Copán: La leyenda, a 74-minute Honduran fantasy built largely with generative AI, has been widely panned at home. Directed by Ricardo Morales for Level 7 Studios and drawing on Mayan myth and the Copán ruins, it was sold as proof that AI could let a country with almost no feature animation make films.
Viewers and local critics, including a widely shared review from Cinemafilia y Críticas, have attacked its inconsistent imagery, editing and flat performances, as well as blatant product placement. The Honduran Institute of Tourism has backed its promotion, and reports that some schools organised or required student screenings led critics to suspect an effort to prop up attendance.
The row spread beyond Honduras into a wider argument about AI in countries with little animation infrastructure. Many Honduran artists object that the film is being praised as innovation while bypassing their own efforts to build pipelines and jobs.
Morales says the film was 15 years in development and that AI made a production of this scale affordable for the first time; many local viewers seem more interested in whether the film shows craft than in the novelty of how it was made. The studio has not answered the outlet's request for comment.
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