Love, Sex & Cartoons
in islands, forests, courts & screens
Sometimes the discourse around AI slop and the shallowness of generative AI can get carried away. At other times, it demands to be reckoned with. And so must we must watch, cringe (or not?) and see where this is all headed.
Luckily, there is always genuine craft to offset. This week, I orchestrate cartoon gorgeousness and cartoon slop in the same dispatch, courtesy an anonymous Tiktoker and the band Gorillaz. At the other end, we have Sora’s (un)timely demise.
If it sounds all morose, it is far from! Some delightful visual feasts await, not featuring fruit. So put on your bibs, and let’s tuck in.
The Colour Bar- the friend in the industry who reads way too widely- so you don’t have to.
Fruity Romance: Love fruit? Think again.
▶️ Curated/Cuts: Gorillaz in India, IPL, Young Sherlock
Social Media: a real reckoning?
Stop Play: Sora’s demise.
➕ · X Files reboot · Supermodel Me · SNL UK · Nike x Beats ·Tiktok Radio ·
☝🏽Busy? Lazy? Multitasky? Click play above and let me read this to you.
1. A Fruity Romance Goes Sour
Love Island is a reality show. You might have seen it. You are very likely to have heard of it.
‘Fruit Love Island’ is a ripoff Tiktok reality show that follows the same idea and tropes. Except the entire cast is… animated fruit.
Yup. Anthropomorphic fruits flirting, gossiping, scheming, kissing, punching. It became a ‘viral sensation’ as we like to call these things, on Tiktok.
Oh, and it’s all AI generated.
Or did you just assume that already?
So an anonymous Tikokter (of course) started posting these some weeks back, and they exploded. Millions of views for each ‘episode’, skyrocketing follower count, fans who enjoyed it, others who found it weird, Love Island cast members weighing in. Perfect storm.
This is the first episode, and honestly, I had to stop myself from screaming out loud. (No, not out of excitement.)
So far, so par for course in 2020s viral entertainment?
But then, the ‘AI backlash’ started to gain momentum. In the time from when I spotted this a week or so ago, to when I am writing it, much happened. There has been a raucous categorisation of this as ‘AI slop’, calling the content an “ethical blackhole,” and enough complaints to result in episode takedowns and a sudden plummeting of view counts.
Cue hurt and cuss words from the ‘creator’ who didn’t understand why the internet that loved them so, had suddenly turned on their datacenter-powered entertainment. Their meltdown and ‘crashout’ saw celebration and mocking, with gleeful claims that “bullying works!”, while other fans- presumably left with a gaping void in their feast of content- clamoured the ‘show’ should continue.
A nutshell- if ever you wanted one- of our ragey, fickle, virality-obsessed, AI-fuelled entertainment landscape right now.
So long, fruits!
Now, where are my veggies?
Addendum: These were not the first talking fruit, and other ‘inspired’ content has already popped up- Too Fruity To Handle, I’m a Fruit…Get Me Out of Here! and Candy Love Island). The trend seems to have started with a single customised version of ChatGPT- Object Talk. Read about it and these bright, weird, fruit cartoons and absurd videos around pregnant broccoli, homophobic clementines and baby carrots pleading for their lives…. here.
2. Curated/Cuts
· Mowgli x Gorillaz ·
Virtual band Gorillaz are known for their animated shorts released with albums. This 8min short film accompanying their new album The Mountain is a wonderful, whimsical jaunt.
The lush 2D animation is awash with hand-drawn, painted elements. It takes us gently, weirdly, captivatingly from forest to river to village to cave to mountain; with animals, flowers, trees, holy men, snake oil salesmen and rapping heads.
Crafted by The Line, it took around 18 months to make, and is an unabashed homage to the styles of the 60s & 70s, “a love letter to the golden era of 2D animation”.
Very charmingly doffing their hats to The Jungle Book, yes- but here is a concerted effort to be human- like the decision to not execute any visuals that weren’t possible in that era.
“In a time of AI overload, this is our love letter to craftsmanship. We’re chasing the feel of pencil on paper. Paint on board. And all the imperfections that come with it.”- Co-director Max Taylor
Besides the craft, I come away with how captivating the film is, without a single spoken word. Eric Calderon has aptly said “in a world of spoon-fed narratives with second-screen repetition requiring obviousness to the point of utter boredom, thank goodness we get something thought-provoking, strange, open-ended.”
· Young Sherlock ·
Amazon Prime Video recently launched the new show, ‘Young Sherlock’. I am not particularly drawn to- yet another- take on the Sherlock world, sorry I mean ‘Sherlock Holmes IP’ (I am a fan of the good ol’ show with Jeremy Brent).
But the show titles are a sublime watch, with great ideas around clues and signs, and some brilliant transitions. They are crafted by the consistently wonderful Imaginary Forces.
· creative director ronnie koff · designer elizabeth steinberg · EP renée robson ·
· United We Watch ·
The IPL has kicked off in India- that two month long circus festival of cricket. It invariably brings with it some ambitious, enjoyable campaigns. This time JioStar/ Star Sports has tried to create a rallying call for the country to come together- ‘Ab Ek Hoke Dekh’. The two spots below introduce the idea a bit differently.
The first takes a more cinematic, big-picture filter on societal differences. There’s Raghubir Yadav stringing things together, which is always a +1 in my books! The overall craft, the texture and especially the music and lyrics are quite lovely.
The jarring note? The first 30sec or so set up differences/division. If you don’t already know this is a cricket spot (I didn’t, when I watched it the first time), a storyline that feels serious, important, even visceral… is then revealed as ‘just’ IPL. That leaves me a bit uncomfortable, before I let myself be carried away by the music. I understand the ‘clever’ narrative and the juxtaposition, but am not sure I enjoyed that casual belittling of real tensions.
Nonetheless, an enjoyable watch, and nicely crafted.
The second spot is more straight up- taking the unifying message, but using cricketers rapping to make it…. erm, ‘fun for the young audience’?
Director: Nikhil Rao · Music: Dipanjan Guha · Jamic films · ZeroFifty Mediaworks ·
3. Social Reckoning
“The Era Of Invincibility Is Over.”
“The Week Big Tech Was Brought To Heel.”
“Big Tech’s Tobacco Moment.”
Meta & Youtube have just lost a significant case in the US, being found guilty of deliberately designing addictive products and held liable for harmful mental health effects (Snapchat and TikTok quickly settled before trial). The jury also found them guilty of acting with malice, oppression & fraud.
The $ fines are barely pocket change, but the implications are larger. The products themselves (not only the content) are judged to be harmful. This opens the door for a potentially stormy couple of years ahead, and not just in the US.
It is being called Big Tech’s ‘tobacco moment’, and “the week big tech was brought to heel”. A potential turning point, forcing structural product changes which could change the businesses quite significantly.
A report here, a legal overview here, a quick look at India-relevance here, and ‘The era of invincibility is over’.
You could also look at this very good Insta carousel from a lawyer/mom Daphne Delvaux for a quick, sharp overview, or just to enjoy lines like “The jury said, get out of here you billionaire asparagus.”!
4. Stop Play
We have heard about how Sora had become a flop after a buzzy launch last year. It was burning $1m a day, and had no real revenue model to speak of.
Now, OpenAI has decided to shutter the service entirely. This also means Disney’s $1b investment and licensing deal is gone before it effectively took off (apparently the House of Mouse found out an hour before the public heard of it, in a WSJ report). Surprising (not!) how this news has not got the same gushing attention given to the deal announcement last year, which was variously seen as landmark, a game-changer,, and incredibly forward-thinking.
There is this on 404, which (a tad gleefully) talks about the “complete and utter failure of both Sora and Disney’s dalliance with AI garbage.” The piece also checks in on some of the other touted AI film projects that were signalling the demise of Hollywood, only to find many have quietly faded away. Acknowledging that AI Is sure to become part of the production process, Jason Koebler asserts that “the wild hype of AI slop as a direct threat to human storytelling and AI tools as a replacement for talented humans in Hollywood has not come to pass and it’s not clear if it ever will.”
Taking Sora’s end as the end of what it represented would be naive. The use- both meaningless and devious- of such AI Slop will continue to be something we have to grapple with (see the Fruit Island story above.) Jim Louderback points out, “Sora 2’s death won’t kill the creepy vision. Deepfakes, democratized creation and our obsession with starring in our own stories won’t die with Sora 2. Dozens of tools already fan those flames and many more are coming.”
Word.
(Also, seeing ‘democratised’ used in a not-sweepingly positive way is… good.)
Still on OpenAI, they have also shuttered (paused) the much-maligned ‘adult mode’, i.e. erotic ChatGPT. I suppose that doesn’t detract from Sam Altman’s stated declaration that OpenAI is “not the elected moral police of the world.”
In case we had any misconceptions there.
➕ Quick Hits
The Truth is Out There. X Files fans! Hulu is officially rebooting the cult series, with Ryan Coogler (Sinners, Black Panther) writing & directing the pilot. No reprise of Scully or Mulder (not yet!); but Himesh Patel & Danielle Deadwyler will star as new characters, “two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division devoted to cases involving unexplained phenomena.”
The long-running Asian reality series Supermodel Me is making a comeback, this time as a vertical show, by Refinery Media in collaboration with China’s COL Group, the show will run as a
microdramamicroseries on COL’s platform FlareFlow.SNL UK has finally kicked off in ol’ Blighty. Reactions are inevitably mixed, but largely positive. “Making British TV exciting again”, “pleasantly surprised”, bravery to be commended”, or the very British-sounding “didn’t fail and it could have been a lot worse.”
You can check out some of the skits on Youtube.TikTok Radio has launched in the US in partnership with iHeartMedia. “This station is built to feel like a living, breathing For You Feed, a place where creators, music fans and our on-air talent collide in real time to shape what’s next in culture.”
Beats x Nike have released earbuds. This sort of co-branded product is a first for Beats, but hey, it is “a collision of two brands that define performance, culture, and sports.”
I feel like social media is a party drug that we all started taking 10, 15 years ago
in big doses. It was like, this is so fun.
And now we're all addicted to it, and no one's getting high off it anymore.
It's just maintenance.
_Elizabeth Gilbert in the NY Mag, Oct 2025