The day after making a surprise appearance at the TIFF opening night premiere at Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, 3x Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro sat down for a wide-ranging discussion that canvassed art, animation, fantasy and more.
Whatever subject del Toro doted on — it was all wise and axiom wisdom that the audience could pocket and walk away with. Read, in his take on Miyazaki, del Toro said “When you see a movie, you know when it’s hurting someone [a director] or it’s a conceit.” In the process of explaining how animation is a medium, not a genre, and the marvels of the hand-drawn process of Miyazaki and overall craft of cartooning, even if it is CGI, del Toro broached the subject of A.I. [Editor’s note: the opening credits of Marvel’s Secret Invasion used an AI animated opening credits sequence]. “People ask me, are you worried about AI?”said The Shape of Water filmmaker, “I’m worried about natural stupidity!” Meaning it takes a person to program the AI.
Essentially those who are using AI; are doing so per del Toro, “if you want something shitty and quicky.” “AI is a tool and it isn’t,” said the director. “Buy a printer, print the Mona Lisa and say you made it,” said the director metaphorically about the faults of AI.
Later on Bailey asked del Toro, whose works are across TV, film, and streaming, how he knows when a project is intended for each medium.
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