A short AI-made animation posted on X on 26 September by an account called Antrofrog spread quickly, and much of the reaction was hostile, in a field where AI already faces strong opposition. Set to Sade's Smooth Operator, it follows a deadpan man with an umbrella who strolls through a city catching falling plant pots and rescuing cats from trees without changing expression.
Creative Bloq says viewers soon spotted the AI through a clash of styles, with a lead who looks like an anime villain among characters drawn like children's books and old New Yorker cartoons. Some said a boy looked like Ben from Song of the Sea, and one joked that, since AI output has no copyright, real artists should simply take the umbrella man's design.
Others picked at the plotting: a stolen bag given to a woman who already has one, a child sent spinning into the road, a stranger's painting spoiled. Another said the ending missed its obvious joke, a broken umbrella in the rain. One commenter said the doubt was worse than the look, since viewers now question whether any gesture or pause was meant.
Creative Bloq frames the row within animation's resistance to AI over jobs and copyright, and says it raises the question of whether prompt-made work can stand beside human art.
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