The thirty-four-minute short, which follows the adventures of a young boy who one day finds a sentient, mute, red balloon, was filmed in the Ménilmontant neighborhood of Paris.

As Pascal and the balloon wander through the streets of Paris, they draw a lot of attention and envy from other children.

They hold Pascal back as they bring the balloon down with slingshots and stones, and one of them finally destroys it by stomping on it.

[5] Author Myles P. Breen has identified thematic and stylistic elements in the film that reflect the qualities of poetry.

Breen supports this view by quoting film theorist Christian Metz, who states, "In a poem, there is no story line, and nothing intrudes between the author and the reader."

Many of the locations featured in the film no longer exist, including one of the bakeries, the school, the famous staircase located just beyond the equally famous café "Au Repos de la Montagne," the steep steps of passage Julien Lacroix where Pascal finds the balloon, and the empty lot where many of the battles take place.

[citation needed] The film, in its American television premiere, was introduced by then-actor Ronald Reagan as an episode of the CBS anthology series General Electric Theater on 2 April 1961.

The film critic for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther, hailed the simple tale and praised director Lamorisse, writing: "Yet with the sensitive cooperation of his own beguiling son and with the gray-blue atmosphere of an old Paris quarter as the background for the shiny balloon, he has got here a tender, humorous drama of the ingenuousness of a child and, indeed, a poignant symbolization of dreams and the cruelty of those who puncture them.

"[11] Film critic Brian Gibson wrote: "So far, this seems a post-Occupation France happy to forget the blood and death of Adolf Hitler's war a decade earlier.

In a gorgeous sequence, light streaming down alleys as children's shoes clack and clatter on the cobblestones, the balloon bouncing between the walls, Pascal is hunted down for his floating pet.

Then, fortunately, it floats off, with the breeze of magic-realism, into a feeling of escape and peace, The Red Balloon taking hold of Pascal, lifting him out of this rigid, petty, earthbound life.

"[12] In a review in The Washington Post, critic Philip Kennicott had a cynical view: "[The film takes] place in a world of lies.

The critical consensus reads: "The Red Balloon invests the simplest of narratives with spectacular visual inventiveness, making for a singularly wondrous portrait of innocence.

The music video for "Son of Sam" by Elliott Smith, from his 2000 album Figure 8, is a direct homage to the film.

Guitarist Keith Calmes' album Follow the Red Balloon[22] is named as an homage to the spirit of Pascal and Sabine.

The red ballon appears (in three images on pages 162 and 163) of Jacques Tardi's Du Rififi à Menilmontant (Casterman, 2024), where private investigator Nestor Burma perambulates in the 20ème arrondissement during Christmas season, 1957.