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Poupelle of Chimney Town Picture Book Gets 'Live-Action' AI Short Film

posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Short debuts at SSFF & Asia awards ceremony on June 10


Cafe Group announced last week that it is producing an AI generated 195-210 second "live-action" short film titled "Chimney Town" based on Akihiro Nishino's Poupelle of Chimney Town (Entotsu-chō no Poupelle) picture book. AI tool brand KamikAI by Ikhor is co-producing the short, which also uses Ikhor's WonderCanvas AI tool for production. Nishino is credited as the producer. The short will premiere at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2026 awards ceremony on June 10.

Nishino stated that he is thinking of having the short screen at a screening of the CHIMNEY TOWN: Frozen in Time anime film at the Tokyo International Forum on June 28.

CHIMNEY TOWN: Frozen in Time (Entotsu-chō no Poupelle ~Yakusoku no Tokeidai~), the sequel film to Studio 4°C's 2020 anime film of Akihiro Nishino's Poupelle of Chimney Town (Entotsu-chō no Poupelle) picture book, opened in Japan on March 27. It sold 88,000 tickets and earned 122,348,500 yen (about US$767,000) in its first three days. The film will screen at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in the festival's non-competitive "Annecy Presents" section later this month.

As before, Nishino supervised the film's production, and penned the film's script, with Yūsuke Hirota returning as director at Studio 4°C.

The film is based on Nishino's Tick-Tock ~Yakusoku no Tokeidai~ picture book, which shipped in 2019.

Sources: Akihiro Nishino's X/Twitter account, Anime! Anime! (Kōtarō Nakase)


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