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DreamWorks Creating CG/Hand-Drawn Film 'Me and My Shadow'

by Alex Billington
December 10, 2010
Source: Variety

Very intriguing announcement today. It definitely looks like Jeffrey Katzenberg is trying to get his company DreamWorks Animation on top of the animation world and will stop at nothing to achieve that elusive distinction. Variety reports the animation studio has slated a new project for March 2013 called Me and My Shadow. In a first for DreamWorks, they'll be seamlessly combining hand-drawn animation and CGI, reminiscent of 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but as they explain: "this does the same, but with CG and hand-drawn." Don't forget, they've made hand-drawn movies before like Prince of Egypt, Spirit and Sinbad.

Me and My Shadow, being directed by Mark Dindal (The Emperor's New Groove, Chicken Little), tells the story of Shadow Stan, an incredibly frustrated shadow that yearns for a more dynamic life but happens to be stuck with Stanley Grubb, the world's most boring human. Eventually pushed to the brink, Shadow Stan breaks the singular rule of the Shadow World - "they lead, we follow" - and takes control of Stanley. This also sounds kind of inspired by the brilliance of Pixar's Day & Night, but with a slightly tweaked visual and story concept - I like it. DreamWorks has amassed an impressive team of people who have both 2D and 3D animation experience and claims "half the studio's animators have 2D experience." Let's hope that pays off!

Steve Bencich & Ron Friedman's original screenplay is being revised by Tom Astle & Matt Ember (Failure to Launch, Get Smart). The project combines "the time-honored tradition of hand-drawn animation with the magical sophistication of CG characters and worlds in ways that have never been experienced by audiences before," says DWA President of Production Bill Damaschke. So to clarify, the Shadow world is hand-drawn, and the human and his world will be CG. The film will alternate between the two worlds. "It will be super-challenging but very cool." I'm looking forward to this, bravo on cultivating an intriguing idea DreamWorks!

Filed under Hype, Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

Lamar

Oh YEAH! Dreamwork's hand-drawn movies rock, about time someone decided to go back to old fashioned animation. I thought The Princess and the Frog was gonna be the last one for a while. Seriously am I the only one getting tired of CG.
A5J4DX

sounds promising cant wait for a trailer!
Gerry

Hand-drawn, smand-drawn... their movies need a SCRIPT first rather than a gimmick. Dreamworks movies have been consistently second-rate (with the exception of the original Shrek and Antz)