The short animations before Pixar feature are an essential part of any Pixar movie viewing experience. Though brief, they’re so full of careful crafting and emotion that you sometimes can’t help tearing up before the main feature even starts. There’s a reason so many of them win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
However, despite having put out 20 shorts, it is only this year that the studio is showing one from a female director. To be fair, it’s not only Pixar but the entire animation industry that has a lot of troubles in terms of gender representation—particularly in the director’s chair. Domee Shi will debut her short film Bao, and I’m fairly sure my life will never be the same.
The eight-minute short is going to be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, but most of us will see it before the much-anticipated Incredibles 2. It centers around an “empty-nesting Chinese mom who gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life, but she must come to terms with the bittersweet revelation that nothing stays cute and small forever.” (Has a synopsis ever made you cry and feel like calling your mother?)
Shi began as an intern at Pixar and worked as a story artist on Inside Out as well as The Good Dinosaur, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4. She received the green light to write and direct Bao in 2015. A press release also pointed out that Shi’s short will show “the ups and downs of the parent-child relationship through the colorful, rich, and tasty lens of the Chinese immigrant community in Canada.”
Are you looking forward to Bao?
(via Cartoon Brew, image)
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