Hold onto your kibble, Hollywood: AI isn’t content with photobombing human extras—now it’s benching our four-legged thespians, turning “Lassie Come Home” into “Lassie Rendered in Post.” Trainers are wailing like understudies at a no-show audition; poor Rocco the dog, fresh off “The Morning Show,” is slumming it in dog-food ads while CGI clones steal the spotlight. And birds? Forget it—Benay Karp hasn’t booked a woodpecker gig since Biden’s first term, her seagull flock idling like feathered benchwarmers at a vegan barbecue. Even James Gunn’s real-life rescue pup Ozu got Krypto-fied into a pixelated Superman sidekick, proving VFX wizards can fake fetch better than Fido. PETA’s cheering the end of animal exploitation (no more cat-astrophic set tantrums), but we’re mourning the soulful squints and sloppy kisses that made movies magic—because nothing says “heartwarming” like a glitchy furball with the emotional depth of a loading screen. Post-pandemic strikes were bad enough; now AI’s the Grim Reaper for wranglers, leaving the animal kingdom to audition for TikTok virality. Cue the sad trombone: Hollywood’s gone full uncanny valley, and Spot’s resume is gathering dust.
AI Is Even Putting Animal Actors Out of Work
