Wheres the surprise, you might ask.
Once youve seen Unselds film though, youll know what he means.
Pixar may bang the drum for story, but its the style ofThe Blue Umbrellathat makes an impression.
It doesnt mean anything.
Well, we wont spoil it.
Its a very good thing!
and she said How do I make itstop?
She was really stressed out by it.
How much of that was self-imposed, or were you told This is how we do shorts?
At the core was an umbrella and then I just needed to find the right story with it.
Tell us about the process of pitching and how you got The Blue Umbrella made.
Its a long process.
Anyone at Pixar can pitch short films, you just need to pitch three.
What were your other two?
There were actually more.
Well, they werent crap, I just couldnt find the right story.
What were those ideas, if you dont mind telling us?
I dont really remember.
Another one was with a monster that actually just wanted to be hugged.
So you trained yourself.
That just helped massively.
First up, its a big cultural difference between Germany and the US.
Public speaking is something thats not as common in Germany as it is here, so thats one gap.
WasThe Blue Umbrellaalways going to play in front ofMonsters University?
Does Pixar deliberately pick the shorts that will complement the movies theyre in front of?
There is no specific tactic in which short hooks up with which feature.
Were like, were done with it, we want to show it to people.
There is no tactic or planning, or this would fit well with this.
The first thing was like the idea that the umbrella wants to get back to his owner.
But you couldnt find a happy ending for that.
Is that pre-requisite for Pixar shorts, that they have a happy ending?
They cant be bleak?
I would dare anyone to do a Pixar short film with a not-happy ending.
How close an eye did you keep on something like DisneysPaperman?
Was that something you were aware of when you were making The Blue Umbrella?
It was like, oh, interesting.
I mean, I guess the only similarity is its a love story in a big city.
Do you see it that way?
Its magical if its the outside world we know and then we descend into a magical world.
I always felt, what does photo-real mean?
It doesnt mean anything.
For me it was about, okay, thats photo-real, but that doesnt mean anything.
How is it going to feel, how is it going to look like?
When I pitched it and everyone loved it there was no talk about how it was going to look.
I got the green light just based on everyone loving the story and the characters.
It could be anything.
Thats when everyone got excited and said wait a second, we can do something completely different with this.
We were just saying that neither of us has seen anything quite like it before.
Haveyouseen anything else that looks like it?
Not like this, which Im really happy about.
Do you think it will now?
Thats almost the final frontier of animation.
What do you think about that?
I dont think its the final frontier, because I think weve reached that.
There are live-action movies out there where complete characters are CG and you just dont care.
So you think there arent any more great bounds forward to be made in terms of the technology?
Small increments will be made, but its the artistic side that will be where the developments are.
I think there are big bounds in the artistic side.
I think technology-wise, for what its worth, I think we can do anything.
It doesnt matter what the characters are.
As I said, John and Ed were like, lets do something thats completely different.
Its an artist-director-driven house, that never changed.
Sascha Unseld, thank you very much!
Monsters University and The Blue Umbrella will be released in the UK on Friday the 12th of July.
