The Secret Ingredients of Pixar’s Food Folk Tale ‘Bao’ From Director Domee Shi

If you were part of the massive $182.6 million opening for “Incredibles 2” this past weekend there’s a very good chance you saw Pixar’s latest in-house animated short, “Bao,” screen right before it.  Arguably one of the more original concepts the studio has gotten behind, “Bao” centers on a middle aged Chinese woman whose dumpling come to life right before her eyes.  It’s an allegory for something else in her world, but we won’t spoil the surprise (unless you keep reading of course).

[Note: There is a MAJOR spoiler ahead so if you haven’t seen the short yet you’ve been warned.]

Speaking at Pixar Animation Studios in Everyville, CA a few months ago, “Bao” writer and director Domee Shi laid out her thought process on conceptualizing the short film.  It all began in January 2014 when the story artist for “Inside Out” – her first gig out of film school – realized she was itchy to make s “something that was me, something a little bit weird.”  Shi describes her self as a major food fanatic and knew that if shew as going to work on it years for years it had to be something she was truly passionate about.

“I’ve always loved food folk tales because they’re so cute and they’re so strange,” Shi says.  “Like ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and that old folk song, ‘There Was an Old Lady who swallowed a fly.’  And I was inspired to do a Chinese version of that with ‘Bao’. and I felt it was a perfect fit, because in Chinese culture, food and family go hand in hand. When you want to show you care about someone, or that you love someone, you don’t say ‘I love you,’  you say, ‘Have you eaten yet?'”

She knew what her first ingredient was, but realized her second one was tapping into her childhood.  It was her relationship with her mother that would fuel her creative fires.

“Ever since I was little she’s always treated me like her precious little baby dumpling, always watching over me, making sure I was safe. Making sure I had a good education for a good college in the future,” Shi says. “We were a small immigrant family from China living in Toronto, Canada and my dad worked away from home a lot.  So, I spent a lot of my childhood and teenhood with my Mom. We did everything together. We ate together, we commuted to work and school together. We even vacationed together, mother-daughter Chinese bus tours all over the East Coast.”

It was very hard for Shi’s mother to give her the space she needed growing up and she recalls her pulling her close to her and saying,”Ah, I wish I could put you back in my stomach so I knew exactly where you were at all times.”  That “creepy, sweet love” of a Mom who has to learn to let her little dumpling go because the narrative through line for “Bao.”

“I wasn’t just inspired by my relationship with my Mom. I was inspired by her,” Shi says.  “She’s a dumpling queen. Growing up, she’d always make dumplings for me from scratch, and as with a lot of parents out there, food was how my Mom showed her love for me. We’ve always had this special connection making dumplings together on weekends, and holidays, and Chinese New Year. And I made sure to involve her as much as possible in the research for ‘Bao.’  I’d bring her in to do dumpling-making demos for the whole crew, for all the animators and FX and simulation artists.  She’s very happy about the cultural consultant credit.”

The third ingredient for Shi was Chinatown, specifically, Toronto’s Chinatown where she’d go shopping with her parents for groceries and eat dim sum at her favorite restaurant (the eatery was closed down after failing a health inspection but she jokes, “thats how you know it was good.”)

The short originally started as a personal side project, but when the studio had an open call for pitches she decided to throw “Bao” into the mix.  She originally pitched it to Pete Doctor, the Oscar-winning director of “Inside Out” and “Up,” whose support helped get “Bao” greenlit as the next Pixar animated short in 2015.  Shi recalls, “It was crazy. I couldn’t believe I got picked. I think I just rolled on the floor and spasmed for five minutes after I found out. It was amazing.”

After she got the go ahead Shi really started a deep dive into the story.  She knew she always wanted to fashion it around an empty-nester Mom who goes through a “crazy dumpling fantasy.”  Over time, however, she simplified the script, removing some characters (including, at one time, a little dumping girlfriend for Dumpling).  Budget had something to do with it, but she also knew she was constrained to an optimal time of just six to seven-minutes for an animated short.

“I made Dumpling the only magical food character in the story so the focus was on this relationship between the Mom and dumpling son,” Shi says.  “And I also just discovered it was funnier for him to have a human girlfriend too. And instead of going on a killing rampage and eating everything in her sight, Mom just eats Dumpling in a quick crime of passion, like it was quicker, it was more emotional, it was less gross, and it made the act more digestible for viewers.”

“Bao” has a unique look for a Pixar film with the “human” characters looking a big more stylized than the traditional humans you see in most of the studio’s full length features.  Dumpling might have seemed easier to create, but it was more of a “fun challenge” for Shi.

“We really wanted to take advantage of the fact that he’s made of dough,” Shi says.  “He’s squishy, he’s stretchy, his mouth can go really big or small. He’s got a little bounce in his step.  We really wanted to just pay tribute to the fact he’s made of dough, so let’s take advantage of that.”

Looking at an early animation test of  Mom carrying Dumpling, Shi adds,  “She really moves and feels like a Chinatown granny out for a stroll with her baby. I love the waddle.”

“Bao” is currently playing in front of “Incredibles 2” which is in theaters nationwide.