[5] A young accountant named George is standing on an elevated train platform in the 1940s in New York City,[6] holding a folder, when he is hit by a flying piece of paper.

The paper is chased by a young woman named Meg who lost it to a gust of wind from a passing train.

After failing to get her attention by waving his arms, much to the annoyance of his boss, George begins folding airplanes from a stack of papers on his desk, throwing them out the window one by one in an attempt to get her to notice him.

[8] Kahrs conceived Paperman while he was traveling on his routine commute through Grand Central Station, where he was inspired by "the random connections you sometimes make with people" on these excursions.

However, he admitted that the writing was really a collaborative process because he constantly received creative input from a "peer group of directors".

According to Kahrs, Bailey, like George, "experiences the full gamut of life, from the highest highs to the lowest lows.

[7][16] When describing the inspiration for the film's unique style of animation, which was created with this new in-house technology,[17] Kahrs stated: "We brought together as best we could the expressiveness of 2D drawing immersed with the stability and dimensionality of CG.

[19] The character design of Paperman has been likened to that of Disney's traditionally animated film, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

Several comparisons have been drawn between the characters George from Paperman and Roger from 101 Dalmatians, specifically the fact that they both share similar body types.

George's appearance underwent several alterations, but Kahrs always intended for the character to have a rather large nose, saying that it "can still be really fun and attractive".

Longtime Disney animator Glen Keane worked on George's love interest, Meg.

[15] In an interview with her school's alumni association, Kari Wahlgren, who voiced Meg, said that she was asked to do the role because of her previous involvements in Bolt and Tangled.

[28] The short film, and most of the others that were released on Netflix, were made available to stream individually, rather than one single collection, on Disney+ on November 12, 2021 for the first Disney+ Day.

Paperman was also released on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection Blu-ray on August 18, 2015.

[32] There is some discussion regarding some similarities in the storyline and concept of Paperman and Patrick Hughes' 2008 short film, Signs.