According to CNET, Disney has selected AI startup Animaj for its 2025 Disney Accelerator Program and is preparing to announce a partnership within months. Animaj’s technology uses AI trained on a database of over 300,000 character poses to dramatically speed up animation production, reducing episode creation time from five months to just five weeks. The system works by having human animators sketch key poses while AI handles the “motion in-betweening” to fill in movements between those poses. Disney executives confirmed they’re exploring using this AI system across Disney Branded Television and Disney Television Studios. The technology represents a 70% reduction in production time while maintaining what Disney calls a “creator-first approach” that keeps artists in control of the final output.
But what about the animators?
Here’s the thing that really stands out: Animaj and Disney are positioning this as an ethical AI tool rather than a replacement for human talent. The animators still draw all the key frames from start to finish – the AI just fills in the transitional movements. And even then, artists can tweak and correct the AI-generated animations. This is fundamentally different from text-to-video tools like Sora or Veo that completely bypass human artists. But let’s be real – when executives talk about cutting production time by 70%, you have to wonder how that affects staffing needs long-term.
The Hollywood AI tension is real
The timing here is fascinating. The Animation Guild just went through contract negotiations last year and couldn’t secure strong AI protections for its members. Animators can’t refuse to use AI tools if required by their job, and they can’t opt out of having their work used to train AI models. So while Disney and Animaj are framing this as artist-friendly technology, the broader context suggests animators have limited power to resist this shift. Basically, the train has left the station whether artists are fully on board or not.
So how does this AI animation magic work?
Animaj built its system by training on four seasons of the children’s show Pocoyo, creating that massive database of 300,000 poses. According to their technical blog posts, artists sketch the beginning and ending poses, and the AI predicts what happens in between. The animator then corrects any weird arm placements or awkward movements. This “motion in-betweening” process means artists don’t have to hand-draw every single frame – they can focus on the creative flow rather than repetitive tasks. The company emphasizes that this maintains brand consistency way better than those nightmare fuel AI animations you see on YouTube where characters grow extra limbs between frames.
The streaming era demands speed
Disney’s move makes complete business sense when you consider the brutal economics of streaming. They need to pump out high-quality content constantly to keep subscribers engaged. Animaj doesn’t just speed up production – they also use AI to analyze what themes are trending online and quickly create content to match those interests. As their workflow documentation shows, this creates a feedback loop where data informs creation which then generates more data. It’s a far cry from the watercolor sketches of Snow White’s era, but then again, animation has always evolved with technology. The question is whether this particular evolution truly preserves the artistic soul of Disney’s legacy or just makes the production line more efficient.
