When it comes to imaginative, endearing, and heart-breaking films, Pixar has had a damn good run lately. There's of course Coco, one of the best movies in recent years and a metric for determining if new acquaintances aren't worth your time. (If they respond to "What do you think of Coco?" with anything other than "I haven't seen it yet" or immediate tears, cut and run.)
During the 2018 theater run of Pixar's The Incredibles 2, audiences were treated to the short film Bao, about a Chinese-Canadian woman raising a bizarre dumpling-slash-baby in Toronto. Director Domee Shi, who also worked on Incredibles 2 and the potentially horrifying existential nightmare that is Toy Story 4, is the first woman to direct a Pixar short in the company's history and the first woman director nominated for Best Animated Short since the Oscars debuted the category.
With its exaggerated human characters, Bao has the look of older stop-motion animation films, and it's a unique mix of adorable, bizarre, sweet, and weirdly upsetting. Good luck.
