In the current climate, we are frequently told that AI is the future, with the rapid developments in the technology encouraging some pundits of its potential in a huge variety of fields (even as its dangers are pointed out in increasingly urgent fashion).
But for most film fans – and just about anyone who admires art in any form – the idea of it ever replacing human made creative works is pretty much laughable.
That's certainly the case when you watch something like Wildwood, the hugely acclaimed new stop-motion feature from studio Laika, every frame of which you can tell has been handcrafted with incredible care and heart.
And speaking to Radio Times at the London Film Festival, the movie's director Travis Knight explained why his film could be seen as a clear riposte to the idea that AI could ever be an adequate replacement for human creativity.
"Since the dawn of time, there's always been something very, very special about art," Knight revealed in an exclusive interview.
"Because a piece of art is one imagination moving from one mind to the next. It's a human being. It's a spirit. It's a soul. It's humanity essentially distilled into its essence. And so, when people are connecting with these materials, they're connecting with another human being."
He added that generative AI was "antithetical" to such work, explaining that the process was "taking the entire history of creative lives of all these amazing artists" and "ingesting this stuff and regurgitating it".
"It has no life of its own. It has no soul of its own. It has no humanity of its own," he added. "It's incredibly impressive technology, but fundamentally it is antithetical to what an artist brings to the process, which is their experiences, their selves, their pain, their joy.
"A computer has no joy. A computer has no pain. They don't understand it."
Knight, who is Laika's president and CEO, also said the reason he's "devoted his life and career" to keeping stop-motion alive as a medium is because he believes the art form essentially serves as a "distilled essence of the artists and craftspeople and the humanity of the people who brought it to life".
View Green Video on the source website"Art needs advocates," he said. "It needs champions. These things don't happen on their own, and so the hope is that we continue to try to extend the hand and it's reciprocated on the other side.
"We'll continue to to do these things until we can't anymore. But I think it is up to all of us to try to put things out in the world that speak to the humanity that we all share."
That much is certainly true of Wildwood. The project – which is based on a novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis – had been in the works for 16 years and involved the work of hundreds of dedicated creatives.
Knight had optioned the book before it had even finished being written, explaining that he "fell in love with the material immediately" after being given a sneak peak back in 2010.
"And then I realised I have no idea how to make this movie, and so I basically spent more than half of my adult life figuring out how we were going to make it," he said. "And it was a slow, tedious process!"
But he said that during the long gap between optioning the book and moving ahead with production, it became an "enduring" part of his life which he thought about "all the time" – even when working on other movies.
"It is strange now to be on the other side of it," he said. "It's really weird, but on the other hand, I am so extraordinarily proud of what the team has done. Everyone was so passionate, and they brought so much of themselves.
"When I hear 16 years, I actually think 16 years of life. Really, that's what it is. It's like all these people who poured themselves into this film brought their craftsmanship, their artistry, their spirit, their soul to this movie, and it shows through in film itself.
"That's the humanity that's beating at the core of this movie."
Wildwood is released in UK cinemas on Friday 23 October 2026.
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