Doug Sweetland, Presto director. © Disney/Pixar.

Doug Sweetland, Presto (Via E-mail)

AF: First of all, how did you find out that you were nominated for an Academy Award? How did you celebrate when you received the news?

Doug Sweetland: My wife went on their website the morning of the announcements, so I knew before going to work, though my East Coast pals had the jump on me and had already left messages on my phone. East Coast blood runs deep! (And has a time advantage.) That night when I went out to buy myself a lovely pizza slice dinner, I bought a pie for some folks out on the street.

AF: How long ago did you start work on Presto? How large was your crew?

DS: Officially, I began work early in 2007. Unofficially, I had pitched the seed of the concept about 10 years or so prior, when Geri's Game was selected, then shelved it and let it stew while I continued animating. Our crew, which harnessed the awe and might of a hundred Cirque du Soleil's, were no greater in number than 60, and had only one unitard!

AF: Did you imagine that you would receive this much positive attention for your work?

DS: Oh, no. I don't know how to express the profound fear of failure I experienced on this show other than to say I worked on story. Anyone else who's worked on story, I believe, will understand what I'm talking about.

Presto. © Pixar.

AF: Presto is one of the fastest-paced cartoons I've seen since Tex Avery was in his prime. Was he a particular influence on this film? What other directors, both for cartoons and live action, did you study in preparation for Presto?

DS: First of all, thank you for the comparison. If you had said it was fast like Benny Hill, we would have had to seriously reevaluate over here.

I should say off the bat that following the classic cartoon mold wasn't initially how we started out. That just became the means by which we could most quickly and clearly set up an antagonistic relationship. As soon as it was clear we were headed in that direction, I became really nervous we would only succeed as an imitation. To that end, two influences that I feel helped the short stand on its own are Chaplin and [John] Lasseter. Chaplin, for his specificity of character in pantomime (which is such a clear influence on those classic cartoons) and Lasseter, for both starting the tradition of pantomime in Pixar shorts as well as being clear that our characters should arc and reconcile, completing a self-contained story. I love the ending of Presto, and that's Lasseter.

AF: Were there any other influences that may not be immediately obvious to people watching the film?

DS: Whoops. Did I already answer this? Well, I'll go on to say that being CG, we had to be a bit more realistic about how we dealt with this cartoony action. Whereas Tom can get shaved by Jerry and instantly grow his fur back, Presto can't just, well, magically reappear with new pants. In that sense, we thought of him more like Chief Inspector Dreyfus from the Pink Panther movies -- not only that he accumulates injuries, but he also goes more and more insane along the way.

We also talked a lot about It's a Wonderful Life for when Presto (spoiler alert!) survives the fall. That awesome scene where George Bailey runs screaming down the street saying hello to Bedford Falls and then kisses that broken banister knob, that's the feeling we wanted to elicit when Presto pats his body and raises his arms with the sparkles floating in the haze behind him.

AF: Teddy Newton's designs for Presto are incredible. At what point did he come onto the production?

DS: It's amazing to me that we had Teddy on the show before we were working in a really cartoony direction. I mean, Teddy can do anything, but it seemed to me that this time around the story ended up matching perfectly to his style rather than him matching his style to the show. Or maybe that's the sign of a great designer, I don't know.

Please let me also credit our brilliant sculptor, Greg Dykstra, who has the genius ability to translate Teddy's drawings directly into three-dimensional clay. Four dimensions if you stare. If you're interested in catching some of Teddy's Presto work on paper, I highly recommend the Little Golden Book of Presto, illustrated by Mr. Newton and at least twice as fast as the short, especially if you flip it.

AF: Have you directed any short films in the past?

DS: Just my student work, which I'd characterize more as simply animating without a director.

AF: What do you find rewarding about working on short subjects, as opposed to feature films?

DS: Oddly, the responsibility. With a smaller crew, there's the room, and need, to jump in and get your hands dirty regardless of your job description. On a feature, so much is covered already.

For instance, as an animator on a feature, you can be one of two supervising animators or two directing animators, or on a separate team of crowd animators or on a team of fixers. And that doesn't even include animating on shots, which is the bulk of the department. On Presto, however, it was just supervisor Andrew Gordon and seven kookoo animators. To keep pushing shots through, those of us who could jumped in and did crowd animation, testing or fixes. I understand I may have had more at stake being the director on the show, but I ended up doing more jobs in animation on the short than I did as a supervisor on a feature. It was totally invigorating to be able to freely dive in like that.

AF: Do you have any interest in experimenting with other forms of animation?

DS: There's a [music] video on YouTube I just saw, "Her Morning Elegance," that animates real people in a way I've wanted to do. The idea of contriving timing and events within a real space with real light seems new to me, though I guess it's just pixelation. I don't know, looking at live action cartoon adaptations like Popeye or The Grinch or Dick Tracy, I wonder if pixelating it wouldn't make it just a little more abstract and fantastical. Maybe just a dash of it here and there. I bet if you lace your run-of-the-mill live-action movie with some of that, people would sit up in their seats. I guess it'd be like taking the cheap way of just dropping frames from a hit and doing a Nine Old Men over the entire action. Let me just say, though, that I champion Robin Williams' Popeye.

AF: Have you seen any of the other nominated films?

DS: All but This Way Up, which I can't find anywhere here in the States. I'll catch it soon, though.

AF: Are you in contact with any of the other directors?

DS: Yeah, I met the Oktapodi guys at Annecy last year, so we're buds. I know our movies are now in the great Oscar cage match, but having met those guys back when we were just happy to have made our shorts, I'm totally thrilled for them.

AF: Have you begun work on any new projects since the completion of Presto?

DS: I have, thank heavens, but can't go into it due to a faint grasp of showmanship and an abundance of the superstition that talking about something before it's done will make it suck. But I do thank you for asking. Cheers!