Bao Review

Bao is a 2018 Pixar animated short film that is one of their finest efforts.

An aging, lonely Chinese-Canadian mother wants a child and gets one when she makes a dumpling that comes to life as a boy. She becomes an overly protective mother as she forbids him to play with other kids and eventually she doesn’t allow him to go off with his fiancée so she eats him. It’s all revealed to have been an allegory as the real human son comes to her bed side and the two reconcile. Yes, this is a very strong, emotional take on empty nest syndrome and particularly over-protective motherhood that should be relatable and understandable to anyone and I simply don’t understand how white viewers missed the point.

My main problem with Bao is that it should have stayed allegorical and that maybe it would have been better had they not introduced the human kid into the whole mix. That made the film overly explanatory which bothered me. But it’s otherwise a terrific movie which is up there with one of Pixar’s best and the best effort in recent memory alongside ‘Sanjay’s Super Team’. The mother is a lovely figure, I loved the dumpling and how cute he was plus the animation is gorgeous per usual and with some great detail. The same goes for beautiful, fittingly Chinese music.

Bao is such a wonderful allegorical tale which is too easy to understand, but still gorgeously scored and animated and fueled by a very universal theme.