Doug Sweetland

He was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation for the film.

[3] In 2007, Sweetland pitched a short film about a sympathetic magician who gets "dumped" by his rabbit.

This eventually evolved to a more slapstick film (and a throwback to Warner Bros. classic Looney Tunes).

Teddy Newton was brought on board to design the characters; it emerged as Sweetland's directorial debut, Presto, which preceded WALL-E in theaters.

[5] In April 2015, Warner Bros. announced that the film, which Sweetland co-directed with Stoller, would be released on September 23, 2016.