Disney Pixar Bao Review
If you are heading out to see Incredibles 2, moviegoers will see a special treat of a short – Disney•Pixar’s “Bao“.
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.
What you will love about this movie is how it explores the ups and downs of the parent-child relationship through the colorful, rich, and tasty lens of the Chinese immigrant community. And no matter that the main characters are Chinese, this a universal story of a mom’s relationship with her child. As the mom of teen, I know in my heart that we want the best for our children but they do grow up and they will eventually leave and start their lives away from you. Of course, the movie offers a glimpse into Chinese culture. The mother making her little dumplings is just a normal day to day activity. My mom was Japanese and she did a similar activity. Every day she would make gyoza (Japanese dumplings) which my siblings and I ate as an after-school snack.
nothing stays cute and small forever”
Let me say that if you are a parent and you don’t shed a tear….
The story of how Bao came to the Screen
The director Domee Shi began as a story intern at Pixar Animation Studios in June 2011, and was soon hired as a story artist on the Academy Award©-winning feature film “Inside Out.” Since then she has worked on the feature films “The Good Dinosaur” and the upcoming “Incredibles 2” and “Toy Story 4.”
In 2015 she began pitching some ideas for short films, and soon was greenlit to write and direct “Bao.” The whimsical story is loosely based on her own experiences growing up as an only child, and set in the Chinese community in Toronto, Canada.
“Bao” is in theaters now playing in front of “Incredibles 2.”
Read my review of Incredibles 2.
Disclosure: NYC Single Mom attended a screening of Bao and Incredibles 2 to facilitate this review.
Just saw this earlier this afternoon, before Incredibles 2. And I loved it. It was so well done. But as the mom of a soon-to-be-college-sophomore and a soon-to-be-high-school-junior, it did leave me with tears rolling down my face at the end. Kids grow & fly the coop…that’s life, that’s the way it is…but it’s still hard.
I hear you on the leaving the coop. I am three years away and I cried. My daughter was laughing at me. She did not get it.