Rani Naamani has gone from Calgary to Far Far Away.

But is Hollywood's fairy tale romance with CG-animated comedies nearing an end?

Naamani, a San Francisco-based animator at DreamWorks, who worked on this weekend's Shrek The Third, says despite the disappointing box-office tallies for such CG comedies as The Wild and Over The Hedge, there's still plenty of demand for the likes of the Shrek sequel or rival Pixar's Ratatouille, which opens in June.

"It depends if the movie is good. I don't think the number of CG films matters. I think the quality does. As long as it's a good movie to watch, people will watch it."

Naamani, 22, spent six months working on Shrek The Third and has since segued to animating DreamWork's next sequel, Madagascar 2.

For the former, he says, he spent most of his time on the extras of Far Far Away. For the latter, however, he's moved up to the main cast of characters, led by Ben Stiller's lion, Alex.

"Once you've been at a studio, they'll definitely give you a chance to play around with different characters."

Naamani got his start after leaving Calgary to attend Vancouver Film School for a year before landing a gig with CG-animation pioneers Mainframe Entertainment.

From there, he moved to Dallas before being hired at DreamWorks 10 months ago.

"When I was a kid, the only thing I could think of doing was something with the arts.

"Then throughout the years, the more and more I thought about it, I realized that I specifically wanted to get into animation.

"When the first CG movies started coming out -- Toy Story and Antz -- I was so dazzled, I thought, 'That's pretty much what I want to do.' "

And what has Naamani, who was born in Lebanon and raised in Calgary, learned thus far about the business of breathing life into such iconic characters as Donkey and Puss In Boots?

"One thing I noticed is that an animator is basically an actor. I don't see him acting, but I see him acting through the puppets."

Mike Myers, who voices the grouchy green ogre, would seem to agree. Speaking to Sun Media, he credited animators as being responsible for two-thirds of a character's performance, while the voice actor contributes the rest.)

As for what lies ahead for Naamani, he's not concerned.

"For me, it doesn't matter. As long as animating, I'm fine. It's exciting times. I wish I could see into the future, but animators have not developed that superpower yet."