A LITTLE PRINCESS

Inspiration

I wanted to see if I could create a one hour animated film completely with ai. It is the first broadly distributed animated film for children created entirely with ai. The film has a full orchestrated soundtrack including 6 songs. Previous films that used ai were either a combination of ai, motion capture and cgi or not intended for children. I made the film on a two macbook pros using Udio, Eleven Labs, Chat and Flow (Veo). I have made 90 films for children over the years for Sony, Columbia TriStar, Hallmark etc.

What it does. “A milestone in film production — the first long-form, AI-only children’s animated feature.”

A Little Princess was born out of a question: could one person on Macbook Pros create a full-length animated feature film spreading positive messages — with original songs and an orchestral score — using ai tools available today?

How we built it

I wanted to explore the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence — not as a replacement for artistry, but as an amplifier of imagination. using a suite of ai tools: Eleven Labs for voices and sound effects, Udio for the music, Chatgpt for generating still images that became moving sequences in flow (veo), and finally, editing in Final Cut Pro.

Challenges we ran into

While "A Little Princess: is a historic first in ai-driven feature animation, the journey came with its own set of creative and technical challenges. these obstacles highlight both the potential and the limitations of today’s emerging tools. VOICE GENERATION FOR CHILD CHARACTERS • Flow (Veo) would not generate voices for any characters that were children. • To solve this, dialogue was generated in Eleven Labs and manually synchronized in Final Cut Pro. • This workaround worked, but syncing was not always perfect — highlighting a gap in voice AI for children’s content. MUSIC LIMITATIONS IN UDIO • Udio allowed inputting lyrics for original songs, and many generations were promising. • However, the platform struggled with length. When using the “extend” function, the tune often shifted or the lyrics became inaudible. • This required careful editing and multiple regenerations to achieve usable tracks. Character Consistency Across Generations • Maintaining consistent character appearances across different shots was one of the most difficult tasks. • Small prompt changes — or even repeating the same prompt — could yield subtle but noticeable differences in facial features, outfits, or proportions. • Ensuring continuity required regenerating scenes multiple times, then editing and compositing to keep characters on-model. CAMERA DIRECTION IN FLOW(VEO) • Veo was not always responsive to camera direction prompts (such as pans, zooms, or specific framing). • As a result, achieving cinematic consistency required trial, error, and creative adaptation in post-production. Takeaway These challenges underscore that while ai platforms can accelerate filmmaking, they still require significant human oversight, problem-solving, and editing. the film’s completion is a testament to persistence, creativity, and adapting to the limits of cutting-edge tools.

Accomplishments that we're proud of. The film although not perfect is the first full length animated film made 100% with ai. Using ai tools, one filmmaker completed the film in just over a month — something that would normally take an entire studio a year. this project highlights how independent creators can now achieve what was once impossible.

What we learned - We are in production on the second 100% ai film JUNGLE SHAKE which is an environmental new take on the the Jungle Book.

What's next for A LITTLE PRINCESS. The film is being widely distributed through Golden Films’ existing platforms including the following: Tubi, Pluto, Roku, Apple tv, Amazon Prime, YouTube movies

Built With

• ai
• chat
• elevenlabs
• finalcutpro
• flow
• udio
• veo