Me and My Shadow

Me and My Shadow is a 2019 3D computer/traditionally animated fantasy film directed by Anneliese Kenkel and written by both Marcus and Damon Tran. It also stars Marcus Tran and Margot Robbie.

Alessandro Carloni was going to make his full-length feature film directorial debut. It was set to star Josh Gad, Bill Hader, and Kate Hudson in her animation debut. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film was originally scheduled to be released in November 2013 but was pushed back to March 2014. Later, it was announced that Mr. Peabody & Sherman would be released in March 2014 instead, with Me and My Shadow returning to development with no new release date announced, until it was picked up by Nelvana.

The film was released on December 13, 2019, by Universal Pictures.

Premise
James Grubb (Marcus Tran), the world's most boring and dull man, has a shadow named Jenny (Margot Robbie) who wants more excitement but can't have it because she's attached to James. When Jenny uncovers a criminal plot in the shadow world that involves an evil shadow who wants to lead a rebellion to take over the human world, he decides to take control of James to give him a glimpse of the adventure and to also stop the shadow villain from leading the rebellion. The two of them go onto an adventure throughout the shadow world to investigate the situation and face the villain before the villain and the shadows set out to the human world to take control of their humans. Stanley has a love interest named Heidi (Anneliese Kenkel).

Voice cast

 * Marcus Tran as James Grubb
 * Margot Robbie as Shadow Jenny
 * Anneliese Kenkel as Heidi, Grubb's love interest

Production
Revealed in December 2010, Mark Dindal (who also developed the film's concept and story) was set to direct the film, with a schedule to be released in March 2013. In March 2011, the film was pushed to November 2013, and in June 2012, to March 14, 2014, replacing another DreamWorks Animation's film, Mr. Peabody & Sherman. In January 2012, it was announced that Josh Gad, Bill Hader and Kate Hudson have joined the cast and that Alessandro Carloni, ahead of the story of How to Train Your Dragon, has replaced Dindal.

In February 2013, Me and My Shadow went back into development with Mr. Peabody & Sherman re-assuming its original March 2014 release, leading to many to believe that the film was cancelled. In an interview in late 2013, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg stated that the film was not cancelled but put back on its development tracks and would start-up production when they get a new re-write.

In 2018, the project was picked up by Marcus Tran and Rainmaker Studios and was released on December 13, 2019.

Trivia

 * On November 19, 2015, Edgar Wright had signed to direct and co-write an animated feature (known simply as Shadows) for DreamWorks, in which the story was described as a "new take on a previously developed concept about shadows." In an interview with Collider published in June 2017, Wright explained that he and David Walliams had written three drafts, but as of 2019, the project is in limbo due to management changes at DreamWorks Animation.
 * Josh Gad, the voice of Stanley Grubb, recorded his first line of dialogue on February 16, 2012, and posted it on his Instagram. He also posted a picture of a page of the script and one of the lines of direction was, "Stanley in Stan's control, waves at Heidi as she advantages closer to him".
 * The soundtrack list has been released on IMDBpro.
 * On one of the animators' twitter, it was announced that the film was in negotiations to be released in March 2016 or late 2015 which would switch places with Kung Fu Panda 3.