AI-Dubbed Wildlife Film From Yakutia Heads to Nationwide Release

A children’s film, My Taiga Holidays, produced by the Yakutsk Film Studio, is set for nationwide release in Russia after being dubbed entirely using artificial intelligence, Ulus Media reported. It is the country’s first film in which animals were created using AI. According to the filmmakers, they trained AI to recognize animal facial expressions to improve realism. The voices of the forest animals were also generated by AI.

AI Takes the Voice

Director Alexander Lukin said the film blends cinematic storytelling with technology to make audiences believe that animals can think and feel. The story follows a grandfather-hunter and his grandson as they protect the forest from poachers. The film will be screened in theaters across Russia.

Earlier, Soyuzmultfilm CEO Yuliana Slashcheva said AI can significantly cut production costs for animated films. She added that younger audiences increasingly expect more technologically advanced storytelling, and AI is likely to become a core part of the industry, helping animation reach what she described as a “new orbit.”