This short was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be spoilers ahead: This is an exceptionally funny short from Pixar which points up the perils for a magician who neglects to feed his rabbit before the show. There's no dialog in this intensely visual short. If you blink, you'll miss something. This one is reminiscent of Tex Avery. The only way the magician survives this short is the fact that he's a cartoon character! There's a moment in here which will cause roughly half the audience to reflexively flinch and cringe. The lesson here is to let a very determined rabbit eat breakfast or you'll suffer the consequences. The end of this short has the act with significantly different billing.This short is available on DVD both as an extra on a Pixar feature and on the Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 2. The short is well worth watching. Most highly recommended.

I have always loved Pixar, and Presto- shown before the enchanting WALL-E- is one of my favourites ever from them. Pixar films and shorts always have had amazing animation and Presto is no exception. The colours have so much vibrancy and warmth and the backgrounds are smooth and elegant. The music is suitably rousing and dynamic with what's going on screen. Presto has some great and very funny humour, not through dialogue, but through slapstick and visual gags. In fact, for me Presto is one of the funnier Pixar short films, the slapstick and visual gags are not just funny and there are plenty of them but also very clever. I also love how much heart there is in the simple story and how engaging the characters are, especially the rabbit. Presto has humour and heart, but what makes it so good is also its sweet tone without making it cloyingly sweet. Overall, a superb short film, it really is 5 minutes of sheer joy. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Like last year, I went to a special showing of the Oscar-nominated animated short films. However, unlike last year, in addition to the nominees, several "commended films" were also shown. In this review I'll make my predictions, though if it's anything like last year's choices, I'll probably once again pick the wrong shorts as my favorite for the award.PRESTO is a cute little short about a rabbit who is hungry yet his master, a magician, is unwilling to let him eat. After all, the show must go on and it's time for them to be on stage. But, being so very hungry, the rabbit decides to use a bit of prestidigitation himself and soon a battle ensues between bunny and magician--with hilarious results. In many, many ways, the film looks like a CGI version of an old Tex Avery cartoon--with lots of good old fashioned violence and silly mayhem.Overall, this was probably my second favorite of the nominated films. I loved the artwork (not surprising, considering it's a Pixar film) and the film was cute yet violent (a great combination if you ask me). There certainly wasn't much depth to it but you can't fault the Academy for selecting it as a nominee--it's state of the art and clever.Unlike the four other shorts that were nominated, this one actually received a very widespread release--being shown before the full-length film, WALL-E. Because of this sentiment and because the CGI is unbeatably good, it's probably the odds on favorite to win the Oscar. It's my second favorite of the nominees, as I slightly preferred THIS END UP--though I must admit its animation wasn't quite as good as PRESTO's. The reason I prefer this other film is because it had a very sick sense of humor and seemed much more creative--taking many risks. PRESTO, on the other hand, is a very typical Pixar release--a real crowd pleaser instead of an innovative or risk-taking film.UPDATE: LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES was the winner this year. Not surprisingly, I got this one wrong but at least saw the film as a strong contender.

Presto (2008) *** (out of 4) Animated short from Pixar, which was originally shown in front of Wall-E. A magician who specializes in pulling a rabbit from his hat forgets to feed that same rabbit. That night at the show the rabbit protests and refuses to be pulled, which leads to trouble. This film runs a short five-minutes and while it's not as attractive as the main feature it's still a nice little gem. There's some very funny stuff here as the magician has to do battle with his partner including a very good sequence where the rabbit keeps pulling tricks of his own. The animation is quite nice and the story work fine as well.