Back in December 2010, DreamWorks announced they were developing a new film by the name of Me and My Shadow that would combine CG and hand-drawn animation, in a way that sounded more ambitious than most animated films we’ve seen in a long time.
All has been fairly quiet on that front since then, but now the studio have released the first poster, via the film’s official Facebook, and it’s rather fantastic.
“In Spring 2014, DreamWorks Animation brings global audiences ME AND MY SHADOW, an original project that pioneers a groundbreaking combination of both CG and traditional 2D animation techniques.
ME AND MY SHADOW is the story of an extremely frustrated shadow, Shadow Dan – voiced by Bill Hader, who yearns for a dynamic life. Unfortunately, Shadow Dan happens to be stuck with the world’s most boring human as his “caster”, Daniel Grubb – voiced by Tony Award™ nominee Josh Gad. When a crime in the shadow world puts their lives in danger, Shadow Dan is forced to break the cardinal rule of all shadows (they lead, we follow) and take control of Daniel. During this adventure, Shadow Dan teaches a reluctant Daniel to let go of his fears and embrace life.
The all-star cast includes Academy Award® nominee Kate Hudson. The film is directed by Alessandro Carloni (How to Train Your Dragon) and produced by Melissa Cobb (Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda 2) and co-produced by Jeff Hermann (Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda 2).”
Bill Hader (SNL, Superbad), Josh Gad (The Book of Mormon, Good Vibes), and Kate Hudson (Almost Famous) will be lending their voices to the project, with How to Train Your Dragon’s Alessandro Carloni at the helm, directing from a script co-written by Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman (Chicken Little, Open Season) and Matt Ember and Tom J. Astle (Get Smart, the upcoming Epic).
“When recently asked about traditional hand drawn animation, DreamWorks Animation Chief Creative Officer Bill Damaschke spoke about the hybrid animation in “Me and My Shadow”.
He stated, “Me and My Shadow, which is out in spring of 2014, is a combination of CG and traditional hand drawn animation. There is a reason to tell the story in that fashion. It’s about what would happen if your shadow, that has been following you around and basically just follows what you do your whole life, just stood up and took over. The shadows will be animated hand drawn, and the other characters will be CG animated. There is a reason to do it [hand drawn animation] that felt creatively interesting.””
The long and short of it is: This is going to be amazing.
The premise is brilliant, the voices are solid, and the studio are known for their all-round general excellence.
Me and My Shadow will be released on 14th March, 2014. We’ve still got some time to go, but this first look is really rather good, and I can’t wait to see more further down the line. As usual with this great first poster, you can click to enlarge.
