The on-going feud between Disney and Dreamworks was cranked up another notch on Thursday as Disney announced that the theatrical release of the next Pixar/Disney film, a superhero-themed epic entitled The Incredibles, is set for November 5, 2004.  As long ago as last December Dreamworks had been announcing that its computer-animated feature film, Sharkslayer, would debut on that date.  As Variety pointed out in today's edition, 'Given the long lead time required for toon-related merchandising and licensing deals, the clash (two major CGI films opening on the same day) creates a major headache for Dreamworks.'  As ICv2 reported yesterday Dreamworks just announced a deal with Hasbro for merchandising rights to Sharkslayer, an underwater 'gangster' comedy that features the vocal talents of Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, and Renee Zellweger (see 'Hasbro Gets Shrek 2').  Now, according to Variety, Dreamworks is looking for another date for the opening of a film that the studio believes can become an animated franchise.  Unfortunately November of 2004 is chock-a-block with animated releases with the Friday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 19) already taken by Warner Brothers' computer-animated Polar Express (with the vocal talents of Tom Hanks) and the first Sponge-Bob Squarepants feature film from Paramount.

Back in 1998 Disney forced Dreamworks to move the premiere of its first animated feature, The Prince of Egypt by scheduling Pixar's A Bug's Life on the date that Dreamworks had originally announced for The Prince of Egypt.  The feud escalated in 2001, when Dreamworks scheduled the video release of its highly popular Shrek feature on a Friday (rather than the traditional Tuesday street date for videos), just so it could take some of the thunder away from the opening of the Disney Pixar film, Monsters Inc. (see 'Monsters Inc. In Theaters vs. Shrek in Stores').  Monsters Inc. actually set a record for an opening by an animated film (that Pixar's Finding Nemo just broke), though the Shrek videos actually took in more dollars over the weekend.  In spite of the mutually successful 'stand-off' in that instance, according to Variety most Hollywood insiders feel that 'everybody loses if two heavyweights go after the same audience on the same weekend.'  With Finding Nemo's record opening (see 'Nemo Finds Box Office Gold') Disney has the 'whip hand' in this situation, given Pixar's impeccable track record.