(Pixar Short) Presto

From the late 1920s through the 1930s and 40s, the Walt Disney film company had made a series of animated shorts shown in movie theaters known as, "Silly Symphonies." Silly Symphonies were either original short stories the animators created or adaptations of children's fairy tales. Earlier on in the series, the characters in the Silly Symphonies didn't have dialogue written. Instead, the creators used originally scored music and sound effects, both made in the Disney studios. Each episode would begin with a series of title cards, beginning with the words, "Walt Disney presents, a Silly Symphony," with a bright red felt-like material in the background.
It's been years since classic Disney fans have seen any kind of short film with a similar opening title sequence, until the summer of 2008, when fans went to go see Disney and Pixar's Wall-E in theaters. The title sequence belonged to the Pixar Short presented before Wall-E, "Presto." The title consisted of the Disney/Pixar logos being shown in from of a red felt-like background, presented by orchestrated music, much like the Silly Symphony's music. Presto was a tribute to both Disney's Silly Symphonies as well as the classic Lonney Tune cartoons.
Unlike most Silly Symphonies, Presto was not an adaptation of any children's fairy tale. A little white bunny rabbit, Alec Azam, is locked up in a cage, in the dressing room of his owner, the vaudevillian magician, Presto DiGigotagione, who can magically pull Alec the rabbit out of his magic top hat. Alec is hungry for a carrot, and is trying, continuously, to retrieve the one which is placed right in front of his cage, but unfortunately cannot reach it. Presto enters the dressing room and sees that he is on, for his show, at any minute. He quickly locks the room and opens up a secret compartment in his dresser, which holds the secret to his magic act. Presto's magic top hat is connected to a magical wizard's hat. what ever goes in through the wizards hat, comes out of the bottom of the top hat. Presto takes Alec out of his cage to rehearse the act, not knowing that Alec only wants to be fed. After they successfully go over the act, and right before Presto gives Alec the carrot, Presto is called on stage and quickly places Alec backstage wearing the wizard's hat, not getting the chance to feed Alec. As Presto presents his top hat and fishes inside to pull Alec through the wizard hat, he notices Alec won't let him pull him through, unless Presto feeds him first. Becoming more and more annoyed, Presto refuses to feed Alec and continuously attempts to force Alec through, but things only get crazier and turns the magic act into a disaster, making Presto seem more and more foolish in front of his audience. After getting electrocuted through the hat by Alec, Presto finally snaps and runs backstage to chase after Alec. He quickly mistakes Alec for a pin to the curtain line, and is hung by his foot by the line up to the ceiling of the perineum theater. Before he can get his foot out of the knot, the rope suddenly breaks as well as the line holding up the grand piano in the air, leaving Presto to fall to his death and then get crushed. Pitying Presto, Alec thinks quickly and saves Presto by positioning the top hat in place for him to fall through it and safely out through the wizard hat. Amazed by Presto's graceful landing out of the wizard hat, the audience gives him a standing ovation. Alec begins to leave the stage, believing he'll never get his carrot. However, thankful that Alec saved his life, Presto continues with the magic act, by presenting the carrot, and having Alec pop out of the top hat, where he finally feeds him. The two bow to their audience members, and Presto presents Alec up front.
I said before that this short was a tribute to both Disney's Silly Symphonies and Looney Tunes cartoons. The film's Writer/Director ,Doug Sweetland, was inspired by the Looney Tune cartoons by Tex Avery. When you look at the design of both Presto and Alec, you can see some facial similarities between Looney Tune characters, like Bugs Bunny. As far as the style and the setting go, Presto was a Looney Tune cartoon in the form of a Disney Silly Symphony. Not only that, but Sweetland also provided the voices of both Alec and Presto. This seems very similar to how Walt Disney, himself, provided the voice of Mickey mouse earlier in his career.
In spite of all the comedic chaos that ensued in this short, Presto did leave it's fans with a pretty straightforward message, "It is better to work together as a team, rather than working solo."