A delicious nod to Chinese food and moms
Animated movie ‘Bao’ is the first Pixar short directed by a woman
Spoiler alert: Pixar’s new animated short “Bao” will make you tear-up over steamed buns. The eight-minute film that will be screened before “Incredibles 2,” starting this Friday in theatres, is getting extra buzz because its director Domee Shi grew up in Toronto, and also happens to be the first woman to direct a Pixar short.
“Bao” tells the story of a lonely emptynester Chinese mom who re-enters motherhood when a steamed bao she makes magically comes to life. It’s a short that’s equally funny and heart-wrenching, much like all Pixar films. “Bao” explores the mother-child relationship through a Chinese immigrant lens (Shi and her family immigrated from China when she was 2. After college she moved to Oakland, Calif., to work at Pixar. That was seven years ago).
I spoke with the 28-year-old storyboard artist, who has worked on Pixar films such as “Inside Out,” “The Good Dinosaur” and the upcoming “Toy Story 4,” at the back of Chinatown dim sum spot Rol San, where he was doing interviews all day. Over a giant tray of barbecue pork buns (She’s eaten three buns before I got there,) we talked about the accuracy of dumplingmaking, putting Toronto on the big screen and the short’s blink-and-you’ll-miss nods to Chinese households.
It’s eerie how well you captured my relationship with my parents on the screen. Have you been getting that a lot?
Yeah, we’ve been getting many responses from Asian-American and Asian-Canadian audiences about how it’s their life, it’s their mom and dad. It was also really cool getting that response from non-Asian people saying that it’s their nonna or they’re also going through that experience with their kids going off to college.
I always knew I wanted to tell this crazy, weird story of this Chinese mom who helicopter parents this dumpling. I knew it would be weird and emotional because I have that relationship with my parents but I didn’t realize it would have such an amazing response.
So you were the dumpling in this film?
I was definitely the dumpling. I feel like I still am. I grew up as the only child so my parents — especially my mom — were super overprotective. She always treated me like her precious little dumpling and I just wanted to tell the story about it.
How did Bao come to be?
I came up with the idea four years ago as a side project on my own. Every now and then, Pixar would have these open auditions across the studio asking people to pitch their ideas for a film in front of a panel of directors, producers and executives. I threw “Bao” into the mix along with two other ideas. I had these storyboards at the pitch, but didn’t know if they would go for it because I thought it might be too culturally specific or weird, but those were the reasons why they liked it, and that’s how it was green-lit as a Pixar short. That was in 2015.
Did you always want to work in animation?
I did. I grew up watching Disney and Pixar and a ton of Japanese animation like Studio Ghibli. I always loved drawing and visual storytelling so animation was a natural path for me. I graduated from Sheridan College’s animation program in Oakville and got an internship at Pixar.
What do your parents think of your career choice?
My mom was hesitant at first and asked if I’d rather be a lawyer or a doctor because it made more money and was more stable. My dad is an artist, too. He was an art professor in China but he struggled a lot to get his footing in Canada when we immigrated. He didn’t want me to go through the same hardships that he did. He was a freelance painter and it was much harder for him to get work because there was a language barrier when it came to English. But when I told them this was something I was really passionate about, they got behind me right away and did the Asian parent thing: they told me to give it a 1,000 per cent, and not give up because they’re spending a lot of money and time on me, so I better do well.
I’m sure doing a press tour is enough validation.
I hope so! No, I think they’re very proud of my achievements.
What influenced the look and character design?
We worked closely with our production designer, Rona Liu, who is Chinese-American. We both designed the look of the characters and the world to reflect our own lives and relatives, moms and grandmas. We’re also both inspired by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata of Studio Ghibli. (The film) “My Neighbours the Yamadas” was a huge influence on us. It’s an amazing animated film that shows the everyday lives of this sweet Japanese family, how they wake up in the morning, the arguments they get into and I wanted to incorporate that into the short. The whole thesis of the short film was to make everything round and cute and simple, like a bao. If you look at all the props and sets, everything is really chunky with no sharp corners.
There were things in the short I immediately noticed as someone who grew up in a Chinese household. One of the burners on the stove was lined with aluminum foil. I thought only my mom did that!
Thank you for noticing that! Those were all super intentional, and Rona and I thought it would be a fun and accurate nod to Chinese parents.
It reminds me how people in the Mexican communities were also noticing details like that in “Coco.”
Pixar has always been about research and telling authentic stories, and now the stories are moving toward more culturally specific areas and getting those details into the film. It just makes the film feel more real.
What about making it take place in Toronto?
We could have set it anywhere but giving it a real-life location adds a layer of believability and grounds it since the style of the characters are so cartoony. It was a cool homage to my hometown and I’ve never really seen Toronto animated on screen before so it was a good excuse to do that.
So what do you parents think of “Bao?”
My dad hasn’t seen it yet but I took my mom to the première in L.A. and she was really happy to walk the red carpet with me. I asked her if she cried and she was like, “I was emotional on the inside.” We’re not really criers.
Is that why the film has no dialogue? I don’t know about your parents, but mine aren’t super expressive through words.
I wanted the story to be as universal as possible and challenge myself to tell the story in the most visual way. By removing dialogue, you’re forcing yourself to make the story accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, regardless of language. But you’re absolutely right. I feel like a lot of Chinese parents show their love through action and not words, and that’s the case with the mom character.
Your mom also got involved as a consultant on the cooking scenes.
We actually flew her in twice to do dumpling-making classes for the whole crew. It was fun but also super useful as reference for the animators. We set up cameras in the Pixar kitchen and basically shot her hands rolling the dough and wrapping the buns. It looked almost exactly how it was shown in the short. It was really important to get the whole crew in there from start to finish and study her technique because we wanted it to be as accurate as possible.
I love baos and dumplings, but the filling isn’t the prettiest thing.
Our amazing effects team and art department led by Rona Liu worked back and forth to get the pork filling to look right. Rona was saying to make the filling look brighter and more saturated, not to just imitate the look of real ground pork. We bumped up the saturation, added bigger chunks of carrots and cabbage so it didn’t just look like pink paste. It took two effects artists two months to get it to look right.
With the success of Bao, do you see yourself continuing to make shorts or would you like to make a full-length feature?
I’m excited that Pixar asked me to start developing an idea for a feature film at its studio, so that’s what I’m working on next.