A colorscript is a sequence of small pastel drawings or paintings used to emphasize color in each scene and establish a film's visual language.

“While Ellie is alive, our color palette is heavily saturated. She brings color into Carl’s life. When she’s gone, the palette is desaturated to shades of gray. When Carl blows up the balloons to begin his journey, we bring back the memory of Ellie through those saturated, beautiful colors. Any time we have life or movement forward, we use color saturation. But when there is impending doom, we almost go to black and white.” - Ricky Nierva, production designer