Disney’s Deal with Sora AI

Crowding around the couch with family to watch one of Disney’s many eye-catching films has been a token memory for many. How could it not, when Disney is a practical founding father of animation? From Mickey Mouse to Elsa and Anna, Disney has held the hearts of Americans and more for decades. Now, imagine harboring that same sense of excitement to watch a Disney movie, only to discover that no human animators were involved in its creation. The movie is entirely artificially-generated. While initially a far-fetched concept, this scene could likely become reality with the new costly deal Walt Disney Co. has signed with Open AI’s Sora, a deal many believe will change the course of the world of artificial intelligence.

Decided on December 11, 2025, Sora users will soon possess the ability to generate content using over 200 Disney-licensed characters early this year. This comprises Walt Disney animations, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. On Disney’s side, the animation company will be implementing OpenAI for projects (APIs) and employees (ChatGPT). 

Disney has made a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, meaning the company has bought $1 billion worth of stock for Sora. As stocks are ownership shares, Disney has cemented itself in the industry of artificial intelligence. Artists and viewers alike are concerned about the implications of this new deal because of the confirmation of what had recently been speculation: AI is coming to professional animation.

Hailey Park, a student at Ridgewood High School and an active participant in the arts, says she believes “Sora AI in an art perspective is just an excuse for people who have either extreme egos or self doubt to do art.” She adds that, “Personally, I believe that one of the main things of art is to invoke emotion from purely oneself, and without the main reliance on oneself it becomes not only someone else’s, but not even art in general… I also believe that art as a whole is the combination of creativity along with physical skill, [i.e.] one, the idea, and two, the use of one’s own hands.” 

Another anonymous student at RHS expresses concern on the business aspect of the agreement. “I mean, like, Disney already is so famous; investing 1 billion [dollars] into Sora AI doesn’t give them much back,” they said. As for the art aspect, they believe it to be a negative thing but are not very familiar with much of the situation. 

Vivaan Sheth, another student who also previously knew nothing about the deal, says, “I personally think it’s a normal partnership and have no ill feelings against it.” He does not consider himself a member of the arts.

The two anonymous students’ opinions seem to be the general consensus at RHS: many have no knowledge of the contract at all, and while they possess vague opinions they have no interest in involving themselves. This serves a stark comparison to those who fear their jobs or future jobs may be actively at risk because of artificial intelligence. Though it is Disney’s choice to license their characters as chosen, the implementation of AI’s valid concerns persist. The most pressing of these is the environmental destruction and the opinion that art is losing its authenticity. The human aspect, starting from cell animations to brush strokes on a digital canvas, is intrinsic to the history of animation as well as what the craft is. Sora’s new lifelike replication of real life and CGI (computer-rendered) content is already throwing the barriers of what exists into disarray, and there is no anticipating what it will do to the animation field.

While AI has always been a concern prior to the Sora deal, and AI-generated “movies” have already been produced, such as “Where the Robots Grow” by director and writer Tom Paton, the fact that Disney—a staple of human-made animation—is now submitting to a method deemed soulless and unqualified by the majority of the arts community feels much more real.  

“Disney joining AI is the tipping point of AI becoming fully integrated into creative spaces, which deprives many of the original human spark it has,” Aarushi Patel, freshman arts member at RHS, explains. “With Disney losing its creativity to AI, many other animation studios are soon to follow suit. How far are we willing to lose the uniqueness of human originality and creativity to just a machine?”

“Animation quality is nowhere the quality of it twenty years ago,” Deetya Pamuluri, a fellow freshman, adds. “And it will only go down with AI.”

Disney has been known for its heavy copyright infringement in the past. Just recently, Walt Disney Co sent a cease-and-desist, a legal order requiring someone to refrain from engaging in a certain action, to Google for feeding Disney content into Google’s AI sources. Many were overjoyed—this was the animation community fighting back!—until that was no longer the case. Disney’s Sora agreement drastically alters the state of Disney’s copyright criteria and discounts previous legal claims, as Sora is open for public use, allowing anyone to prompt videos of Disney’s characters. The cease-and-desist had never been about protecting artistic integrity, it was about monopolizing it. Though anyone can use Sora, it still is subscription-based, and therefore vastly profitable. The fact that Disney was willing to change their legal terms out of monetary benefits opens various possibilities of other animation studios following suit.

Disney will be unable to crack down on these prompted creations, and as a result it is expected for more startlingly realistic and misleading “slop” content, a term used for AI-generated shortform videos, to fill social media feeds. Disney may begin to rely solely on generation, hiring less human workers to animate and less live writers to script.

“I don’t want to watch something that is AI,” a second anonymous student argues. “I don’t want to watch pregnant Mickey and Goofy having a baby together.”

The hope for human artists still endures, however. Like with the AI-generated Coca Cola advertisements, Disney’s agreement with Sora has unified and will continue to unify those who still value human-made work. Many RHS students are unaware of what is happening, but there exist those who care and work to inform people of what is happening. Other animation studios may choose to partner with OpenAI, but others will stay firmly rooted in their values and get the recognition they deserve. 

As for Disney, one can only hope that they will handle this deal as responsibly, and that the effects of this agreement will not be calamitous.