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Presto

One of the many amazing things about Pixar Animation Studios is their love of animation in every form, long or short. The short film isn’t something we see very often, yet the majority of Pixar releases have been accompanied by animated shorts. Toy Story 3 is being preceded by Night and Day; whether or not it will match that of the best Pixar short attached to one of their films is yet to be seen, but it’s hard to imagine. That short is Presto, from 2008. Appearing in front of WALL-E, Presto has a simple plot: a rabbit wants a carrot. Why can’t he get the carrot? Well, he’s part of a famous magic act, and the magician (who has a truly magic hat) is too busy trying to perform in front of another adoring audience to feed his sidekick. So, the rabbit goes about manipulating the magic hat to get what he wants, even if it means the magician gets beat up in the process.

What makes Presto stand out among its fellow short films, including Boundin’, Lifted, and Partly Cloudy, is its speed. Evoking Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry, Presto, directed by Doug Sweetland, runs for about five minutes, but feels like a sprint of about one minute. Every single shot of the film was created with care, but the entire short feels like it was shot out of a cannon. This isn’t to say that the other Pixar shorts are badly paced, but Presto has such an appropriately fast pace that it’s not hard not to feel out of breath by the time the credits roll. Of course, as with the majority of Pixar’s films, the main characters both get happy endings (even if the magician gets electrocuted along the way), but it’s the audience, barely able to clap as they laugh until their eyes water, that wins here and with every other great Pixar short film.

The Incredibles

This week, we’re getting a third film in the Toy Story franchise. Next year, Cars will add to its franchise with a second film. Earlier this year, it was announced that in a few years, we’ll all be visiting Monstropolis again, as Monsters, Inc. is given a sequel. There are some people who worry that Pixar is just making sequels now to make money and because they’re out of good ideas. Seeing as Cars is my least favorite Pixar film (not a bad movie, per se, just not their best work), I do wonder a bit about Cars 2, but in general, the rule should be this: if you’ve got a good story and characters, do as many sequels as you like. Just make them necessary. To me, though, the obvious choice for a movie that ought to get a sequel is staring everyone in the face. It’s the 2004 superhero epic The Incredibles. Why wouldn’t a movie about superheroes get sequels, threequels, and everything afterwards?

It helps, of course, that The Incredibles mixed fast-paced and exciting action (the scene in which Dash outruns Syndrome’s guards is the best scene in a film full of great sequences) with a believable family drama. Granted, the family drama played out amidst costumes, explosions, and superpowers, but all the same, writer-director Brad Bird is able to balance the to-the-death fighting with the family bickering. Sure, if the caliber of villain in the second Incredibles film is going to be somewhere near the first film’s final bad guy, the Underminer, then maybe we ought to avoid a new adventure with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible. I’m guessing, however, that the braintrust at Pixar (hopefully including Bird, even if he’s about to direct the fourth Mission: Impossible film) can come up with a brilliant and exciting chapter.

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