Bao

Bao (2018) is an eight minute Pixar short that left half its Western audience baffled. A Chinese Canadian woman is making dumplings. One of them comes to life and she begins raising it like a child. The dumpling grows, becomes a teenager, pulls away from her, and one day brings a girlfriend home. Then the scene arrives: she eats her child rather than let him leave. When it played in American cinemas many viewers did not understand what had happened. The idea is not obscure: overprotective parenting and the empty nest. The metaphor is direct. Domee Shi became the first woman to direct a Pixar short with this film. It won the Oscar for Best Animated Short, and Shi went on to direct Turning Red, which works the same subject: the distance between a mother and her child. There is no dialogue. Not one word is spoken in eight minutes, and none is needed. The kitchen scenes were studied from real recipes; the way the dough is rolled and pleated is correct. It runs 8 minutes. Good for: short animation, family relationships, and Pixar. Watchable with small children, though that scene will need explaining. Less good for: some find the metaphor too literal, and it lands an emotional punch in eight minutes.