Notes on Presto The Magician
by Mel Kientz • June, 2008
Doug Sweetland has been applying his electronic magic as a graphic animator with the Pixar Studios from almost the very beginning.  Over the years, Pixar has turned out hit after hit.  Their productions are generally known as the contemporary gold standard for cutting edge theatrical animation. But, there is literally nothing to animate until you have a story. The real magic is not in the trick but in the presentation of the trick. So here is poor Doug pitching idea after idea to heavyweights John Lasseter and his all-star team at the studio. Doug’s main misconception in the beginning was that story was about the best collection of ideas relating to a topic. But it's not, as he soon discovered. In reality it's all about sequence… (read more)

Another driving force at Pixar is Andrew Stanton (WALL•E's Director). At one point he sensed that Doug was holding onto old ideas. 'Well, just try it out, draw it -- it takes five minutes.' It was that 'stop holding on, stop holding on.' advice that got Doug to go into places and see where it went, rather than trying to control the process. PRESTO, a short subject film was hached. Presto is first-time director Doug Sweetland’s first venture at being the leader of the pack. It is a short subject piece that serves as an opening act to the major Pixar release of WALL•E that opens in theaters later this month. Bill Desowitz, editor of VFXWorld, calls it a slapstick ode to Warner Bros. and Tom and Jerry cartoons, in which a turn-of-the-century magician finds himself in a hilarious onstage feud with his hungry rabbit.

Talk about a carrot and stick reversal. Presto, the magician, has never experienced such humiliation, as the crafty rabbit, Alec, gives him a taste of his own supernatural hocus pocus. There are plenty of magic hats and vaudevillian antics during the frantic short subject, punctuated by iconic squash-and-stretch gyrations and bug-eyed reactions. Presto gets egg on his face, is attacked by a ladder, has his clothes torn off, gets electrocuted, uncontrollably dances a jig and is hurled high into the rafters. And the stuffy audience cheers every moment of it.

"With most short subject projects, the main thing is, 'Where's the punch line?' And let's design movement for the punch line, because you don't want to water down the screen with a bunch of ancillary movement and nuance. It takes a high degree of control to stage things. It's one of those counterintuitive challenges where you think animating less will be easier, but doing anything with less means you have to think a little bit more."

One of the most important features of the piece is the actual theater setting at the turn of the century. Sweetland points out their desire to blend two recent motion pictures, The Illusionist and The Prestige.  But it’s the theater and the audience that surrounds the characters that makes them live. Production Designer Harley Jessup did a masterful job of taking the mystic charm of the London Opera House and the Paris Opera House and classic vaudeville theaters like the Geary in nearby San Francisco.

All in all, get to the theater in plenty of time to park your car, visit the restroom, grab a seven-dollar box of popcorn and don’t miss seeing the opening act – PRESTO!