In 'The Blue Umbrella', what object does the blue umbrella fall in love with?

In The Blue Umbrella, the blue umbrella falls in love with a red umbrella.

This 2013 Pixar short turns a rainy city street into a lively romantic world. Among a crowd of mostly black umbrellas, a solitary blue umbrella notices a red umbrella at a street corner. The two exchange glances and become attracted to each other before their owners move apart.

The rest of the film follows the blue umbrella’s dangerous attempt to reunite with the red one. Street signs, gutters, drains, awnings, and other urban objects appear to come alive and help him, though traffic leaves him battered and bent. He is eventually repaired and reunited with the red umbrella while their owners meet at a café.

The short was written and directed by Saschka Unseld and released with Monsters University. Its unusually realistic look came from Pixar’s work on lighting, reflections, and global illumination. The story began after Unseld found an abandoned umbrella in San Francisco, inspiring what he called a “love declaration to the rain.”