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My thoughts: 1) If you don't try, you'll never know. If trying isn't going to financially ruin you, then there's no reason not to try. 2) There seems to be an insatiable demand for actual quality children's content. I don't think you can go wrong going after that market. 3) AI throws a wrinkle into things, but the things that I've seen done with AI all seem to have a very similar look. Either they have that hyper-realistic look (think of those alternate imaginings of movies set in different time periods that you see on YouTube, like a 1950s Star Wars on Cinemascope, that kind of thing) or they have a more cartoon-like Pixar sort of look. But I don't think you'll ever see anything *truly* unique out of AI, since it can only produce things that look like what it has been trained on. My gut instinct is that outside of certain narrow use-cases, it won't be the panacea everyone is making it out to be. That said, I could easily be wrong, the type of stuff that AI was producing just 3 years ago was fairly laughable, compared to what you're seeing now. But I still don't think it will be able to come up with anything truly unique. 4) As far as publishing your work, YouTube might be the best way to go as there is a pretty big kid's market there. However, in order to get promoted by the algorithm you'll need to produce shorts on a weekly basis, which is a pretty tall order.

@gazzamataz It's always great to see you. From time to time over the years I've seen projects here in the A:M Forum that really capture my curiosity and not just from a general perspective but from one that I guess I would call 'commericial'. In most of these I think... this is a really intriguing concept. Where things get a bit more fluid is where I think, "is this commercial enough?" and "How could this be simplified/polished". I should say that your project reminds me of some of the classics like "HR Puff n' Stuff" which really capture the imagination (and definitely did when I saw the show as a kid. Music has it's songs that are 'ear worms' that we find ourselves humming or thinking of frequently. When thinking of HR Puff 'n Stuff some of the design elements are like this. I think of Cling and Clang as supporting characters but almost all of the characters have an odd appeal that captures the attention. Your 'Bella the Bear' has some of this 'odd intrique' and you've put a lot of effort into the concept over the years. As you've suggested the look and feel is definitely vintage early 2000 CGI which in its own way has some appeal but for most probably lends its self more to curiosity than commericial viability. So to the question at hand which is: ```should I revisit my project once more to see if I get anywhere with it or is the market for children’s characters and stories so saturated I should just tinker with my project for the fun of it?``` I do think you should revisit the project but I would suggest for the moment tinkering with a 'for the fun of it' focus. You already know Bella and Friends could use a refresh in order to test if the concept can be made more viably commercial. While you don't care 'Bella' to be something you don't want it to be it would be a good exercise to consider what a commercial marketing house that took on the project might do to make the concept more marketable. I don't know how familiar you are with Eastman and Laird's experience with 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' but their story is something of a legend. There comic book characters and concepts where purchased and adapted to 'kid friendly' animation and the world took that and ran with it. Some of that success was rather problematic... and lots of changes to characters and concepts happened. All of this to suggest that you firstly and foremostly need to make yourself happy. (While still having enough money to eat and have a roof over your head of course!) You might need to let go of your characters a little (but not to the point where you can't always do your own take as you see fit... in other words: reserve some rights to personal use). If tomorrow someone offered you a truckload of money to license 'Bella the Bear' and they ran with it... where would they take the concept? While having fun... within your limits of production capability... and while waiting for lightning to strike, insert yourself as that someone with the truckload of money and... run with it. I would start with the title concept "Bella the Bear". Bella is a bear. There's where I would start.