A Modern AI Tale With A Grimm Brothers Twist

Bruce Von Stiers

When AI meets the Brothers Grimm and serial killers get tossed in, you have a really weird and scary story. That is what I found when I watched Mombomb Part 1.

Mombomb is the brainchild, so to speak, of Patricia Beckman Wells. She has quite the resume of animation and artificial intelligence. She's been a consultant for Epic Games, was a CG animator for the film Batman and Robin and has spoken before groups at Pixar studios and at SIGGRAPH, the premiere conference for computer graphics and related technology. She also was the co-lead for the Bangalore Studios build for Dreamworks SKG.

The premise of Mombomb is of survival. It is the story of Pez. She is a young girl whose mother has told her stories of the Brothers Grimm. Pez knows that there are monsters out there, some of them are very real. Like the troll under the bridge that will come out of hiding to eat young girls. Young girls like Pez and the other members of her Girl Scout group. But Pez will do what she can to keep her friends safe and to survive.

Mombomb Part 1 sets the stage for the entire story. This is meant to be an episodic tale. Eventually all of the episodes will be stitched together to form a feature film.

For now, the first part gives you a bit of the background of Pez's story. We learn that we all can become wolves like the one who ate Little Red Riding Hood. We learn that her fellow scouts stop coming to camp and there is a real monster out in the woods.

Beckman Wells grew up in the Toledo, Ohio area. During her youth there were serial killers on the loose. Apparently, at one point, she and a few other young girls were stalked by the killers, who were eventually caught and imprisoned. Beckman Wells drew on this fear and survival tactics to craft the story that became Mombomb. In a statement she wrote,” Mombomb is the story of our survival through fantasy. Mombomb has a joyous ending. Mombomb will teach you how to keep the monsters out of your head. Mombomb will teach you to be strong.”

Beckman Wells used several AI in a unique pipeline to create Mombomb. The result is a very crisp and clean AI animated film.

The story in Mombomb Part 1 does kind of start to take a page or two from the stories of the Brothers Grimm. But it also sets the stage for Pez to become a hero who slays the monsters that prey on girls and young women.

Mombomb Part 1 will be featured at the upcoming Slamdance film festival.

The film has an official website where you can watch a trailer for it. You can also learn a bit more about the film and the force behind it, Patricia Beckman Wells. That website is https://www.mombombfilm.com/

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© 2025 Bruce E Von Stiers