Me and My Shadow
DreamWorks paired hand-drawn shadows with CG humans, cast Bill Hader and Kate Hudson, and completed striking animation tests before the hybrid film fell out of production.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Never Born
- Peak stage
- full production started
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A cancelled DreamWorks Animation feature designed to combine computer animation with hand-drawn characters.
An energetic shadow named Shadow Stan would take control of the exceptionally dull human he was assigned to follow.
Existence timeline
DreamWorks schedules a hybrid animated feature.
Voice actors join and animation pipelines are tested.
CG environments and hand-drawn shadow tests advance.
The planned date is given to another DreamWorks film.
New writers and directors are considered without restoring production.
The DreamWorks version remains unreleased.
Why it ended
The studio repeatedly delayed and reworked the film, then halted the original production during broader restructuring.
Last confirmed trace
Animation tests, character reels, concept art and crew portfolios preserve substantial pieces of its unusual visual system.
What it left behind
The surviving footage made the project a favourite among animation artists interested in a large-studio return to hand-drawn technique.
How we classified it
The proposed archive unit never reached ordinary public access in the form being documented.
The strongest verified milestone maps to full_production_started under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.