Celebrate Lunar New Year with some behind the scenes fun, facts, and trivia about the award-winning Pixar short, Bao from the film’s director and production designer!
What’s Happening:
- In Bao, an aging Chinese mom suffering from empty nest syndrome gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life as a lively, giggly dumpling boy. Mom excitedly welcomes this new bundle of joy into her life, but Dumpling starts growing up fast, and Mom must come to the bittersweet revelation that nothing stays cute and small forever.
- This short film from Pixar Animation Studios and director Domee Shi explores the ups and downs of the parent-child relationship through the colorful, rich, and tasty lens of the Chinese immigrant community in Canada.
- Today, to help celebrate Lunar New Year, Pixar has tweeted out the origin story of the short film, as told by Domee Shi herself.
- In the story, we learn that Shi used to spend a lot of time with her mom making dumplings, where her mom would say things like “I wish I could put you back in my stomach so I could know exactly where you are at all times!” Anybody familiar with the short can tell you that sentence alone is definitely the inspiration of the short, but one interesting thing that they note is that the word Bao means two things in Chinese. Depending on how you say it, it could be referring to a steamed bun or “something precious, like a treasure.”
- An interview we will likely see more of in the web series, What’s Up Disney+, has Pixar’s Rona Liu talking about the award-winning short film. Liu was a production designer on the film, and also tells viewers how her family celebrates Lunar New Year.
- Domee Shi is also directing the upcoming feature Turning Red, which was announced by Pixar Animation Studios at the recent Walt Disney Company Investors Day. In Turning Red, Mei Lee is a confident, dorky thirteen-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. And as if changes to her interests, relationships, and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which for a teenager is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda! The film is expected to come to theaters in Spring, 2022.
- Bao is currently streaming on Disney+.
Sign up for Disney+ or the Disney Streaming Bundle (Disney+, ESPN+, and ad-supported Hulu) now