After “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure”, Pixar fans might be gun-shy of the famous shorts that precede the feature, but “Bao” will give moviegoers a reason to make sure they’re on time again.
Bao opens on a Chinese mother coping with empty nest syndrome and in turn a marriage that’s settled into a comfortable, albeit lonely silence. Her monotonous solitude brings to life a baby dumpling- baby here meaning both very small and also an infant type-being in dumpling form. The new bundle of pork ushers in a new chance at motherhood and all of the joys and heartaches that accompany it.
There are a lot of things about “Bao” that follow the Pixar formula to a tee. Rich musical score, no dialogue, and an 8-minute rollercoaster guaranteed to leave you a sobbing shell of yourself at the end. Seriously if you have ever had a child, mother, or dumpling – game over, just take a box of tissues in with you from the beginning. But although it keeps in tradition, there are several details that make Bao a pioneer film. It’s the first short to be directed by a woman, the first to focus on Asian-American characters and culture, it’s also Pixar’s longest short to date, but you will be far from bored.
Written and directed by Domee Shi, a Pixar employee who emigrated from China to Canada at a young age was heavily inspired by her own relationship with her mother while creating “Bao” and it shows. From the beginning notes, there’s an intimacy overflowing from the screen that I haven’t experienced in even Pixar’s best shorts. You know this family, many of us have lived in this family.
“I was inspired to do a Chinese version of (food folklore) with ‘Bao’ and it was the perfect fit because in Chinese culture food and family go hand in hand,” explained Shi following a Pixar screening, “When you want to show you care about someone or you love someone, you don’t say ‘I love you’, you say, ‘Have you eaten yet?’.”
Shi’s marriage of love and food is at times uncomfortably successful. I found myself being drawn in by the mouthwatering visuals, only to remind myself that in this world food was turned into children and eating children is generally frowned upon. The richness of the world, although it mainly rests on food, still touches every other detail of the short making it oddly realistic for the animation style. Life comes through from the shading on the city to bus to the bold floral patterns of the Chinese grannies practicing tai chi in the park in their aqua fanny packs, purple blouses, and hot pink vizors.
Many of the Pixar shorts have touched us. Many of them have made us cry. But this the first one that feels lived in. That kitchen, that home, that world not only really exist, but they were part of someone’s life and it comes through in every shot. The short goes beyond a success and will leave audiences not only craving dumplings but more work from Domee Shi.
