GKIDS Addresses Studio Ghibli AI Controversy to Celebrate Princess Mononoke Re-Release

A “Studio Ghibli” A.I. trend has been taking over the Internet, and GKIDS has addressed the elephant in the room while celebrating how well art like Princess Mononoke is doing with its re-release. To help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, GKIDS has brought a 4K remastered version of the feature film to theaters as part of a new re-release. This newly restored version is only available in IMAX, and further showcases how much effort and artistic integrity had gone into the film when famed director Hayao Miyazaki and the team had crafted the feature all those years ago.

Princess Mononoke‘s 4K remaster was officially launched in theaters this past weekend across IMAX on 330 screens. According to GKIDS, the film had earned $1.2 million with just its preview night alone before the full weekend began. It’s something Chance Huskey, VP of distribution for GKIDS, noted in a statement to Variety, as a way that fans are showing their support for a film’s “cinematic hand-drawn glory” over other technology that only seeks to ape and diminish those efforts. But also notably played coy over whether or not this was a direct reference to OpenAI’s recent trend.

GKIDS Celebrates Princess Mononoke’s Success

In an official statement, Chance Huskey, VP of distribution for GKIDS did not directly reference the recent OpenAI trend, but did celebrate how Princess Mononoke is able to shine in direct comparison, “In a time when technology tries to replicate humanity, we are thrilled that audiences value a theatrical experience that respects and celebrates Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s masterpiece in all its cinematic hand-drawn glory.” This “trend” saw many across the Internet use OpenAI to change their photos into parallels of Studio Ghibli’s classic works. But these new images clearly are missing a lot of what makes Studio Ghibli so successful.

Fans are sharing their supposed “Studio Ghibli” makeovers without maybe realizing the greater harm it does on animation overall, but as Huskey notes, audiences will value a true theatrical experience that respects and celebrates Studio Ghibli’s legacy. As many fans of these films will tell you, it’s not a “style” that can be replicated. These are films will clear voices, and use various techniques to bring their respective stories to life. Each of these films are different from one another, and no two really look the same despite what it may seem like on the outside.

RELATED: Lesser Known Studio Ghibli Movie Coming To Theaters For The First Time

Anime & The Rise of A.I.

The rising use of artificial intelligence has been at the center of debate for the anime industry for the last few years. The Nippon Anime and Film Culture Association even went as far as gathering together creators to make sure they were properly compensated in the face of these technologies, “We [the NAFCA] feel it will be very difficult in the future to bring fair revenue to creators when projects are being created through the use of generative AI,” they shared in an official statement.

“For instance, if an AI generates a character with the head of Doraemon, the body of a Gundam, and the voice of Son Goku… If that creation is made with the thought it can be used freely so long as we hand over the required revenue, we’re not interested. Even if a character created using 100 others were to make a ton of profit, there is no good mechanism of sharing profit and approval with the creators of those 100 said characters.” And that’s just monetization. There are still plenty of debates about the moral and artistic merits of such technology as well.

HT – Variety