Jumbo Film Explodes Amid Rising AI Trends To Evidence It's Not Easy To Replace Art Values

The animated film Jumbo has succeeded in becoming a topic of conversation and has now been watched by three million people. (Instagram/@VisinemaPictures)

JAKARTA In the midst of the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the creative industry that sparked controversy, the animated film Jumbo managed to record extraordinary success. According to experts, this is proof that animated films still require an irreplaceable touch of hand by anything.

The original Indonesian animated film, Jumbo, recorded extraordinary domestic success. Since its premiere on Lebaran 2025, March 31, the film, directed by Ryan Adriandhy, has been named the best-selling Indonesian animation of all time with a record audience reaching more than three million.

The success of this film by Visinema Animation is due to many factors. In addition to the story that is built related to everyday life, Jumbo also attracts the attention of millions of viewers because it presents animations that are said to be able to compete with foreign studio works such as PIxar.

Executive Director of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Institute Heru Sutadi said that Jumbo's success shows that human-made animation still has a strong appeal, even in the midst of the onslaught of AI utilization.

Jumbo films appear amid the increasing trend of AI utilization in the digital industry. Even recently, netizens were made excited by the emergence of images made in Studio Ghibli style.

OpenAI, the owner of the ChatGPT platform, recently launched its newest image generator on the ChatGPT-4o platform. The platform allows users to create a typical styled image of animation studio, Ghibli, from Japan.

For information, Studio Ghibli is an animated Japanese company whose headquarters are in Tokyo. The studio was founded by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and produceras after acquiring Top Crave assets on June 15, 1985.

Studio Ghibli is famous for his works in the global animation industry. Many millions of viewers around the world have enjoyed his work, and won many awards.

The appearance of ChatGPT which launched its newest feature by turning it into a Studio Ghibli-style anime into a debate.

A user on platform X admits that the images produced from artificial intelligence give a sophisticated and full of nostalgia, as if they are scenes from old memories. He also said his old pictures became more beautiful after being changed to AI.

But not a few have criticized the use of AI to turn images into Ghibli nuances. This action, according to other netizens, can be categorized as an act of stealing other people's creativity, especially since Studio Ghibli's work is made not easy and cheap.

Several sources said, for one scene with a duration of four seconds in the film by Studio Ghibli, it took more than a year to make it.

In addition to the issue of stealing unethical works of art, images or videos made by AI are also considered as 'vading' as man-made, as stated by Heru Sutadi. According to him, Jumbo's success in attracting the audience's attention is not only because of its stunning visuals, but also a warm, universal, and meaningful story.

This film, said Heru, offers nostalgia, values such as friendship, courage, and confidence.

"As we all know, AI, although able to produce animation quickly and efficiently, often lacks an authentic 'soul' or emotion," he said.

"In addition, this animated film also shows that true art values, which involve in-depth creative processes, personal storytelling and uniqueness, are not easily replaced by AI," said Heru.

Meanwhile, Digital Communications expert from the University of Indonesia (UI) Firman Kurniawan said, to get a work, animated films such as Jumbo should not worry about competition with AI.

Because basically, what AI can do today is still limited to technical capabilities.

"AI is limited to that, but that abstract ideas cannot yet be produced by AI. AI has no idea, does not have the will to create a certain storyline, now that is limited to AI," he explained.

However, Firman did not deny that AI looks sophisticated. AI can translate an idea or idea of someone into an interesting work. So indirectly, this AI combines ideas that exist in the human mind and then AI is realized.

"But indeed AI is not always superior, it is not always more certain to win, not necessarily, because behind a work there is an idea, it is AI that has not reached there," he said.