Just, wow. Wowwowwowwowwowwowwow. One of my favorite Pixar shorts. While the premise was just a little generic (basically Paperman with umbrellas), the visuals more than made up for it. I hope Pixar does more with the photo-realism software they have because the film was stunning. My family didn’t even know it was animated, that’s how real it looked. As little as I’m looking forward to Finding Dory, if they use the photo-realism software from this movie for that, well, let’s just say that Pixar will never outdo itself then.
What made this different for me than Paperman was the photorealism and [spoil]how the whole city joins in to save the blue umbrella[/spoil]. And as matter of fact, the music IS my taste and the first thing I heard playing in my head when I got back home was that lovely tune with the vocalization. I loved the voice so much, I searched for her name in the end credits. It was like Sarah Jeffe or something. Loved the whole music bit.
And somehow, the mood of it seemed to give me a glimpse of what future Pixar features could be like.
^Agreed! The music was absolutely charming and too perfect for the short 
The music definitely fit, but it wasn’t my style at all.
I liked the tune of the music. What I didn’t like was the girl’s voice over it. I would have preferred just instrumentation. I loves the visuals and thought it was precious! My parents liked the short better than MU, actually.
The music style kind of sounded like it could fit in a new Pixar film, a very good one. I’m not sure why I think that, though.
I find it interesting that this short shared similar quirks to Paperman in terms of animation and its critical reaction. Whereas the short showcase the realistic technique, Paperman showed off the uniqueness of combining handwritten and 3-d animation. So they both show off unique techniques.
With Blue Umbrella, there’s a heart to it, and an understanding of silence and characterization of inaminate objects (Pixar magic). Much like Paperman, which uses silence for dramatic effect and make the wham moments bigger (think of the “pillow shots” of Studio Ghibli films). But I felt Paperman incorporated the silence much better, had a lot more patience and timing to it.
Both films appear to have the term of the fate of love, and how fate conspires to bring the lovers together. But I just thought Paperman had the more solid plot structure and a sense of a story theme. Whereas with the Blue Umbrella, it’s a slew of sincere creativity (watching the objects save the umbrella) and, wham, happy ending, sweet, that’s it. In Paperman, the two lovers actively pursue their fate with the aid of… magic paper.
Blue Umbrella might lack a some needed plot structure, but there is a sense of atmosphere to this solid animation. I sense that it will foreshadow some later advancement of Pixar animation. I wish Pixar luck with that.
The soundtrack is available on iTunes now! <3 They have 2 versions of it: one with vocals, the other just instrumental.
I personally liked Paperman a whole lot better. But that’s just me.
I greatly enjoyed this one, despite the similarities to Paperman. I just thought the umbrellas were adorable. And I loved [spoil]all the different things joining in to help him out[/spoil]. And I was very much impressed by the photorealism. I remember when I first saw clips of this I thought they just stuck animated faces on real umbrellas.
Pixar released three new posters for The Blue Umbrella on their Facebook page today:
I don’t know about you guys, but I LOVE the style these are done in! I think they’re gorgeous! 
(Sorry if they’re a little small, my computer was having issues with the size and I had to make them smaller)
I adore these posters! Good golly, Pixar went the extra mile on everything about TBU My fave is the third one with the two umbrellas… the way the handles curve into a little heart is just too precious… X3
Lovely posters, they captur the atmosphere and spirit of the film!