Toys”R”Us debuted a film made with OpenAI's artificial intelligence text-video tool Sora at this year's Cannes Lions festival. “The Origin of Toys”R”Us” was produced by the company's entertainment production division, Toys”R”Us Studios, and creative agency Native Foreign. Since OpenAI has not yet released Sora to the public, Native Foreign gained alpha access to the app, making Toys”R”Us one of the first brands to make extensive use of the video AI tool.
“Toys R Us Origins” explores the early life of founder Charles Lazarus in a rather unorthodox way than the retail giant is usually portrayed: The company mascot, Jeffrey the Giraffe, appears to Lazarus in a dream and fuels his business ambitions, suggesting that huge profits were (at least until relatively recently) an irrelevant byproduct for Toys R Us.
“Charles Lazarus was a visionary ahead of his time, and we wanted to honor his legacy with a spot that used cutting-edge technology,” Kim Miller Orko, four-time Emmy Award-winning producer and president of Toys R Us Studios, said in a statement. “Partnering with Native Foreign to push the boundaries of OpenAI's Sora is truly exciting. Dreams are full of magic and limitless possibilities, and so are Toys R Us.”
Sora Stories and the Uncanny Valley
Sora can generate up to a minute of video with realistic people and settings based on text prompts. OpenAI is pitching it as a way for production teams to realize their vision in a fraction of the usual time. The results can be breathtaking and bizarre.
For “Toys R Us Origins,” the filmmakers condensed hundreds of repetitive shots into a few dozen and completed the movie in weeks instead of months. That said, the producers did use some corrective visual effects and added original music composed by Aaron Marsh of the indie rock band The Copeland.
The film is short, and the AI's origins only become apparent when paused; otherwise, it might seem like the product of overzealous editors with powerful visual effects software and actors who don't know how to act in front of a green screen.
Overall, it manages to avoid most of the uncanny valley, except when the young founders laugh, which makes it feel a bit like watching The Polar Express. Still, it's easy to see why some people are so excited about Sora, especially considering that it's an alpha version and was made with relatively limited time and resources.
“Through Sora, we were able to tell this incredible story with incredible speed and efficiency,” Nick Krebeloff, chief creative officer at Native Foreign and the film's director, said in a statement. “Toys R Us was the perfect brand to embrace this AI-focused strategy, and we're thrilled to work with their creative team to lead the next wave of innovative storytelling.”
The premiere of “The Origins of Toys” at the Cannes Lions Film Festival highlights the growing importance of AI tools in advertising and branding. The film serves as another proof of concept for Sora and may be a precursor to many more generative AI-assisted movies in the future. That said, there is a lot of skepticism and resistance in the entertainment world. Writers and actors have long been on strike over generative AI, and new contracts included rules on how companies can use AI models. The world premiere of the film, scripted by ChatGPT, had to be cancelled outright due to complaints on that score, but Toys”R”Us would likely face the same backlash if it were to try to release the film in theaters.
