Filmmakers bet on human craft over AI for animated St. Francis musical
A Singapore-based Cantiva Studios is developing a 3D animated musical trilogy, "The Francis Chronicles," about St. Francis of Assisi, choosing a human‑led animation process over AI. The trio—director Benjamin Tanaka, executive producer Gabriel Patrick, and composer Ethan Hsu—reunited after collaborating on Pope Francis' 2024 visit theme song and now focus on storytelling for families with young children. The project was initiated after the Jubilee Year of St. Francis and includes consultation with Franciscan friars in Singapore for research and authenticity. The team opted for hand‑drawn animation to preserve artistic expression, rejecting AI‑generated visuals despite cost and time savings. The film aims to reach international audiences while celebrating Catholic heritage through music and animation.
19 days ago
A Singapore-based team is developing The Francis Chronicles, a human-led 3D animated musical trilogy about St. Francis of Assisi. The filmmakers plan to combine Catholic research, original music, and traditional artistic work while seeking international financing through Kickstarter.
The project is being created by director Benjamin Tanaka, executive producer Gabriel Patrick, and composer Ethan Hsu through Cantiva Studios, a Singapore film company focused on animated works with cultural and spiritual themes.
Tanaka and Hsu previously collaborated on “One Church, One People,” the official theme song for Pope Francis’ 2024 visit to Singapore. Patrick joined their developing project in January 2026.
The trio established Cantiva Studios eight months after their initial discussions, with The Francis Chronicles as its flagship production. Tanaka is making his feature-directing debut with the film.
The filmmakers decided not to use generative AI to create the film’s animation, despite the technology’s ability to produce visuals quickly and reduce production costs. Instead, traditionally trained artists and animators will shape the work from its initial concepts through the final frames.
Patrick said human-made films provide a wider range of authentic expression for both viewers and artists. The team described its position as an effort to keep human judgment and creativity at the center of production rather than a rejection of technology altogether.
Tanaka also connected the decision to Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which he said emphasized the dignity of human labor.
The trilogy will portray St. Francis’ life, beginning with his early years and religious calling. The first film, titled Francis and the Voice of Creation, is intended to cover that period.
The second film is planned to address the founding and expansion of the Franciscan movement. The third will focus on St. Francis’ final years, including his receipt of the stigmata, described in the article as the first documented instance involving a saint.
Franciscan friars in Singapore have advised the filmmakers on research into the saint’s life. Friar John-Paul Tan identified a series of anniversaries connected to St. Francis, from the 800th anniversary of the Franciscan Rule in 2023 through the anniversary of his canonization in 2028.
Friar Derrick Yap said the project should encourage audiences to appreciate creation in the spirit of St. Francis’ imagery of “Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Fire, and Sister Mother Earth.”
The creators chose a musical format to express the story through music as well as narrative. They selected animation rather than live action to make the project accessible to families and young children.
The production’s visual development includes 3D-rendered scenes of St. Francis praying before the San Damiano crucifix and inside San Damiano Church.
Cantiva Studios launched a global Kickstarter campaign on Sept. 8 to finance development of the first film. The campaign funds are intended for research, scriptwriting, character design, and storyboarding before animation begins.
The filmmakers aim to create a trilogy for theatrical and streaming audiences outside Singapore. The project is positioned as an international production from a small domestic film industry in which locally made films represent only a small portion of titles screened in the country.
Human artistry preserves Catholic heritage in animated St. Francis films
Animated films about St. Francis of Assisi can serve more than entertainment: they can transmit Catholic memory through images, story, music, and imagination. This is especially significant because Francis’s own life profoundly influenced Christian art, literature, drama, and popular devotion. His story became a major subject for painters and helped inspire religious drama in Italy.
Animation is well suited to Franciscan themes. The medium can portray creation not merely as scenery or talking animals, but as a gift ordered toward praise of the Creator. The Canticle of the Sun, for example, does not place creatures on the same level as God; it invites each creature to praise God according to its own nature.
The human element is equally important. Animated films depend on writers, artists, voice actors, musicians, editors, designers, and technicians. Pope Leo XIV describes filmmaking as a communal work in which every skill contributes to the whole. He also calls cinema a possible “workshop of hope,” capable of helping viewers recover beauty, dignity, and meaning.
Such films should, however, avoid reducing Francis to a generic environmentalist, a harmless medieval eccentric, or merely an advocate of peace. His central reality was conversion to Christ. He embraced poverty, loved the Church, respected the priesthood, preached the Gospel, and sought the salvation of souls. His concern for creation and human dignity flowed from this Christ-centered faith, not from a spirituality detached from revelation.
This is where artistic freedom and fidelity must meet. Pope Benedict XVI taught that artists help make spiritual realities accessible through “words, colours, forms,” while Pope John Paul II affirmed that film can become a meeting place between culture and faith and even assist evangelization. A successful animated film need not turn into a catechism lesson, but it should preserve the inner logic of Francis’s life: love of Christ expressed through humility, fraternity, mercy, reverence for creation, and service.
The strongest films will therefore present Francis as a man transformed by divine love. John Paul II described him as an apostle of peace whose witness reaches beyond Christian boundaries, while emphasizing that his ardor came from the love of the crucified Christ.
Human artistry preserves Catholic heritage most effectively when it does not merely reproduce old images, but allows their spiritual meaning to become intelligible to new generations. Animated St. Francis films can accomplish this by uniting beauty and truth: presenting the saint’s recognizable stories while leading viewers beyond nostalgia toward conversion, wonder, and praise of God.