Jorge R. Gutierrez Won’t Make AI ‘Punky Duck’ Series After Backlash

Jorge R. Gutierrez, the director of “The Book of Life” and an Emmy winner for several noted kids series, has dropped his plans to make an AI-generated animated series called “Punky Duck” for Amazon MGM Studios after backlash to his embrace of AI tools.

Gutierrez appeared at the AI on the Lot conference in Los Angeles this week and announced that his series was one of three that had been greenlit by the studio as part of an AI pilot program for animated series. The director has previously been publicly opposed to AI, so the online community was fierce.

“I have decided to drop out of the AI program at Amazon. I will not be making a Punky Duck series. Actions speak louder than words,” he wrote on X. “My intent was to showcase artists, both new and seasoned, both inside and outside the studios, driving this new tech. My sincerest apology to those I upset. I promise to do better moving forward. Thank you for your patience with me. I will try harder.”

Gutierrez originally shared on the social media platform after he spoke at the conference that he was receiving some threats to himself and his family but that he wanted everyone to “get it all out” as they reacted to the series. Forty-eight hours later, he wrote, “Learning a lot from many of you. Thank you. Lots of information that I’m digesting wholeheartedly. I am absolutely understanding the concern of using AI to assist an animation pipeline. For all those showing me grace, I really appreciate it. I have a lot to think about.” He announced he was exiting the AI program an hour later.

Amazon MGM Studios did not immediately respond for a request for comment.

Gutierrez on the AI on the Lot stage described the process of using AI as akin to having sex and then immediately being given the baby, surprised by the speed at which he could bring his vision to life.

“I’m used to two years for a pilot, and something like this … it feels like the most rebellious, punk rock thing you can do right now is to make something this fast,” he said. “For someone like me who’s used to waiting so long, this has been a life-changer.”

“Punky Duck” was one of three series announced as part of Amazon’s GenAI Creators’ Fund, which was designed to give animators access to Amazon’s proprietary AI production software and pipeline called Project Nara. The platform marries AI models trained on Amazon MGM IP with other traditional production software. Also announced were “Love, Diana: Music Hunters,” which hailed from former Nickelodeon exec Albie Hecht and “Cupcake & Friends,” which was a BuzzFeed Studios project.

The BuzzFeed project also faced some online backlash, as Loryn Brantz, the creator of the initial BuzzFeed property “The Good Advice Cupcake,” said that BuzzFeed worked on the project without her input and encouraged her fans to boycott BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed later responded in a statement to Cartoon Brew that it had reached out to her for her involvement in the project but that she turned them down.

“I am horrified and disgusted by BuzzFeed taking my character, ‘The Good Advice Cupcake,’ and giving it to an AI platform. My time at BuzzFeed was marked by continually being taken advantage of and lied to,” Brantz wrote on Instagram. “They repeatedly assured me in good faith that they would never do anything with Cuppy without my input, yet offered me no legal options, insisting that I would never need them. The news that this character, who is based on my own personality and whom I created as a microphone to spread love and positivity, has been taken and turned into a soulless AI puppet feels like my intestines being pulled out of my body.”

“We explained that this was similar to Walt Disney embracing Xerox technology to make ‘inbetweening’ easier – and that our partners at Amazon MGM Studios share our ethos, with a commitment to ensuring human creativity remains at the center of everything they make,” BuzzFeed responded. “However, she made it clear that she was categorically opposed to the use of AI in all its forms, and we respected that she did not want to be involved as a result. That is absolutely her right. But her personal opposition to AI cannot determine how BuzzFeed develops IP that it owns, or deny the many other talented creators involved in this project the opportunity to do their work.”

Gutierrez’s “Punky Duck,” which he teased in a brief sizzle as part of the AI on the Lot panel presentation, followed a punk rock duck and his best friend Smiley Cat who, per the logline, “tear through a wildly exaggerated Los Angeles, hilariously stumbling into alien invasions, giant monsters, robot criminal conspiracies, telenovela-style family drama, and supernatural mayhem — all while trying (and usually failing) to do the right thing.” The characters were all his own designs and he said was the product of five weeks of work, and the series even resembled a stop-motion animated project in the vein of some of his prior work despite being generated by AI.

But much of the backlash toward Gutierrez pointed out some of his past objections to AI. As recently as 2024, Gutierrez said that by leaning on AI, it meant that other younger animators would work their way up the ladder and learn the system, leading to “a whole generation of creators will not be able to make hit movies and series. The ecosystem is in peril.”

Gutierrez is also the creator of “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera” for Nickelodeon and “Maya and the Three” for Netflix.