Netflix is building an AI animation studio — with no human animators

Netflix is launching Inkubator, a new animation studio that doesn’t hire traditional animators. Instead, it’s training AI to generate full cartoons — from storyboards to final frames — using prompts from a small team of writers and directors. The studio’s first project, a 10-minute short called "Casa de Muñecas," was made entirely by AI, with only three people overseeing the process.

The team behind Inkubator says the AI doesn’t just mimic styles — it learns from decades of global animation, from Japanese manga to Mexican folk art, and remixes them into something new. One director described it as "a cousin who never sleeps, but knows exactly when to add that one extra tear."

Netflix isn’t replacing its human crew. It’s shrinking the core team and using AI to scale. Animators now act as curators: tweaking lighting, fixing a glitched arm, or deciding which version of a scene to release. The cost? A fraction of what it takes to pay a studio full of artists.

But for the people who grew up drawing frames by hand — the tío who taught his nieces how to ink lines, the abuela who saved every VHS tape — this shift feels quiet, fast, and final.

Why this matters for us: When AI makes cartoons, who gets to tell our stories — and who gets left out of the room?