Last Updated on June 30, 2024 by Sangita Ekka
“For every one movie that gets released, there’s three that aren’t.” – Ziggy Cashmere, Drawing For Nothing, The Art of Unfinished and Unappreciated Animation.
In the early first half of 2024, Cartoon Brew released an article about the book Drawing For Nothing, a not-for-profit passion project by Ziggy Cashmere and the DFN team with the sole goal of saving canceled animation films from the brink of oblivion.
With 12 titles released in its first edition, Drawing For Nothing is a work in progress and will include more canceled films from the list.
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Sneak Peek into DreamWorks’ Me And My Shadow
Me And My Shadow, the first entry in the book, was a promising project that DreamWorks Animation unfortunately canceled in 2014. Mark Dindal, an American writer and director associated with films like Chicken Little and The Emperor’s New Groove, proposed Shadows in 2010 about a dull character, Stanley, and his enthusiastic shadow.
Later, it was heavily rewritten and renamed Me and My Shadows. Stanley’s character was christened Daniel Grubb, who remained a dull character working in a light bulb factory. The film was in production from 2012 to 2014 and had a $200 million budget.
The plot was to bring Shadow Daniel to life and make the caster’s life more interesting. The duo was set to explore the Shadow World, conjure courage for a love interest, and even fight a shadow villain.
If the project were completed, the audience would have enjoyed otherworldly enchanting environments like Pixar’s Soul and Coco.
The 2D+3D Technical Hurdles And Patenting
The usage of technology draws a clear line between traditional and CGI. Traditional 2D animation relies on hand-drawn pictures, whereas 3D software renders characters with length, breadth, and height.
Ziggy Cashmere points out that Me and My Shadow had problems during the animation phase of the film. The demand for animating a 2D shadow each time 3D Daniel moved was daunting, and I believe the creators overlooked the technical limitations of the software at that time.
However, it didn’t stop DreamWorks from addressing the technical challenge. On March 14th, 2013, DreamWorks Animation applied for a patent that allows the contouring of a hand-animated shadow in a 3D environment.
I will not pretend that I fully understand the underlying technicality of achieving the desired result; however, with the flat nature of a shadow and the default 3D software setting, the marriage of traditional and CGI is a noteworthy animation milestone.
The book mentions that DreamWorks Animation has yet to use the patented technology and is still perfecting it.
It’s worth noting that in 2013, Walt Disney Animation Studios released Paperman, a short film using hybrid technology to render 3D characters in traditional 2D aesthetics. Meander, a raster-vector hybrid tool that Disney has been perfecting since 2010, brought life to the film and has been shipped out as a platform-independent library named MeanderKit.
The Remains Of A Lost Film
Many animated movies are canceled yearly due to bad management, budget constraints, or wrong decisions. However, few lost films have crafted a cult following like Me And My Shadow, owing to the hybrid technology people were looking forward to.
Since the film’s official demise, artists have uploaded concept art, animation reels, storyboards, and additional characters documented in Drawing For Nothing. It’s been a decade since the film’s cancellation, but that hasn’t stopped hardcore animation lovers from demanding its revival. A petition sits on change.org and quoting verbatim:
“By abandoning projects like “Me and My Shadow”, Dreamworks Animation is denying audiences the opportunity to witness groundbreaking content. In light of these compelling facts, we urge Dreamworks Animation to reconsider their decision and breathe life back into “Me and My Shadow”. Let us restore originality to mainstream animation!”
Final Thoughts
Me and My Shadow is a serious project with tremendous potential to add variety, innovation, and originality to the animation archives. With famous names like Kate Hudson, Josh Gad, Bill Hader, Tom Hiddleston, and Owl City associated with the film, there was indeed a lot going on.
Ziggy Cashmere and the DFN team have done a fabulous job documenting the film’s concept art, storyboards, environments, and paintings and assembling a chronological order of its development and demise.
My only hope with the abandoned film is that the ongoing petition gets more signatures and reaches DreamWorks Animation. Tonight, as I finish writing this piece, one more name has been added to the list of people who want to see Me And My Shadow revived.
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