Pixar's latest short film, Bao, will screen in front of The Incredibles 2 this summer - get a look at the short with two new images. Pixar shorts have become a welcome and expected part of seeing any of the animation studio's releases in theaters. A number of the shorts have been nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film, and some have gone on to win the category, including Piper, the short that screened with Finding Dory in 2016.
Of course, there was some controversy with the "short film" that screened in front of Pixar's last release, Coco. Though Coco received rave reviews from critics, casual moviegoers complained so much about Disney's 21-minute Olaf's Frozen Adventure short that Disney pulled it. However, Disney's Frozen short film screening with Coco was a special case and it's likely Pixar's parent company won't pull that same move twice. Now, with Pixar gearing up to debut their new film, we've got our first look at the short that will screen with it.
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EW released two first look images from the upcoming short film, Bao. According to EW, the short will follow a mother suffering from depression as a result of her empty nest. However, she gets a second shot at motherhood when one of her handmade dumplings comes to life. The seven and a half minute short is directed by Domee Shi, a storyboard artist on Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur who becomes the first female short director in Pixar's history. Read Shi's explanation of her inspiration for Bao as the only child of Chinese immigrants and check out two images below:
Often times it felt like my mom would treat me like a precious little dumpling, wanting to make sure I was safe, that I didn’t go out late, all that stuff. I just wanted to create this magical, modern-day fairy tale, kind of like a Chinese Gingerbread Man story. The word ‘bao’ actually means two things in Chinese: Said one way, it means steamed bun. Said another, it means something precious. A treasure.
As seen in the first image, we get our first look at the mother at the heart of Bao as well as her dumpling child. The second image focuses on concept art of the dumpling expressing a range of emotions. As explained by producer Becky Neiman-Cobb, one of the biggest challenges on Bao was working out how to bring food to life in a way that was cute and realistic, with the effects department needing to walk a line "between looking delicious and appetizing and looking wrong or gross." Neiman-Cobb specifically points to the dumpling's pork filling as a challenge, though we don't get to see how that turned out from these images.
Neiman-Cobb and Shi also spoke to the excitement at Pixar when word spread about the concept of Bao, with them being contacted by employees with Asian and/or immigrant parents who were eager to work on the project. Shi explained the outpouring of excitement to be a part of Bao as the short film having a "universally appealing story" with different people either relating to the mother or the dumpling. EW likens the universality of Bao to Coco, which told a story steeped in family through the lens of a young Mexican boy named Miguel.
Now, it seems Bao will offer a similar opportunity to tell a familiar story through an entirely new lens. Whether Bao will receive as much critical praise as Coco or awards attention as Piper remains to be seen. However, based on these first look images and the excitement around the project directed by Shi, it seems Pixar has something special on their hands with Bao.
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Source: EW
