That's deep, DreamWorks Animation (NYSE:DWA). The computer animation studio is hoping that a little 3-D technology will help spark interest in the company's rendered features, while setting it apart from a sea of "me too" rivals.

Ever since Disney's (NYSE:DIS) Pixar and DreamWorks Animation established themselves as the class of computer animation, the multiplex release slates have been loaded with competing films. Most of them have flopped. There is the occasional success story, like News Corp.'s (NYSE:NWS) Ice Age or the Oscar-winning Happy Feet from Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), but this is still pretty much a two-horse race, with Disney and DreamWorks Animation jockeying for position.

Disney had last year's top animated draw, with Cars. This year should belong to DreamWorks Animation, with Shrek the Third.

This places pressure on the major studios to push the envelope, and that's what DreamWorks Animation is doing. The studio announced this week that it would begin using stereoscopic 3-D technology in all of its films come 2009.

There will be a conventional version made available to mainstream theaters that don't have 3-D screening technology, but that may not be necessary before long. More chains keep committing to digital cinema, which has empowered companies like Thomson's Technicolor Digital Cinema subsidiary, as well as the pairing of AccessIT (NASDAQ:AIXD) and Christie, to outfit multiplex screens with digital projections systems.

Going digital means no costly film prints for the studios. Exhibitors like the ability to change content on the fly and the potential of more cost-effective digital ad campaigns between films.

We'll have to wait and see whether other studios follow DreamWorks Animation here. If it's a hit, and smaller studios aren't able to follow suit, the glut of computer animation may turn into an opportunity for the studios still around at the time.

It's a good move by DreamWorks Animation, even before we know how good the final product will actually look.

DreamWorks Animation, Time Warner, and Disney are all Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter recommendations.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a sucker for quality animation. Yes, he owns shares of Disney and DreamWorks Animation. The Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.