First clip from new Pixar short ‘The Blue Umbrella’

Will Perkins
·Blogger

We’ve been hearing quite a lot about Pixar as of late. The computer animation studio behind such films as “Toy Story,” “Wall-E,” and “Up” was in the news last week after launching a clever viral campaign for "Monsters University," the upcoming sequel to “Monsters Inc." The Disney-owned company also had its fans talking when concept art from their upcoming slate of movies made its way online.

The normally secretive animation studio seems to be revelling that spotlight again this week. Pixar unveiled a clip from their new short film “The Blue Umbrella” (which will play in front of “Monsters University” when it is released on June 21) over at The Wall Street Journal, of all places.

Taking a page from previous Pixar films like “Toy Story” and “Cars” (in which inanimate objects come alive), the six-minute photo-realistic short follows the story of a blue umbrella who falls in love with a red umbrella. As umbrellas carried by people during a rain storm, the star-crossed parasols need a little help from other urban objects – like streetlights, mailboxes, and signs – to bring them together.

See also: Top 10 must-see movies of 2013

“The Blue Umbrella” is unusual in that it is the brainchild of Pixar layout artist Saschka Unseld. Previous Pixar shorts have been directed by established animators or storyboard artists, but Unseld is the first member of the company’s technical team to be tapped for such a project.

Unseld told the WSJ that he was inspired after seeing an umbrella lying in the gutter. “It was the saddest thing,” he said. “I stood there and wondered what had happened to him. I think that was when I got the idea of giving him a story.”

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Pixar has traditionally used its short films to push the boundaries computer animation technology and to explore new storytelling avenues. Recent Pixar shorts include “Partly Cloudy” (which accompanied “Up”) and “La Luna” (which appeared in front of “Brave”), which was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 2012 Academy Awards.

The shorts have served a dual purpose for Pixar, allowing it to scout possible feature film directing talent internally. For example, the company’s upcoming animated feature “The Good Dinosaur” (due out in 2014) is being co-directed by “Partly Cloudy” director Peter Sohn and "A Bug's Life" and "Toy Story 2" writer and storyboard artist Bob Peterson, while “La Luna”’s director Enrico Casarosa will be head of the story department on the film. If "The Blue Umbrella" is well received, chances are audiences might see Saschka Unseld direct a Pixar movie within the next several years.

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