. Just by a bit. But people are getting tired of not being able to get them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Laura Sirikul with her Labubu <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the China Film<\/a> Foundation recently announced an AI-driven \u201crevitalization\u201d project targeting 100 martial arts classics<\/a>. John Woo\u2019s \u201cA Better Tomorrow\u201d from 1986 will soon be recreated as an animated feature \u2014 titled \u201cA Better Tomorrow: Cyber Frontier\u201d \u2014 with the original movie\u2019s visual language algorithmically reinterpreted with an illustrated sci-fi aesthetic. \u201cCyber Frontier\u201d has been touted as \u201cthe world\u2019s first full-process, AI-produced animated feature film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaders for the initiative say they aim to manufacture new demand for classic stories while paying homage to legendary filmmakers and introducing them to a younger global audience. The effort has been endorsed by the Chinese government, which continues to forward the use of AI across professional sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sincerely invite the world\u2019s top AI animation companies to jointly start a film revolution that subverts tradition,\u201d\u00a0Tian Ming, chairman of Shanghai Canxing Culture and Media, told the Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. The Chinese production company announced its $13.9 million contribution to the revitalization effort during its unveiling at the Shanghai Film Festival, where the chairman of the China Film Foundation, Zhang Pimin, called it \u201ca brave exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BETTERChow Yun-Fat in \u2018A Better Tomorrow\u2019 (1986)\u00a9Rim\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

The martial arts project highlights the distinct approaches to AI in the U.S. and China, as outlined in a new report from the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. American filmmakers are mostly hostile to the technology, citing intellectual property theft, strained labor relations, and the environmental impact of data farms \u2014 while Chinese creatives have been compelled to embrace the speed and ease of AI for innovation.<\/p>\n

If air from the Labubu bubble is already leaking, why wouldn\u2019t China rush to make a Labubu movie using AI?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a movie, they do need to get on it,\u201d Sirikul said. \u201cBut if they do AI, it\u2019s not going to bode well. If they do AI, it should only be for short-form internet content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plenty of fan-made Labubu scenes have already gone viral on TikTok, where AI runs rampant<\/a>. The technology has been used to render all sorts of \u201cadaptations,\u201d mixing characters and styles from the most popular properties to guarantee success online. The platform is also notorious for quietly disenfranchising artists<\/a>, by letting people rip off their original work to feed those Frankensteins. These AI clips can be monetized if they\u2019re popular enough, and that\u2019s proof you could make a feature-length film.<\/p>\n

\u201cI create my own Labubu shorts, so I know it can be done,\u201d Sirikul said, pointing out she does\u00a0not\u00a0use AI. \u201cThey\u2019re not professional, but they\u2019re popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BEIJING,The Pop Land theme park in Beijing, China in July 2025Getty Images<\/p>\n

As directed by Grok\u2019s cousin (or whatever), the hypothetical Labubu Movie from AI might be a trainwreck. The story could be slop. The audio might irk your brain. The visuals could be so strange that you\u2019re forced to use your cute new Labubu popcorn bucket as emergency vomit support. Still, an AI adaptation would no doubt uncork a fountain of money. Not only would the release become a pu pu platter for new and limited-edition Pop Mart merchandise, but it would also offer a chance to experiment with the brand\u2019s world-famous creative marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

Consider the \u201cblind box\u201d approach that\u2019s kept Labubu in the fast-moving American consciousness for months. Riding on the coattails of a product so popular it actually caused fist fights outside stores<\/a>, marketers should have no problem convincing moviegoers to \u201ccollect\u201d different versions of the movie. That gimmick was tried with a board game adaptation, when the 1985 film \u201cClue\u201d screened alternate endings in theaters at random. The film still flopped at the box office \u2014 but maybe it wouldn\u2019t have with the right word of mouth on social media and the cost-saving convenience of AI.<\/p>\n

Customers have a 1 in 72 chance of getting the rare \u201cmystery\u201d Labubu in most collections. Use AI to generate as many different versions of The Labubu Movie, and you\u2019ve got a social media stunt (or possibly a gambling problem) waiting to happen. These theoretical clout chasers might buy multiple tickets to see The Labubu Movie multiple times. That would be a welcome boost at the box office, but the days of telling people\u00a0not\u00a0to film the screen would be over.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talk about it as a\u00a0god. They talk like disciples. They\u2019re very worshipful of this thing,\u201d said Ari Aster in a recent\u00a0interview with Letterboxd<\/a>. The filmmaker was describing the engineers who develop AI, but he could have been talking about fans of Labubu. Analyzed as a \u201crecession indicator<\/a>\u201d online, the toy has drawn the attention of as many lifestyle brands as it has serious economists. <\/p>\n

Getting people excited about\u00a0anything\u00a0in 2025 is hard, and trends like Labubu could be a boon for Hollywood during tough times. Still, art lovers have never been more worried about humanity losing its way, and professionals in the industry are afraid of robots taking over.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is already all about IP,\u201d said Sirikul. \u201cAdding AI to that is killing it even more. The environment. The jobs. The creativity. It\u2019s just negative all around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollywood was already struggling to rein in franchising when creatives went on strike in 2023<\/a> and 2024<\/a>, with the creeping influence of AI among their top concerns. In 2025, American media has yet to figure out a unified strategy toward the technology, and the political divide between the U.S. and China is widening, no doubt. But whether it\u2019s Labubu, or another trend like it, anything this explosively popular has the power to become an industry-defining olive branch \u2014 or a wedge.<\/p>\n

It took years for Mattel and Greta Gerwig to get \u201cBarbie\u201d right<\/a>, and Labubu is nowhere near icon status yet. But with the Hasbro Universe<\/a> rapidly expanding, and \u201cWicked\u201d director Jon M. Chu taking on a Hot Wheels<\/a> movie next, American studios are still obsessed with toy adaptations. The success of those projects could pave the way for a traditional Labubu movie down the line. <\/p>\n

But if companies like Pop Mart take global fads to AI instead of Hollywood, rush-shipping a product that might otherwise be worth the wait, the movie business will have a much bigger monster on its hands.<\/p>\n

Pop Mart did not respond to IndieWire\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Picture this. It\u2019s Thanksgiving weekend, just five months from now, and American families are already flocking to see…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[738,171,1020,10995,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-74382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-labubu","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114877830470329767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}