Moonbug Entertainment, the company behind Cocomelon, Blippi, Little Baby Bum and Mia's Magic Playground, has told its artists to begin experimenting with generative AI in production, according to internal documents obtained by 404 Media. They include a generative AI policy and a "Studio AI Bible" setting out how the tools may be used.
The rules allow AI in ideation, scripting, storyboards, design and animation, but only as a helper. Staff may use it for generic assets such as background trees, furniture, texture and lighting references, outfit changes, or 3D turnarounds of characters that humans have already drawn. New characters, signature locations, story arcs, key dialogue and song lyrics must be human work, and any AI output has to be reworked by an artist before it can enter the pipeline. Pure text-to-image prompting is limited to research, prompts naming other studios' styles such as Pixar or Ghibli are banned, and changing a voice actor's performance needs sign-off from the legal team.
Copyright is the main reason for the caution. The documents stress that the studio can only own what people create, so every project needs a separate folder for AI material, prompts must be logged, and staff must record how a human transformed any AI asset that is used. Tools need individual legal approval and must be tried first on generic test characters rather than Moonbug's own IP.
A Moonbug spokesperson said no generative AI currently appears in its episodes, that finished work is checked frame by frame by people, and that the company sees AI as a way to cut repetitive work rather than replace creative staff.
The stakes are large. Moonbug's channels reach hundreds of millions of YouTube subscribers, Cocomelon spinoffs run on Netflix, a Universal film is in development and the show is moving to Disney+. The report notes that YouTube is already crowded with low-effort AI videos aimed at toddlers, and that crew on a live-action Cocomelon spinoff went on strike in May over pay and benefits.
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