LIFE AND ART

How director’s life inspired Pixar’s ‘Bao’

Much like a delicious dumpling before a hearty meal, “Bao” is the bite-sized animated film audiences see before “Incredibles 2.” But more than just a Pixar appetizer, the short is a whimsical love letter to mothers as well as food. It just happens to be wrapped in a package so adorable you want to eat it.

Directed by Domee Shi, “Bao” centers on a Chinese mother with a case of empty-nest syndrome. She gets a second chance at motherhood when one of the dumplings she made comes to life as a tiny, giggly baby.

The Chinese-Canadian filmmaker took inspiration from her own life as a child of immigrants when crafting the short, a story Shi first started working on over four years ago.

“I was digging through my art folder at work, and the earliest sketch I found was dated January 2014,” said Shi. “It was just a bunch of different dumpling ideas, different dumpling characters.”

Shi, who joined Pixar as a story intern in 2011 before being hired as a story artist on “Inside Out,” had worked on “Bao” for almost two years on her own before bringing on more people.

“There wasn’t really a script — I kind of wrote with storyboards,” Shi said. “I worked with my editor on the story reels, and we slowly crafted it. Cutting stuff out, putting stuff back in.”

With “Bao,” Shi is the first woman to direct a Pixar short. In addition to “Inside Out,” Shi served as a story artist on “The Good Dinosaur,” “Toy Story 4” and the film her short is now paired with, “Incredibles 2.” What was your inspiration for “Bao”?

My inspiration mainly came from my own life. Growing up I was that overprotected little dumpling for my Chinese mom. I was an only child living in Toronto with my parents, and they’ve always kind of watched over me and made sure I was safe — kept me really, really close. And I just wanted to explore that relationship between an overprotective parent and their child with a dumpling as a metaphor, as weird as that sounds.

I’m also like a huge foodie, so any excuse to work with food, draw food and eat food for research was great. I definitely wanted to incorporate that into the short as well. How many dumpling trips did you all go on for research?

Oh, so many. So many dumplings were harmed in the making of this short.

CONTRIBUTED BY DISNEY/PIXAR “Bao,” the Pixar short showing before “Incredibles 2,” tells the story of an aging Chinese woman with empty-nest syndrome who gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life. Director Domee Shi says the story came from her own childhood experience with overprotective Chinese immigrant parents and that making the short helped her understand her mother’s perspective.

JULIEN REYNAUD/APS-MEDIAS/ABACA PRESS/TNS Domee Shi is the first woman to direct a Pixar short.