Every once in a while, a neat-looking little movie comes along and gets tons of flak for very stupid reasons. Now, it’s A24’s turn to face AI-related criticisms only because Isaiah Saxon’s The Legend of Ochi looks adorably clean.
The movie, which stars Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson, and Willem Dafoe, follows a girl on the run after finding a weird little guy from a rare animal species that’s feared by the local northern population and hunted down on sight. It looks quite gorgeous and inoffensive, like classic Amblin meets Wes Anderson, but the generative-AI-produced slop we’ve been exposed to for the past two years or so has hurt many people’s perceptions. Couple that with engagement/rage-farming being a career choice for many, and you’ve got a shitstorm going!
The Legend of Ochi started shooting in Romania in late 2021, and had been in the works long before that, with writer-director Isaiah Saxon claiming he’s been cooking it over six years on a $10 million budget. Of course, he’s very mad (but shockingly polite about it) that armchair cinephiles are randomly starting ‘AI witch hunts’ now.
Before we go any further, check out the lovable first look at the movie below:
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Sure, the narrative on display here doesn’t look groundbreaking, but I personally enjoy all sorts of stories as long as they’re well-told and look enticing, and The Legend of Ochi certainly has a unique look to it and feels light-hearted in a way that’s distinct from your average big blockbuster.
The worst types you known on what we like to call Film Twitter, however, jumped at the chance to assume without knowing anything that generative AI was used in the movie, mainly because the cinematography and lighting look pretty clean, and the camera moves are slow and methodical in most cases. It’s a bit hard to properly put into words, but if you’ve been watching AI-generated crap on your feed, you know what I’m talking about. It’s got a bit of that uncanny feel to it. The big difference is that it doesn’t look like s**t. Quite the opposite.
I guess the fact the movies centres on a Grogu-little-monkey-hybrid of sorts also makes paranoid moviegoers suspicious, but again, Saxon confirmed he’s the result of puppets and animatronics. Likewise, everything in the movie is a mix of real locations, matte paintings (we used to love those), and some traditional 3D work. Saxon previously directed music videos for Björk, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, and Kanye West. He’s also the co-founder of the animation studio Encyclopedia Pictura, so he could be described as an artisan.
The Legend of Ochi is currently set to hit theaters on February 28, 2025, at least in the United States. We severely doubt this dumb discussion will hurt its theatrical run. If anything, it’s free marketing. We’re more worried about people’s (in)ability to analyze fiction and art without going insane as we venture into a tech-poisoned cultural hellscape.
