The famous Walt Disney Studios site in Burbank, California, still makes you think that magic is being made by hand. An homage to the 1937 classic Snow White is evident atop one building with enormous statues of the Seven Dwarfs. However, something quite contemporary is taking place inside a little theater on the property, just a short distance away. Artificial intelligence systems that can accomplish some of the tasks that only human artists could do are already being tested by Disney in 2025.

One quiet afternoon this fall, Disney invited journalists and executives to watch four startups show their newest technology. The star of the day was a young company called Animaj. On a big screen, bright and cheerful characters from the children’s show Pocoyo danced and jumped. What looked like ordinary cartoon fun was actually made much faster than before, thanks to AI.

As the lecture went on, many people said that AI is becoming more and more common in all areas of life, from fun and schooling to cartoons.  Technology is changing the rules of the game in even the gaming world. It’s also making things more personal and speeding up the release of new projects. However, some things remain unchanged, such as the ability to claim your no deposit free spins at Casino Brango for existing players and calmly spin the bright new slots when you want to take a break from your workday.

A Tool That Cuts Months Down to Weeks

Animaj was chosen for Disney’s 2025 Accelerator program. That means Disney gives the startup money, advice, and a chance to work together on real projects. The results are already impressive.

In the past, a single five-minute episode of a show like Pocoyo needed five months of work. Now, with Animaj’s AI helping the artists, the same episode can be finished in less than five weeks. The CEO of Animaj, Sixte de Vauplane, explains it simply: human artists still draw the most important poses, but the AI quickly fills in all the small movements in between.

Disney likes this approach. David Min, the vice president who runs Disney’s innovation programs, says the company looked at thousands of AI startups before picking Animaj. Most AI video tools today let anyone type a sentence and get a finished cartoon, but the results often look strange or wrong. Animaj is different. The artist stays in full control.

Artists Stay in Charge — That’s the Disney Promise

Disney says it will never let computers take over the important part of animation that is making stories. The new tools are meant to get rid of the dull, repeated parts of the job so that artists can spend more time on the creative and fun parts.

Here’s what actually happens when an animator uses Animaj’s system:

1. The artist draws the key poses (the main positions a character needs to hit in a scene).
2. The AI instantly creates all the in-between frames that move look smooth.
3. If anything looks off, the artist corrects it with a few clicks or strokes of a stylus.
4. The final animation still has the exact style and personality the human artist wants.

Because the AI was trained only on pictures from the same show, the characters never suddenly grow extra fingers or change faces the way many public AI tools do. Everything stays “on-model” and true to the original design.

This is important to Disney. The company has spent almost a hundred years building a special look and feel that families around the world recognize. Letting a generic AI ruin that style is not an option.

Why Speed Suddenly Matters So Much

Streaming changed everything. Years ago, a studio could spend two or three years making one animated movie and that was fine. A lot of new shows need to be added to sites like Disney+ every year to keep people watching and subscribing. It’s no longer nice to have faster tools; you need them to stay alive.

With Animaj, Disney believes it can test new ideas much quicker. Teams no longer have to wait a year to see if a pilot show works. They can now finish one in just a few months. More shows can be made right away if kids really like it. It won’t cost or take too much time for the team to try something else if something doesn’t work.

Animaj even uses a second kind of AI to watch what children are talking about online. The system notices which themes or jokes are popular at the moment, then the writers and artists can create fresh episodes about those topics while they are still trending.

How the Magic Actually Works Behind the Scenes

On the Disney lot, visitors can sit under the California sun and watch an animator work with the new tool in real time. A friendly Pocoyo character appears on one half of the screen as a simple sketch. On the other half, a finished 3D model moves exactly the way the sketch says it should.

The animator draws a quick line to move an arm a little higher. In less than a second, the 3D character updates and the motion looks perfect. What used to take hours of careful drawing now takes seconds.

Here is the short list of the two main ways Animaj’s AI helps:

• Motion In-Betweening. The artist draws Pose A (standing) and Pose Z (sitting). The AI draws every tiny step in between so the character sits down naturally and smoothly.
• Style Protection. The AI was trained on more than 300,000 real drawings and poses from past seasons of the same show, so every new frame automatically matches the official art style.

Because artists only have to fix small mistakes instead of drawing every single frame by hand, they finish scenes much faster and have more energy left for storytelling, acting, and funny expressions — the parts that make cartoons feel alive.

What Animators and Unions Are Saying

Not everyone is happy yet. Many artists worry that faster tools will mean fewer jobs. Last year, the Animation Guild tried to add strong rules about AI to its contract, but only a few small protections were accepted. Animators can still be asked to use AI tools at work, and most cannot stop their old drawings from being used to train new systems.

Animaj and Disney repeat the same message: this is not about replacing people; it is about removing the most tiring chores. The companies say experienced artists will always be needed for the big creative decisions.

History shows that animation has changed tools many times before. Artists once painted every frame on glass with watercolor. Then they moved to drawing on paper, then to early computers, and later to full 3D software for movies like Frozen and Tangled. Each change made things faster and opened new possibilities. Disney believes AI is simply the next normal step.

Looking Toward Tomorrow

Under the same blue California sky where Walt Disney once walked, the next generation of animators is learning to work side by side with artificial intelligence. The famous Seven Dwarfs on the building roof still whistle “Heigh-ho” as they hold up the studio, but inside the offices and stages, the song has a new verse.

The goal has not changed: make stories that delight children and families everywhere. Only the tools are getting smarter. For Disney in 2025, magic is still made by talented people; it just arrives on screen a lot faster than it used to.