Fact Check: Is the Harry Potter Pixar movie on Disney Plus real? Viral trailer debunked
A trailer video for an animated rendition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone appeared online on Friday, November 17. With it, claims of the movie being created by Pixar Studios, and it being released on Disney+ also spread like wildfire. However, this is far from the truth. Pixar is not creating the animated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone movie.
TikTok user tony.aube took to the video-sharing platform and shared a video where he explained that an animated trailer for the Harry Potter movie was available on Disney+. The netizen seemingly had his camera pointed at a television screen where the supposed film teaser appeared.
One could see Harry Potter and Rubeus Hagrid in an animated form on the screen. Viewers also got a glimpse into the magical world in Pixar’s style. The Hedwig’s Theme track could be heard playing in the background as well. The post, shared on X by @forumpandlr, was captioned:
"Using Artificial Intelligence, a fan makes a trailer showing what "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" would be like if it were adapted by Pixar."
The trailer was brief and lasted for lesser than a minute. The TikTok video was quick to go viral across social media platforms and amassed over one million views.
Although the movie trailer looked convincing, Pixar is not creating it in reality.
An animated rendition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is not being released
X (formerly known as Twitter) user @forumpandlr was one among the many who revealed that the trailer was created by a fan using artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, Pixar has also not taken to their official social media accounts to announce the movie, as is customary for new releases. Nor have they released an official statement regarding the same. All of this points towards the video being fake.
The TikToker who created the trailer also took to the video-sharing platform to reveal that it was fake and that he created it using AI:
“I was able to make this one-minute trailer in a single evening of work, which means that a team of highly-motivated people would probably finish the entire movie with current, existing tools in a couple of months, and at some point in the future, any of you will be able to do exactly this by simply asking the AI to do it for you.”
In another TikTok video, the trailer’s creator, who is also a former Google employee explained said that he was inspired to create the video after netizens created fake movie posters. He stated that the trailer was created using Runway ML, ChatGPT and Figma.
Hence, it is safe to say that Harry Potter fanatics cannot expect an animated version of the iconic fantasy series any time soon, despite the viral video and images online.
Fake posters of an animated Harry Potter movie have also appeared online. Some AI-generated images showed the animated versions of the three iconic characters Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.
This is not the first time netizens have fallen under the assumption that Pixar was releasing a new movie. Fake Pixar movie posters like that of Slaves, Among Us and Two Girls and One Cup have left netizens shocked in the past as well.
Some posters also claimed that the popular children’s movie production house was creating movies based on the Holocaust and the tragic death of George Floyd.
However, all of these are part of a recent internet trend where netizens seem to be creating fake movie placards using AI.
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Upasya Bhowal