First Look: Me and My Shadow

Dreamworks has released the first artwork for its forthcoming animated tale, Me and My Shadow.  Over the last few years, the studio has upped its games with great movies like Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, but they still rely heavily on their stable of franchises (including the two movies I just mentioned) and gleaning humor from pop culture references, sometimes effectively, as in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

So it's exciting to see something a little more original on the Dreamworks schedule.  Me and My Shadow follows a shadow who is fed up with being tied to a human who leads a boring life.  Determined to claim a more interesting existence, the shadow takes control of his human, which, naturally, is a big no-no in the shadow world.

The premise is fun, but what really makes this movie special is the hybrid of traditional animation with computer-generated animation.  The shadow will be hand-drawn while the "real" world will be more typical CGI.  While we've seen a similar combination in the wonderful Pixar short Day & Night, this is a cool application, and feature-length, to boot.

The voice cast includes Bill Hader, Josh Gad, and Kate Hudson.

We're in for a long wait, as Me and My Shadow doesn't open until March 14, 2014.  Studios really like to strut their stuff as soon as they can.