The Blue Umbrella (2013 film)

The Blue Umbrella is a 2013 computer-animated short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios that was released alongside Monsters University.[4] The short is directed by Saschka Unseld of Pixar's technical department. The short features techniques such as photorealistic lighting, shading, and compositing.[5]

The Blue Umbrella
Poster for the film's premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival
Directed bySaschka Unseld
Produced byMarc Greenberg[1]
Screenplay bySaschka Unseld
Music byJon Brion[2]
CinematographyBrian Boyd
Edited byJason Hudak
Production
company
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release date
Running time
7 minutes
CountryUnited States

Plot

A city scene is brought to life by a rainstorm. Many objects along the street – signs, lights, awnings, mailboxes, buildings, houses, drains, drain pipes, rain gutters, windows, doors – appear to come to life and develop faces and expressions of their own, enjoying the shower. People pass on the street under their umbrellas, all of which are seemly black, except for a singular blue umbrella. As his owner stops at a street corner, the blue umbrella sees a pretty red umbrella next to him. The two exchange nervous glances, and soon become smitten with each other, but their owners' paths diverge.

Seeing this, the objects along the street begin to work with each other to bring the owners together. As the blue umbrella is about to be taken into the subway station, a sign allows the wind to blow the umbrella from his owner's hands. The umbrella is floating through the air toward his destination when a sudden gust of wind caused by a passing bus veers him off course and he lands in the street. With the umbrella in danger from the traffic, the objects attempt to protect him from oncoming cars: a construction sign lights up to redirect an oncoming vehicle, a gurgling drain pipe spews water to push him out of the way, another construction sign falls on him to fling him away from another car, and a drain blasts him into the air, but he is hit by a truck, visibly upsetting the objects that have tried to help him.

Battered and bruised, the umbrella is found by his owner who straightens him out just as the owner of the red umbrella approaches, reuniting the two of them. The objects of the city silently celebrate their reunion as the umbrellas' owners sit down together at a local café, allowing the two umbrellas to be together after all.

Relationship to Disney Animation

Though Saschka Unseld was inspired by a discarded umbrella, the story's plot arc is the same as a segment of Disney's compilation film Make Mine Music, Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet. Two hats fall in love, are separated, and eventually reunited as decorative headwear for an ice man's horses. The complete segment can be viewed on YouTube.

Production
Saschka Unseld, the director of the film, at the 2013 Annecy International Animated Film Festival

Unseld said he conceptualized the story after finding an abandoned umbrella one day in San Francisco.[5] As inspiration, Unseld and his colleagues took photographs of inanimate objects found in city streets throughout New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Paris.[5] Unseld has described the short as "a love declaration to the rain".[6]

Pixar's rendering system was updated to include algorithms capable of rendering new types of lighting and reflection, a technique referred to as global illumination.[5][7]

Many of the shots use artificial pareidolia to cause faces to be seen in various inanimate objects. As with most other Pixar shorts, The Blue Umbrella is "absent of dialogue and long on the use of visual and musical cues to elicit an emotional response".[8]

Release

The Blue Umbrella premiered on February 12, 2013, at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.[3] The short received a wide release on June 21, 2013 in front of Pixar's feature Monsters University. It is included on the Monsters University DVD and Blu-ray, and is also included on the DVD and Blu-ray of Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 3 released on November 13, 2018.[9]

Jon Brion's score, featuring Sarah Jaffe's vocals, was released digitally by Walt Disney Records on July 9, 2013.[10]

Critical reception

The short has been critically acclaimed. Collider gave the short an A, and concluded its review with: "Without ruining the rest of the story, I’ll just say that The Blue Umbrella is an enjoyable little short at six minutes and change. It’s a nice boy-meets-girl tale that introduces a number of memorable and original characters in the city that, upon viewing it, will have you smiling and seeing faces everywhere you go. It’s clever, cute and quirky, and a fitting opener for Pixar’s Monsters University.[8] National Post gave the film 3.5/4 stars, writing "Directed by Saschka Unseld, who worked on Toy Story 3 and Brave, The Blue Umbrella is six minutes of rain-beaten beauty", and describing it as "sure-to-be-Oscar-nominated".[11]

gollark: (Pagination + quick rule summary + indicator if person you're trading with is egglocked + few other small things probably)
gollark: God-Emperor TJ09 could fix the whole thing in a few hours, but nooo...
gollark: Which is worse?!
gollark: Either it's deliberate stupidity (drama maximization experiment) or the site is just *that badly run*.
gollark: Seriously. It's not hard. Does TJ09 really not have 5 minutes to add pagination and write up a small paragraph on the rules?!

References
  1. Bastoli, Mike (January 7, 2013). "This New Still From Pixar's 'Blue Umbrella' Will Amaze You". Big Screen Animation. Archived from the original on January 10, 2013. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  2. Taylor, Drew. "Soundtrack Details For Jon Brion's Score For Ghoulish Animated Film 'ParaNorman'". The Playlist. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  3. T.J. (January 28, 2013). "The Blue Umbrella Premiers on February 12, 2013". Pixar Post. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
  4. Goldberg, Matt. "Brief Clip from Pixar's Upcoming Photorealistic Short THE BLUE UMBRELLA". Collider.com. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  5. Chai, Barbera (7 January 2013). "Watch an Exclusive Clip of Pixar's New Short, 'The Blue Umbrella'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  6. Giardina, Carolyn (28 May 2013). "Pixar's New Short 'The Blue Umbrella' Takes a Photoreal Approach". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  7. Billington, Alex. "First Look: New Pixar Short 'The Blue Umbrella' by Saschka Unseld". First Look.Net. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  8. http://collider.com/the-blue-umbrella-review-pixar/#Q3kdIFu1vBfkHvhd.99
  9. Sluss, Justin (August 9, 2013). "Pixar's "Monsters University" comes to Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D in October". High Def Disc News. Archived from the original on August 12, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  10. "Walt Disney Records to Release Jon Brion's 'The Blue Umbrella' Score". Film Music Reporter. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-05-22. Retrieved 2014-05-22.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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