Tim Burton Says the AI Recreations of His Style Are "Very Disturbing," "Like a Robot Taking Your Humanity, Your Soul"
Over the summer, Buzzfeed posted an article of photos that were generated by an AI platform, which was asked to recreate Disney characters in the style of Tim Burton, who has created a super unique style in his films, like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, and many more. The results of the AI comparison depicted Elsa from Frozen and Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty in the style of Burton’s stop-motion animated film, Corpse Bride. The article went viral, but not to the amusement of Burton himself.
In a recent interview with The Independent, Burton reacted to the AI recreations of his trademark style, and he was not happy, to say the least.
Burton explained:
“They had AI do my versions of Disney characters. I can’t describe the feeling it gives you. It reminded me of when other cultures say, ‘Don’t take my picture because it is taking away your soul.’ What it does is it sucks something from you. It takes something from your soul or psyche; that is very disturbing, especially if it has to do with you. It’s like a robot taking your humanity, your soul.”
Combining AI with niche artists has become a popular trend on social media. AI-created videos imagining what Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings might look like if Wes Anderson directed them have also gone viral in recent months. The Times of London asked Anderson about these clips during his summer press tour for Asteroid City, and he said he mostly ignores these AI recreations.
“If somebody sends me something like that I’ll immediately erase it and say, ‘Please, sorry, do not send me things of people doing me.’ Because I do not want to look at it, thinking, ‘Is that what I do? Is that what I mean?’ I don’t want to see too much of someone else thinking about what I try to be because, God knows, I could then start doing it.”
Burton is currently making the press rounds in support of a new art exhibition of his work that is launching at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin next month. Production on his latest feature film, the long-awaited Beetlejuice 2, is paused amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
via: Variety