Presto

Presto is a 2008 Pixar computer-animated short film released with the theatrical release of WALL-E. Doug Sweetland made his directorial debut with the film, and also voices the two main characters, Presto and Alec Azam.

Plot
The movie is about a magician named Presto and his cute and hungry rabbit, Alec Azam. At the beginning of the short, Alec is seen locked in his cage trying to reach a carrot inches out of his reach. Presto comes in after a show to test his magic trick of pulling Alec out of a hat. After he sees the that the trick works, Presto goes on stage to begin his show, leaving Alec thinking he will be fed the carrot. When Presto tries to perform the trick on stage, he cannot find Alec, and looks to see that Alec had taken the hat off. Agitated, Presto tries to reach Alec, but ends up pulling a mousetrap out of the hat instead. To try to get Alec to put the hat on, Presto throws an egg into the hat, only to have it bounce up and hit him in the eye. Presto then makes a carrot appear, puts on the hat used to grab Alec. He then turns the carrot into a flower, making Alec angry, and putting the other hat into an air pipe, making Presto's face red and his hair sticking up. Frustrated and angry, Presto tries to get Alec once again, but gets his pants ripped off. He then sees a ladder, and attempts to hit Alec with it, but instead is hit by the ladder as it shoots out of the hat. Frustrated, Presto presents the carrot again, but proceeds to smash it with a piece of the ladder, making Alec scream. Presto once again tries to grab Alec, but Alec sticks his hand into an electrical socket, electrocuting Presto. Extremely angry now, he chases Alec behind the stage, and is pulled by a rope into the air, but soon slips and falls with many heavy objects falling above him. Alec then saves Presto from being crushed by making him fall into the hat. After a short pause, the crowd begins to cheer for Alec and Presto. Alec, in a bad mood, begins to walk away when Presto beckons him to come over. To cheer Alec up, Presto makes the carrot appear again, which Alec eats when he comes out of the hat. They end the show as friends and Alec becomes an even bigger part of Presto's act.

Production
Presto was directed by veteran Pixar animator Doug Sweetland, in his directorial debut. Looney Tunes cartoons were a major influence, with Alec being easily compared to Bugs Bunny. The character design for Presto was based on William Powell.

Animating the theater's audience of 2,500 patrons proved an expensive proposition, even with the help of the crowd-generating Massive software. Early suggestions were to show cutaways of just a small portion of the audience, but the full effect was achieved by only showing the back of the audience. To save time, most of the audience models were borrowed from the previous Pixar film, Ratatouille. Additionally, Presto's body is Skinner's lawyer, and the carrot was one of the many food props from that film.

Trivia

 * Presto was nominated for an Annie Award and an Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject.
 * The short seems to take cues from classic cartoon shorts like those produced by Tex Avery for MGM and the Looney Toons series produced by Warner Brothers.
 * In the newsreel at the beginning of Up, the theater Muntz displays the skeleton in is the same theater in this short.
 * Alec Azam is referenced in the Magic Kingdom's Town Square Theater queue for the Magician Mickey meet-and-greet, with the black magician's hat featuring his ears peeking out.
 * Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets appear in the background of the short, sitting in a balcony akin to the one they occupy in The Muppet Show.
 * One the waiters from Ratatouille (not Mustafa), make an appearance in the short, he appears when Presto is electrocuted and the musicians plays country music, one of the musicians is the waiter.