Two weeks ago, I came across a blog named Rainy City Tales 332 that seemed to be virally marketing a brand new Pixar short. I found various clues scattered throughout the blog, such as a Pizza Planet reference and a supposed hint at Monsters University. While there was strong evidence that Rainy City Tales was throwing us hints about the next Pixar short, a new article from The Playlist seems to solidify the blog’s nature even further, confirming that the short film will revolve around an umbrella and will be scored by great composer Jon Brion.





Covering Paranorman, the upcoming Laika stop-motion animated film, The Playlist looks at the music of the film specifically. The film’s score is composed by Brion, who has collaborated with famed director Paul Thomas Anderson on Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love. Additionally, he worked with director Michel Gondry on Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, providing fantastic music to accompany a great film.

Later in the article, writer Drew Taylor notes that, “Brion will be providing the score to the still-untitled Pixar “umbrella short.”” In this post on the Rainy City Tales blog, the umbrella photo above was followed by the caption, “It all started when I stumbled across this poor fellow on my morning commute.” Additionally, the following photo from the blog seems to be a shadowy photo of Brion hard at work:

While we are still waiting for the short to be announced to the general public, the news that Brion will be scoring the short is certainly exciting news. The music of Pixar shorts is always important as usually there is no dialogue exchanged between characters – the expressions, sound, and music come to the forefront to help audiences feel. Composer Michael Giacchino, who provided a beautiful score to Pixar’s last short, La Luna (playing now with Brave), has some truly amazing company at the studio.