History WesternAnimation / Bao

* CanadaEh: The short is set in Toronto, since it has a couple of {{Establishing Shot}}s of the CN Tower in the background, on another scene the characters are seen playing on a park that looks to be in front of the University of Toronto, then they go grocery shopping in what appears to be Kensington Market, and later they ride what's unmistakably a [=TTC=] street car; the woman also has the Canadian flag stuck on her fridge. At the end of the short, the father is wearing a sweater with the Canadian maple leaf on it. The director, Domee Shi, was also raised in Toronto.

* AnAesop: "Time changes people, but love shared between them doesn't have to."

* ArcSymbol: Throughout the short, various kinds of food -- but most prominently, red bean buns (豆沙包; ''dòushābāo'' in Mandarin) -- are used to represent the mother's relationship with her bao son.
** At the beginning, the mother and the young bao are picking out food in a Chinese supermarket and sharing red bean buns on the bus ride home. When the bao gets hurt, the mother feeds him a spoonful of the ground meat and vegetables he's stuffed with to re-inflate his dented head.
** When the bao is slightly older, he wants to play soccer with some other boys, but his mother pulls him away so he won't get hurt, which makes him angry. When she offers him a red bean bun, [[ImNotHungry he refuses it]].

** [[spoiler:When the real-life son returns to the house, he brings a box of red bean buns to apologize to his mother for running away with his fiancée, and they tearfully forgive each other. The short ends with the newly reunited family, including the son's fiancée, happily making bao together.]]

* TastesLikeDisdain: When the dumpling boy wants to play soccer with some other boys, his overprotective mom pulls him away. He is so upset by this that he refuses to eat the red bean bun she offers him on the bus ride home. Later, when he has grown into a teenager, she can tell that he is starting to grow distant from her, and prepares an elaborate Chinese dinner for him. However, he turns it down to go eat with his friends instead.

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Nobody seems to think it strange that a Chinese mother is walking around with a living dumpling child. He gets invited to play by some boys and, when he grows up, falls in love with--and runs away with--a human girl. [[spoiler:This is foreshadowing that this is AllJustADream.]]

* WhamShot: When the teenage bao brings his girlfriend home for the first time, and the camera zooms in on the engagement ring on her hand with a [[AudibleGleam "ding!"]] His mother is as shocked as the audience.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''Bao'' in Chinese means "bun", and ''baobao'' is a word used to affectionately mean "baby" or "treasure" when referring to a small child.

* EmptyNest: A lonely mother is gifted with a magical dumpling. The themes are explored with [[spoiler: the fear of your child outgrowing you as their leaving the nest grows imminent. Not to mention they start to grow distant from you over a small mistake, like being overprotective.]]
* EyesAlwaysShut: The Chinese characters are all stylized this way, although the mother does open them several times to accentuate a shocked expression. The bao son also has these because they're only indentations in his dough, and also to serve as [[spoiler:a visual parallel to the real son.]]

* FreezeFrameBonus: [[spoiler:When the mother wakes up crying from her dream, there's a roll of toilet paper on her bedside table and a pile of used tissues on the floor. She must have [[TearJerker cried for a long time]] in-universe.]]

* InterspeciesRomance: The bao son hooks up with a ''real'' human, much to his mother's shock. [[spoiler:Subverted, when the bao was an allegory for her real son, who is obviously human--the fact his girlfriend was shown as human is an allegory for him dating a non-Chinese girl.]]
* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: The background music starts to slow down right after [[spoiler:the mother finds out about her son's new girlfriend.]]

* ArcSymbol: Throughout the short, various kinds of food -- but most prominently, red bean buns (''dou sha bao'' in Chinese) -- are used to represent the mother's relationship with her bao son.

* BookEnds: The short starts with the woman making bao and ends with her [[spoiler:teaching her son and his girlfriend how to make bao.]]

''Bao'' played in theaters in front of Pixar feature ''WesternAnimation/{{Incredibles 2}}''. Compare ''WesternAnimation/SanjaysSuperTeam'', another Pixar short with similar themes. Notably, this was the final short on which John Lasseter had a producer credit, following his firing from Disney and Pixar the year of the short's release. As of this writing, it's also the studo's final theatrical short: all of their shorts since have been produced as part of the [=SparkShorts=] series on Creator/DisneyPlus and all of their features being accompanied by non-Pixar shorts. Domee Shi would later go on to make her feature debut with 2022's ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed''

A Chinese woman living in Toronto feels lonely when her husband goes to work. One day she is making bao ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baozi Chinese dumplings]][[note]]Although a better translation for ''bao'' is probably "bun"[[/note]]), when one of the bao she is making suddenly comes to life, sprouting tiny arms and legs, and a face. The woman is startled but quickly comes to love and cherish her little bao son. Years pass and the little bao baby becomes a teenaged boy and then a young man, while still remaining a bao and not actually growing all that much. The bao steadily grows more Westernized and alienated from his traditionalist Chinese mother. The mom doesn't like that, and when the bao brings home a white woman with an engagement ring on her finger, the mother snaps, and makes a terrible mistake.

''Bao'' played in theaters in front of Pixar feature ''WesternAnimation/{{Incredibles 2}}''. Compare ''WesternAnimation/SanjaysSuperTeam'', another Pixar short with similar themes. Notably, this was the final short on which John Lasseter had a producer credit, following his firing from Disney and Pixar the year of the short's release. As of this writing, it's also the studo's final theatrical short: all of their shorts since have been produced as part of the [=SparkShorts=] series on Creator/DisneyPlus and all of their features being accompanied by non-Pixar shorts.

** At the beginning, the mother and the young bao are picking out food in a Chinese supermarket and sharing red bean buns on the bus ride home. When the bao gets hurt, the mother feeds him a spoonful of ground meat and vegetables to re-inflate his dented head.

** He is then shown taking a soda from the fridge, eating shrimp chips in his room, and refusing to eat the Chinese dinner that she makes for him and goes out with his friends instead, showing that a rift is growing between them.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: [[spoiler:The mother was being [[MyBelovedSmother overprotective]], barring her son from Western Culture and preventing him from playing with "unsuitable" friends, but the son becomes [[UngratefulBastard distant and unappreciative]] even after he's old enough to try and see her point of view.]]

* ChildOfTwoWorlds: For all intents and purposes, the bao is a Chinese child, raised by Chinese parents, growing up in the West (specifically, Canada).

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: [[spoiler:After the dream ends and the cut to the mother's room, a family photo complete with her real son can be seen above her bed, shortly before TheReveal that the dumpling dream was about her son leaving the house.]]

* YourTraditionIsNotMine: As the bao gradually grows older, he stops doing traditional Chinese things, and spends his time hanging out with his friends, and as a result, becomes westernized. And then, he lastly dates a non-Asian girl and is engaged to her, and his mother disapproves of it. [[spoiler:When you realize what her real son it like, it becomes clear he doesn't hate his mother; he just doesn't want her to control his life.]]

* SilenceIsGolden: Like most of the theatrical Pixar shorts, ''Bao'' is told without any dialog, though it goes a step further by having almost no sound at all besides music. The only vocal effects are the crying/giggling/cooing that the little bao makes when it is born, and [[spoiler:the mother sobbing in regret after she impulsively eats her bao son for trying to run away with his girlfriend]].

* ArcSymbol: Throughout the short, various kinds of food -- but most prominently red bean buns or ''dou sha bao'' -- are used to represent the mother's relationship with her bao son.

* ArcSymbol: Throughout the short, food in general, but most prominently red bean buns or ''dou sha bao'', are used to represent the mother's relationship with her bao son.

A Chinese woman living in Toronto feels lonely when her husband goes to work. One day she is making bao ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baozi Chinese dumplings]] [[note]]Although a better translation for "bao" is probably "bun"[[/note]]), when one of the bao she is making suddenly comes to life, sprouting tiny arms and legs, and a face. The woman is startled but quickly comes to love and cherish her little bao son. Years pass and the little bao baby becomes a teenaged boy and then a young man, while still remaining a bao and not actually growing all that much. The bao steadily grows more Westernized and alienated from his traditionalist Chinese mother. The mom doesn't like that, and when the bao brings home a white woman with an engagement ring on her finger, the mother snaps, and makes a terrible mistake.

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:The dumpling coming to life was a dream caused by the woman feeling guilty about driving away her son and his girlfriend/fiancee, though they make up after she wakes up.]]

* ArcSymbol: Throughout the short, food in general, but most prominently red bean buns or ''dou sha bao,'' are used to represent the mother's relationship with her bao son.

** When the bao is slightly older, he wants to play soccer with some other boys, but his mother pulls him away so he won't get hurt, which makes him angry. When she offers him a red bean bun, [[ImNotHungry he refuses it.]]

** [[spoiler:When the real-life son returns to the house, he brings a box of red bean buns to apologize to his mother for running away with his fiancee, and they tearfully forgive each other. The short ends with the newly reunited family, including the son's fiancee, happily making bao together.]]

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: [[spoiler: The mother was being [[MyBelovedSmother overprotective]], barring her son from Western Culture and preventing him from playing with "unsuitable" friends, but the son becomes [[UngratefulBastard distant and unappreciative]] even after he's old enough to try and see her point of view.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The bao dumpling goes through every metaphorical stage of babyhood, childhood and teenage angst, while the mother's remolding of the bao's dough when the youngster is injured is framed in the exact same light as a young child's wounds being treated by a mollycoddling mother. [[spoiler:In another scene, the mother teaches her son how to make baos, implying [[IWantGrandkids she may want to be a grandmother.]] Also, the girlfriend making lots of good dumplings on the first try implies [[ExplosiveBreeder she wants to have a big family]].]]
* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Bao" in Chinese means "bun", and "baobao" is a word used to affectionately mean "baby" or "treasure" when referring to a small child.

* FreezeFrameBonus: [[spoiler:When the mother wakes up crying from her dream, there's a roll of toilet paper on her bedside table and a pile of used tissues on the floor. [[TearJerker She must have cried for a long time.]]]]

* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: Variation: the bao kid, after a certain point growing up, dons a shirt and glasses, but no pants.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler:The son's Western girlfriend/fiancee turns out to be surprisingly good at making bao (and it is made clear she did not learn it from him).]]

* MalignedMixedMarriage: [[spoiler: The final argument that leads to the mother eating the bao was when he introduced her to a Caucasian girlfriend. This exact issue is revealed to have been the final argument that caused her to drive her son away. After her husband forces them to reconcile, she accepts her new daughter-in-law, [[HiddenDepths who turns out to be happy to engage in her new family's traditions]].]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The obvious reaction on the woman's face when she [[spoiler:eats her bao son in a fit of anger. This is reflecting her real life guilt about driving her son away in an argument.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The mother's eyes are [[EyesAlwaysShut almost always closed,]] but when she sees her son's fiancee, a white girl, for the first time, she is so shocked that her eyes pop open and ''stay'' open for several seconds.

* SecretRelationship: The bao and his fiancee are implied to have had one, because he doesn't introduce her to his mother until they're already engaged. [[spoiler: Because of the implied parallels between her dream relationship with the bao child and her real relationship with her son, it's likely the latter also had this. Justified when you consider how the woman seemed determined to keep her son from integrating into western culture, so he had every reason to believe that a western girlfriend would be immediately rejected.]]

* SwallowedWhole: [[spoiler: Bao's fate]].

* YourTraditionIsNotMine: As the bao gradually grows older, he stops doing traditional Chinese things, and spends his time hanging out with his friends, and as a result, becomes westernized. And then, he lastly dates a non-Asian girl and is engaged to her, and his mother disapproves of it. [[spoiler:When you realize what her real son it like, it becomes clear he doesn't hate his mother. He just doesn't want her to control his life]].

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:Turns out to be a dream caused by the woman feeling guilty about driving away her son and his girlfriend/fiancee, though they make up after she wakes up.]]

* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Bao" in Chinese means "dumpling", and "baobao" is a word used to affectionately mean "baby" or "treasure" when referring to a small child.

* [[LikeFatherLikeSon Like Mother, Like Son]]: Whenever the mother is shocked or surprised, her eyes pop open. At the end when her son's wife makes dumplings perfectly, they both widen their eyes in amazement.