Doug Sweetland, the director of animated short Presto, has signed with Sony to make his feature debut.

The Oscar-nominated animator, whose tale of a hungry rabbit and a magical hat charmed everyone with a heart or brain before Pixar's WALL-E, will direct The Familiars. A tale of three young wizards who get kidnapped by an evil queen, it's based on the book by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson.

Sweetland has worked at Pixar for the last 16 years, so it's great to see him finally stepping out into his own full-length project. Especially one that involves a cat, a blue jay and a tree frog as magical familiars. And Sam Raimi as an exec producer.