‘Anti-AI slop’ handmade kids’ show Muffin Mumma hits Kickstarter target

Claymation show Muffin Mumma features muffins who converse in giggles

Filming is underway on a handmade UK stop-motion animated series for children after the producers launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in response to the growing amount of ‘AI slop’ being targeted at kids.

Muffin Mumma is aimed at children aged two to five and features muffins made of clay who live and play in a kitchen, making a mess and speaking only in giggles.

Margate-based A+C Studios, founded by Dan Richards, is producing the show and is aiming to have an initial six episodes ready by April 2027.

The show creator, Margate Muffins, launched a Kickstarter campaign last month to crowdfund the £6,000 (US$8,091) budget for the show and reached their target after attracting more than 45 backers.

No broadcaster, streamer or distributor is attached to the show, which the producers said will allow them to retain ownership and “make it the way we want.”

“Six episodes of proper handmade kids’ TV, sculpted in clay and moved by real human hands, one tiny frame at a time, in Margate. No robots. No algorithms. Just clay, giggles and some very patient animators,” the producers said on their Kickstarter page.

A growing number of producers, distributors and broadcasters in the children’s media space are focusing on gentler content in response to algorithms serving AI-made animation to children.

“Dan wanted his kids to watch something calm, gentle and made with care – the kind of telly a lot of us grew up on,” the producers said. “We wanted something slower, made by people who care who is on the other side of the screen.

“Our kids deserve better than AI slop. More and more of what little ones watch online is picked by autoplay, built to keep them watching, and increasingly made by AI. Muffin Mumma is made for audiences, not algorithms. Every muffin is real clay, on a real set, moved by real hands. And it’s proudly British, made in Kent.”