Where the Robots Grow

Earth's last survivors send robots to farm a new world, and Cru, the newest, has his purpose rewritten by a pod carrying the last human baby. Written, produced, and directed by Tom Paton, it runs 88 minutes and is the first release from AiMation Studios.

The production numbers are the argument: nine people and about $696,000, a rounding error for an animated feature, and why Paton called it his Toy Story moment. What it demonstrates is narrower: robots render beautifully and humans don't. The human character POP is where the seams show. Most generative work of this period was one person proving a point; this, with a crew and ten more projects behind it, was an attempt at building an industry.