Toys”R”Us premiered a film made with OpenAI's AI text-to-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, who have been granted alpha access to Sora since OpenAI has not yet released to the public. That makes Toys”R”Us one of the first brands to leverage the video AI tool in a big way.
“The Rise of Toys”R”Us” explores the early years of founder Charles Lazarus in a much more extravagant way than the retail giants are often portrayed. The company's mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe, appears to Lazarus in a dream to inspire his business ambitions in a way that suggests that the huge profits were an unrelated side effect (at least until relatively recently) for Toys”R. “Us.”
“Charles Lazarus was a visionary ahead of his time and we wanted to honor his legacy with an ad using the most advanced technology available,” said four-time Emmy Award-winning producer and president of Toys”R”Us Studios, Kim Miller Olko. he 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 endless possibilities, just like Toys”R”Us.”
Sora Stories and the uncanny valley
Sora can generate videos up to a minute long based on text prompts featuring realistic people and environments. OpenAI is pitching Sora as a way for production teams to bring their visions to life in a fraction of the usual time. The results can be impressive and bizarre.
For “The Rise of Toys”R”Us,” the filmmakers condensed hundreds of iterative shots into a few dozen, completing the film in weeks rather than months. That said, the producers used some corrective visual effects and added original music composed by Aaron Marsh of the indie rock band Copeland.
The movie is short and its AI origins are only really obvious when paused. Otherwise, you might think he was simply the victim of an overzealous editor with access to some powerful visual effects software and actors who don't know how to act in front of a green screen.
For the most part, it manages to avoid the uncanny valley, except when the young founder smiles, then it's too much like watching “The Polar Express.” Still, considering that it was produced with the alpha version of Sora and with relatively limited time and resources, you can see why some are very excited about Sora.
“Through Sora, we were able to tell this incredible story with remarkable speed and efficiency,” Native Foreign creative director and film director Nik Kleverov said in a statement. “Toys”R”Us is the perfect brand to embrace this AI strategy and we are thrilled to collaborate with their creative team to help lead the next wave of innovative storytelling.”
The debut of “The Rise of Toys”R”Us” at the Cannes Lions Festival underscores the growing importance of artificial intelligence tools in advertising and branding. The film acts as a new proof of concept for Sora. And it may portend many more AI-assisted generative films in the future. That being said, there is a lot of skepticism and resistance in the entertainment world. Writers and actors have long been on strike, in part over generative AI, and new contracts included rules for how companies can use AI models. The world premiere of a movie written by ChatGPT had to be canceled due to complaints about that aspect, and if Toys”R”Us tried to make their movie available in theaters, they would probably face the same backlash.
