doug sweetland made his directorial debut with "presto". sweetland provides the dialogue-free voice acting for both of the movie's characters. he pitched the film at the start of 2007 and began production late in the year, completing it in may 2008. "presto"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> gag based format was heavily influenced by classic cartoons. "looney tunes" cartoons directed by tex avery were a major influence, with alec being easily compared to bugs bunny. other influences include "tom and jerry", the marx brothers, and charlie chaplin. the character design for presto was based on william powell.