I'm an AI fan, but Netflix's use of an AI-generated Gene Wilder voice for its Willy Wonka reality show broke me and we've officially gone too far

Date:
Tue, 30 Jun 2026 18:45:51 +0000

Description:
Netflix's latest reality show confection is based on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but it's the AI recreation of Gene Wilder's voice that has us sour.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter 55 years ago, the legendary
Gene Wilder invited us to join him in "a world of pure imagination." Now, a disembodied AI recreation of his sonorous vocals is inviting us to join him
in his "my newest wonders beyond imagination."

But there's little-to-nothing imaginative about the use of an AI-generated version of Wilder's voice to help sell Netflix subscribers on a new Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory -themed reality show, and, quite honestly, I hate everything about it. To catch you up, this new show , which is set to
air in September on one of the best streaming services , Netflix, borrows
sets (recreations), themes, and even one living actor who played an Oompa Loompa from the original 1971 film to create a reality show that it hopes
will somehow, if not match, approach the charm and danger of the original film. Latest Videos From Watch full video here: Not getting the point Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory , based on the Roald Dahl book Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory , is a commentary on wealth, poverty, family, risk, and cruelty, all wrapped in a candy-covered fantasy.

The protagonist, Charlie Bucket, is so poor he lives in a ramshackle London cottage with multiple generations of family members, including a grandfather who has not left his bed in years. Meanwhile, Wonka is finally opening up his secretive factory to a select group of the public, chosen at random via
golden tickets hidden in some of his candy. You may like Hasbro is transforming Optimus Prime into an AI chatbot, but I prefer the truck 39% of new podcasts are generated by AI but I won't be listening Watch the AI-recreated Val Kilmer's performance in a new movie trailer

I know, it sounds like a confection, but the first scene in which Wilder appears gives you a hint that this is not your typical children's story. When all the winners, including Charlie, arrive, Wonka (Wilder) unsteadily walks out while using a cane to greet them. As he approaches the gate, Wilder loses his grip on the cane and falls forward, but instead of face-planting, he does an effortless tumble and is suddenly upright and boisterous.

I tell you all this because there is so much complexity and nuance in that
one scene and virtually all of it engineered by Wilder's performance. Throughout the film, his face and especially his voice drive the narrative
and mood, yo-yoing it between playful host and sinister guide who keeps
losing children to one self-imposed calamity after another. Get daily
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Never before or since have I seen a character in a children's film swing so wildly from gentle and childlike to ominous. It's a wonder the Academy didn't recognize his performance. Wonka's The Golden Ticket | Official Teaser | Netflix - YouTube Watch On Fast forward more than half a century to this streaming show, which uses Wilder's voice with the permission of his family; you can get your first sample of it in the new show trailer (above). Created by increasingly well-known ElevenLabs , the voice is, in my opinion, a poor recreation at best, but I guess I might also call it unmistakably
Wilder-like.

It's also depressing. The thing about Wilder's real voice in films like Willy Wonka , The Producers , Stir Crazy , and Young Frankenstein is that it could be wildly emotional. Wilder as a hysteric was often the funniest thing you
had ever seen. No one went off the rails like Gene Wilder, but also few other actors could express such warmth and compassion, and sometimes he did it all in a single scene. What to read next I watched a 90-minute AI movie and Hollywood can stop worrying, for now Tom Hanks thinks AI replacing actors is 'a scary thought' This AI-only streaming service launches soon and
filmmakers aren't happy

At the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory , Wonka discovers Charlie is stealing his everlasting gobstopper to deliver it to Wonka's chief competitor. His anger at Charlie is terrifying, but as soon as Charlie leaves the candy behind, Wonka (Wilder) transforms, and the compassion and joy in
his voice is something to behold.

The AI Wilder voice in this trailer is devoid of passion, pathos, or really any recognizable human emotion. It's a soulless Gene Wilder.

Look, there's no doubt the power of AI is transforming life and culture. It lets us do things we never thought possible. It's a co-worker, a companion, a sleuth, a coder, and a creator, but we are now at the point where we must ask ourselves: Just because AI can, should it?

I guess we can ask a similar question about the AI-generated Val Kilmer in
the unfortunately titled As Deep as the Grave . While I can understand if Kilmer had completed some filming and they wanted to bridge the gap in scenes filmed after his death, this full-scale recreation, even with the estate's permission, seems wrong. I love these actors, but none are irreplaceable, and using their likenesses and voices simply to generate nostalgia and sell a product feels very wrong, and certainly not the best use of AI (and all the resources behind it).

Surely, we can agree that it's often better to let the dead stay dead and not try to resurrect a simulacrum of their essence through the power of AI. The results are, to be honest, rather like the work of Baron Von Frankenstein: a monstrous creation that probably has no place on earth.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/streaming/entertainment/im-an-ai-fan-but-netflixs-us e-of-an-ai-generated-gene-wilder-voice-for-its-willy-wonka-reality-show-broke- me-and-weve-officially-gone-too-far


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