Me And My Shadow

[Ben]

Hey...anyone else thinking this could be pure genius?

http://animatedviews.com/2010/dreamwork ... w-in-2013/

Of course, it probably arose from a story meeting after some of the DWA guys saw the Day & Night short, since the combination of traditional animation and CG sounds like a similar mix, but the idea is still totally unique to itself.

While I was ready our blurb there, I was thinking "it would be great to do the shadows traditionally and the 'real world' in CG", and reading on through to the Variety source indeed indicates this is what they're going to do.

What a brilliant and uniquely original idea from DWA! Actually, someone I know has already said that there was a kids book a while back that had a similar idea, and even - she thinks - had a "Stan" in the title, but the Variety story seems to report this is a new idea from scratch.

Whatever the background, this shows that DWA seems to be on firmer footing and with the "financial cushion" of further Panda and Madagascar films keeping the bottom line fat, they look to be continuing their "every other film" approach of that film being something a little more experimental or edgy.

"Me And My Shadow" sounds like just that...and I must say this has lept to the top of the list of upcoming animated films that I can't wait to see or hear more on.

[droosan]

The best part (IMO) is the announcement of Mark Dindal as director.

It's nice to see him return to animation..!

[estefan]

Did he ever leave? I know he was going to make a live-action film, but that appears to have fell through. He hasn't directed anything since Chicken Little, so it's nice to see him go back to direct something. Hopefully, this is more on par with New Groove and Cats Don't Dance.

[droosan]

As you say, it had been reported awhile back that Dindal had a live-action movie in development: Sherlock's Secretary .. which currently doesn't even appear in an IMDb search, so it must've 'fizzled-out' completely, some time ago.

But yes; he had left Disney shortly after completion of Chicken Little .. and hadn't been attached to any other animated projects (as far as I've been aware).

[Dacey]

I was under the impression that Disney fired him? Or am I just thinking of Chris Sanders?

[EricJ]

I got the distinct impression that he'd been fired too, along with the producer, and, ultimately, Eisner. Heads did roll.

(And I'd recently rewatched CDD on Netflix and...I'm sorry, the humor was exactly the same as the "bad" Dindal of Chicken Little--Same hyper reactions, same snide-deconstruction animal gags, just that one had songs and one didn't.
Think we did get Chicken Little eight years ago, just that we didn't suspect it at the time. )

[Darkblade]

Dreamworks heading back to 2D? This is a surprise. So if this does well enough, will we get Dreamworks going back to 2D animation?

[Randall]

As usual, anything that makes money will inspire a studio to more of the same. This seems like a calculated attempt to work their way back into the hand-drawn game. (Let's avoid the use of the terms 2D and 3D, unless we're talking about whether or not one needs glasses to view the film.)

[Ben]

Also, Rand, traditional animation does depict three dimensions: I've always hated and stayed away from "2D" and "3D" to describe the differences, especially now as you say, we have a new format calling itself 3D!


Going back to an earlier point, Dindal wasn't exactly "let go", but the writing was on the wall for him when the Pixar crew took over Disney Animation, so he jumped before he was pushed.


Droo...yep, in my excitement I forgot to mention Dindal, even though I meant to! Am very glad this unique film is in the hands of someone like this. Chicken Little aside - and that was the result of much exec tinkering - he's a great animation director. I wasn't surprised he wanted to go the Rob Minkoff route into live-action, but a shame that his Sherlock film has fizzled.

I don't know/think this signifies a return to hand-drawn from DWA, since I would imagine the film will still be CG-heavy in its balance, but the potential is obviously there. They may feel, if an idea and artist/director wants it strong enough, that it's worth giving it another go.

But let's see how this does first...we've three years to wait!

[ELIOLI]

I actually became giddy reading about this news yesterday..no lie.

[starlioness]

hmmm.. that is interesting.. first Sanders, now Dindal. verry interesting..

and I Loved the Day and Night short.. can't wait to see it again on the T.S 3 DVD..

[ShyViolet]

I'm really glad that Mark is at DreamWorks too.

(And I'd recently rewatched CDD on Netflix and...I'm sorry, the humor was exactly the same as the "bad" Dindal of Chicken Little--Same hyper reactions, same snide-deconstruction animal gags, just that one had songs and one didn't.
Think we did get Chicken Little eight years ago, just that we didn't suspect it at the time. )

I'd say the hyper reactions/gags were more of a byproduct of the Stainton days in which executives favored attributes like these. More audience-friendly, at least according to them. I don't think it was really Mark as much as it was notes from Disney execs.

Cats Don't Dance also had hyper-humor and lightening fast gags but it felt much more natural than in CL (CL was from the tail end of the Eisner/Stainton days where executives constantly sent notes to the animators/directors).

Anyway, like I said I think it's awesome Mark is at DreamWorks; I really think this will be great!

[Dacey]

Seems this movie (or some version of it) is back on track...with Edgar Wright directing!

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/6 ... on-shadows

[Ben]

"Awesome", I thought...until I saw David Walliams' name.

[Vernadyn]

I have no idea who David Walliams is (and it sounds like I might be better off keeping it that way). But if Wright indeed stays on this project to the end, and if it turns out similar in quality to his past films, this just might be the first DreamWorks Animation movie that I'll like unreservedly.