And with that I am not talking about general audiences, but about awards bodies. It baffles me to see how this Pixar entry was shut out pretty much everywhere. Admittedly, it does not have the deepest story, but it succeeds in every other area in my opinion. And greatly so. Our hero, the title character, meets a red umbrella and it's love at first sight. However, in his attempts of winning her heart, he loses almost everything. It was raining already pretty strongly, but now also a heavy wind blows. And it blows the umbrella away from its owner, far far away. Still he is lucky and his owner finds him again quickly and there are more positive surprises coming. I quite liked the use of colors in this one and it was also sweet how they used his owner and the woman as human equivalents of the umbrellas. Finally another thumbs-up for the supporting characters and with that I mean the inanimate objects who keep smiling during the end. They are perfect for this one, do not take away too much attention, but add something unique to this very short movie. Really, I can only repeat myself again. I feel sorry for German director and writer Saschka Unseld here that this did not only not get in at the Oscars, but got shut out pretty much completely. He worked on several high-profile Pixar films already and I hope he gets to make his own at some point. I am positive he has the talent. In my opinion, this is one of the best short films from 2013 and people should definitely watch it. Oh yeah, finally one thing I forgot: Sarah Jaffe's singing was very nice too and perfectly fit the tone of the movie. Highly recommended.
Review of The Blue Umbrella
