After moving up the release of its latest CGI creation, A Shark's Tale, by a month to avoid a potential showdown with rivals Disney and Pixar's latest 'toon, The Incredibles, the studio is looking to a not so jolly green giant for a little payback.

DreamWorks has announced that the Shrek 2 DVD will hit stores on Nov. 5. That just happens to be the date when Disney-Pixar's The Incredibles unspools in theaters.

Coincidence? We think not.

Bad blood between the studios dates back to 1994 when Jeffery Katzenberg was dissed by Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Katzenberg had expected to be promoted to the Mouse House's corporate president but was passed over. Katzenberg quit a year later and filed a massive lawsuit that was settled out of court in 1996. His new home base has engaged the Magic Kingdom in a brutal battle, fought on the 'toon front, ever since.

In 1998, DreamWorks unleashed its first computer-animated feature, Antz, in October to try and steal some thunder from Disney-Pixar's A Bug's Life, which was released that November.

While both films became massive hits, the pissing match lived on.

The clash of the 'toon titans spilled into the video biz in 2001 when DreamWorks staked out Nov. 2 as the DVD date for the original Shrek--that year's box-office champ--on the same day Disney-Pixar's Monsters, Inc. stormed multiplexes.

Though he didn't eat into Monsters' massive $255 million domestic gross, the titular ogre was the fairest of them all on video, raking in a monstrous $420 million in VHS and DVD sales and ranking the best-selling home entertainment title in 2001.

But Mickey bit back. After DreamWorks targeted A Shark's Tale's release for Nov. 5, Disney-Pixar slapped a Nov. 5 release date on The Incredibles and forced its rival into a game of chicken. DreamWorks eventually capitulated and moved its fish story to Oct. 1.

While reps for the two companies declined on-the-record comment Thursday, a source at DreamWorks says the decision to release Shrek 2 head-to-head with The Incredibles on a Friday, as opposed to three days earlier on the traditional Tuesday when videos usually come out, was simply because Tuesday, Nov. 2 is the same day as the presidential election.

According to the source, the reason DreamWorks' marketers chose that date in the first place was tradition: The original Shrek DVD arrived in stores on Nov. 2, 2001 and was a huge success. The studio source insists that it wasn't trying to force audiences to choose Shrek 2 over The Incredibles.

In any event, the latter film will have a long way to go to trump the ogre. Since its release in May, the fractured fable sequel has set all kinds of box-office records, including wresting the title of top-grossing 'toon of all time away from Disney-Pixar's 2003 mega-hit, Finding Nemo, which grossed $346.5 million.

With its current theatrical haul at $429 million and climbing, Shrek 2 has now surpassed Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace as the fourth highest grossing film ever.

By Josh Grossberg