Presto (film)
Encyclopedia
Presto is a 2008 American Pixar
computer-animated
short film
shown in theaters before their feature length film WALL-E
. The short is about a magician trying to perform a show with his uncooperative rabbit and is a gag-filled homage to classic cartoons such as Tom and Jerry
and Looney Tunes
. Presto was directed by veteran Pixar animator Doug Sweetland
, in his directorial debut.
The original idea for the short was a magician who incorporated a rabbit into his act who suffered from stage fright
. This was considered to be too long and complicated, and the idea was reworked. To design the theater featured in Presto, the filmmakers visited several Opera Houses and theaters for set design ideas. Problems arose when trying to animate the theater's audience of 2,500 patrons—which was deemed too expensive—and was solved by showing the back of the audience.
Reaction to the short was very positive, and reviewers of WALL-Es home media release considered it to be an enjoyable special feature. One critic called Presto a "winner through and through", while another found it to be "a short and hilarious animated film". Presto was nominated for an Annie Award
and Academy Award. It was included in the Animation Show of Shows
in 2008.
-era magician Presto DiGiotagione is famous for a hat trick
wherein he pulls his rabbit
Alec Azam out of his top hat
. The short begins with an unfed and irritated Alec locked in a cage, unable to reach his carrot. After Presto returns from eating a meal, he begins practicing his act with Alec, revealing that the top hat is magically connected to a wizard's hat kept backstage with Alec, so that when Presto reaches into the top hat, his hand appears out of the wizard's hat, allowing him to grab Alec and pull him out of the top hat. He intends to feed Alec the carrot, but realizes that he is late for the show and rushes off to the stage without doing so. Presto tries to start the performance, but Alec has reached his limit and refuses to cooperate until he is given the carrot. Presto then spends the rest of the show trying to catch Alec through the opening between his top hat and the wizard's hat.
Alec cleverly turns the hat's magic against his master into multiple painful and humiliating ways and unsuccessful attempts of magic. Presto's hand is hit by a closing drawer off stage, his finger is stuck into a mouse trap
, and he is hit in the face by an egg. Presto responds by antagonizing Alec, turning the carrot into a flower. Furious, Alec sucks Presto's head into a vacuum kept offstage, which spikes Presto's hair, and then rips his slacks
off. He is then hit between the legs by a ladder kept off stage. Presto antagonizes Alec again, smashing the carrot into a pulp. Alec retaliates by aiming the opening of the wizard's hat towards an electrical socket which Presto's finger goes into, causing him to dance wildly to bluegrass music. The audience interprets these shenanigans as part of the act and applauds with increasing approval. Hidden in the audience up in a balcony are The Muppets
, Statler and Waldorf. Eventually, Presto can take no more and chases Alec backstage, catching his foot in a rope that lifts him up to the fly space
above the stage when he mistakenly releases the weights holding down some stage props. When his foot comes loose from the rope, he falls, along with a piano
and some suspended scenery. Alec, realizing that Presto will be crushed, reluctantly uses the magic hat to save him, earning the audience's wild approval for both himself and Presto. Presto gives Alec the carrot (returned to its original shape), as well as second billing on the posters advertising the show (as seen in the promotional poster above), and they are rewarded for each show they do, roses for Presto and carrots for Alec, respectively.
, in his directorial debut. Sweetland provides the dialogue-free voice acting for both of the movie's characters. He pitched the film at the start of 2007 and began production late in the year, completing it in May 2008. Presto's gag-based format was heavily influenced by classic cartoons. Looney Tunes
cartoons directed by Tex Avery
were a major influence, with Alec being easily compared to Bugs Bunny
. Other influences include Tom and Jerry
, the Marx Brothers
, and Charlie Chaplin
. The character design for Presto was based on William Powell
.
The original scenario for the short involved a magician who incorporates an autograph-seeking rabbit into his act after his previous rabbit leaves him. Complications arise as the new rabbit suffers from stage fright. Sweetland compared it to the plot of A Star Is Born
. The idea was reworked due to being too long and complicated, taking an estimated three minutes longer to tell.
To achieve the highly formal environment, the filmmakers looked at the Royal Opera House
in London, the Paris Opera House
and classic vaudeville
theaters like the Geary in San Francisco—which the crew took a tour through—for set design ideas. 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 (from the neck down) is Skinner's lawyer, and the carrot was one of the many food props from that film.
called Presto a "winner through and through". Marcos Bernal-Salas of The Examiner named Presto his favorite bonus feature of WALL-E' s DVD. Bernal-Salas described it is "a short and hilarious animated film" and praised the animation and sound design. Jake Coyle of the San Francisco Chronicle
found Presto to be "a delightful and cartoonish appetizer" which kept the tradition of short pre-feature films alive. Darren Bevan of Television New Zealand
thought that although WALL-E was a "delightful tale" and "truly gorgeous", Presto "very nearly stole Wall-E's thunder". James Sanford of the Kalamazoo Gazette
called the short a superb and hilarious curtain-raiser, describing it as a Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes version of The Prestige
. Presto was nominated for the 36th
Annie Award
for Best Animated Short Subject. The short was also nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film
, but lost to La Maison en Petits Cubes
.
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
computer-animated
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
short film
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
shown in theaters before their feature length film WALL-E
WALL-E
WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future...
. The short is about a magician trying to perform a show with his uncooperative rabbit and is a gag-filled homage to classic cartoons such as Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
and Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
. Presto was directed by veteran Pixar animator Doug Sweetland
Doug Sweetland
Douglas Sweetland is an American animator/director, he grew up watching Disney films and classic Saturday morning cartoons. As a child, Doug drew cartoons for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts for several years...
, in his directorial debut.
The original idea for the short was a magician who incorporated a rabbit into his act who suffered from stage fright
Stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, whether actually or potentially . In the context of public speaking, this fear is termed glossophobia, one of the most common...
. This was considered to be too long and complicated, and the idea was reworked. To design the theater featured in Presto, the filmmakers visited several Opera Houses and theaters for set design ideas. Problems arose when trying to animate the theater's audience of 2,500 patrons—which was deemed too expensive—and was solved by showing the back of the audience.
Reaction to the short was very positive, and reviewers of WALL-Es home media release considered it to be an enjoyable special feature. One critic called Presto a "winner through and through", while another found it to be "a short and hilarious animated film". Presto was nominated for an Annie Award
Annie Award
The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...
and Academy Award. It was included in the Animation Show of Shows
Animation show of shows
The Animation Show of Shows is a traveling selection of the year's best animated short films, curated and presented by Acme Filmworks founder, Ron Diamond. It began in 1998 with the aim of showing the most original, funny, intelligent short animated films from all over the world and presenting them...
in 2008.
Plot
VaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
-era magician Presto DiGiotagione is famous for a hat trick
Hat-trick (magic trick)
The hat-trick is a classic magic trick where a performer will produce an object out of an apparently empty top hat.- Method :...
wherein he pulls his rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
Alec Azam out of his top hat
Top hat
A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
. The short begins with an unfed and irritated Alec locked in a cage, unable to reach his carrot. After Presto returns from eating a meal, he begins practicing his act with Alec, revealing that the top hat is magically connected to a wizard's hat kept backstage with Alec, so that when Presto reaches into the top hat, his hand appears out of the wizard's hat, allowing him to grab Alec and pull him out of the top hat. He intends to feed Alec the carrot, but realizes that he is late for the show and rushes off to the stage without doing so. Presto tries to start the performance, but Alec has reached his limit and refuses to cooperate until he is given the carrot. Presto then spends the rest of the show trying to catch Alec through the opening between his top hat and the wizard's hat.
Alec cleverly turns the hat's magic against his master into multiple painful and humiliating ways and unsuccessful attempts of magic. Presto's hand is hit by a closing drawer off stage, his finger is stuck into a mouse trap
Mouse Trap
Mouse Trap is a 1981 arcade game released by Exidy, similar to Pac-Man. It was ported to three home systems by Coleco; Coleco's ColecoVision, Mattel's Intellivision, and the Atari 2600.-Comparison to Pac-Man:...
, and he is hit in the face by an egg. Presto responds by antagonizing Alec, turning the carrot into a flower. Furious, Alec sucks Presto's head into a vacuum kept offstage, which spikes Presto's hair, and then rips his slacks
Slacks
Slacks is a colloquial term referring to trousers. However, it could also refer to:*Donovan Slacks, leader of a militant fishermen's uprising in 1920s Britain*Slacks Creek, Queensland, a suburb of Logan City , Queensland , Australia ....
off. He is then hit between the legs by a ladder kept off stage. Presto antagonizes Alec again, smashing the carrot into a pulp. Alec retaliates by aiming the opening of the wizard's hat towards an electrical socket which Presto's finger goes into, causing him to dance wildly to bluegrass music. The audience interprets these shenanigans as part of the act and applauds with increasing approval. Hidden in the audience up in a balcony are The Muppets
The Muppets
The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson starting in 1954–55. Although the term is often used to refer to any puppet that resembles the distinctive style of The Muppet Show, the term is both an informal name and legal trademark owned by the Walt Disney Company in reference...
, Statler and Waldorf. Eventually, Presto can take no more and chases Alec backstage, catching his foot in a rope that lifts him up to the fly space
Fly system
A fly system, flying system or theatrical rigging system, is a system of lines , blocks , counterweights and related devices within a theatre that enable a stage crew to quickly, quietly and safely fly components such as curtains, lights, scenery, stage effects and, sometimes, people...
above the stage when he mistakenly releases the weights holding down some stage props. When his foot comes loose from the rope, he falls, along with a piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and some suspended scenery. Alec, realizing that Presto will be crushed, reluctantly uses the magic hat to save him, earning the audience's wild approval for both himself and Presto. Presto gives Alec the carrot (returned to its original shape), as well as second billing on the posters advertising the show (as seen in the promotional poster above), and they are rewarded for each show they do, roses for Presto and carrots for Alec, respectively.
Production
Presto was directed by veteran Pixar animator Doug SweetlandDoug Sweetland
Douglas Sweetland is an American animator/director, he grew up watching Disney films and classic Saturday morning cartoons. As a child, Doug drew cartoons for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts for several years...
, in his directorial debut. Sweetland provides the dialogue-free voice acting for both of the movie's characters. He pitched the film at the start of 2007 and began production late in the year, completing it in May 2008. Presto
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
cartoons directed by Tex Avery
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
were a major influence, with Alec being easily compared to Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
. Other influences include Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
, the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
, and Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
. The character design for Presto was based on William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
.
The original scenario for the short involved a magician who incorporates an autograph-seeking rabbit into his act after his previous rabbit leaves him. Complications arise as the new rabbit suffers from stage fright. Sweetland compared it to the plot of A Star Is Born
A Star Is Born (1937 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1937 Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as an aging movie star who...
. The idea was reworked due to being too long and complicated, taking an estimated three minutes longer to tell.
To achieve the highly formal environment, the filmmakers looked at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in London, the Paris Opera House
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
and classic vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
theaters like the Geary in San Francisco—which the crew took a tour through—for set design ideas. 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
Ratatouille (film)
Ratatouille is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the eighth film produced by Pixar, and was directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005...
. Additionally, Presto's body (from the neck down) is Skinner's lawyer, and the carrot was one of the many food props from that film.
Reception
Reaction to the short film was very positive. Carl Cortez of IfIf (magazine)
If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. Quinn hired Paul W. Fairman to be the first editor, but early circulation figures were disappointing, and Quinn fired Fairman after only three issues. Quinn then took over the...
called Presto a "winner through and through". Marcos Bernal-Salas of The Examiner named Presto his favorite bonus feature of WALL-E
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
found Presto to be "a delightful and cartoonish appetizer" which kept the tradition of short pre-feature films alive. Darren Bevan of Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services....
thought that although WALL-E was a "delightful tale" and "truly gorgeous", Presto "very nearly stole Wall-E's thunder". James Sanford of the Kalamazoo Gazette
Kalamazoo Gazette
The Kalamazoo Gazette is the daily newspaper in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. The Gazette is owned by Booth Newspapers which is owned by Advance Publications....
called the short a superb and hilarious curtain-raiser, describing it as a Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes version of The Prestige
The Prestige (film)
The Prestige is a 2006 mystery thriller film written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan, with a screenplay adapted from Christopher Priest's 1995 novel of the same name. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in London at the end of the 19th century...
. Presto was nominated for the 36th
36th Annie Awards
The 36th Annual Annie Awards, honoring the best in animation for 2008, were held on January 30, 2009 at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California. Below is a list of announced nominees...
Annie Award
Annie Award
The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...
for Best Animated Short Subject. The short was also nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film
Academy Award for Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....
, but lost to La Maison en Petits Cubes
La Maison en Petits Cubes
is a 2008 Japanese animated short subject film created by Kunio Katō, with music by Kenji Kondo. It won several prizes, the most important of which being the Grand prize for short films at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2008 and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film...
.
External links
- Official Presto page at Pixar.com