After the headaches of animating Billy the baby in "Tin Toy", Lasseter backed away from depicting human characters. The team all agreed to do something simpler that would not "drive us all crazy," according to producer Ralph Guggenheim. When watching "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" during the production of "Tin Toy", Lasseter became inspired to create a Chuck Jones-the type of cartoon. Rather than challenge the limitations of the computer as they had done in the previous shorts, the animators wanted to make a short based on geometric shapes instead, which was a strength of the computer. In a discussion with the group, Lasseter brought up famed Warner Bros. and MGM director Tex Avery, noting that his cartoons were wild and exuberant, yet not necessarily very complex. Lasseter collected snow globes and also enjoyed souvenirs from distant places; from those elements, "Knick Knack"—the only pure comedy among Lasseter's early short films at Pixar—began to fall into place.