Domee Shi, the woman behind the recent animated short Bao which preceded screenings of The Incredibles 2, has weighed in on the surprising (or perhaps not so surprising, given the subject's species) ending.
The acclaimed short focuses on an aging Chinese mother suffering from empty nest syndrome who 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.
Given a premise like that, the image of the cute bundle of joy being eaten will no doubt jump into your mind - and if not, well Shi took it upon herself to shove it in there herself. Here's her justification for it.
I always knew that I wanted that ending, though. Because it’s a little bit disturbing and maybe a little bit shocking, I was like, "Well, okay, I’m gonna take the audience along for a really fun ride, to make up for the super surprising ending.”
"It felt like such a shocking but inevitable end to their relationship because he's such a naughty little boy, but also a dumpling [so] that of course she would eat him to prevent him from leaving," Shi explained. But early on in the process, the director was worried that Pixar wouldn't be on-board with such a twist ending.
And to be honest, I had no idea if Pixar would go for an ending that like surprising, and kind of controversial. But that was the reason why they liked it so much. Because it caught them off guard and surprised them. It took them on an emotional rollercoaster and it involved a lot of people's favorite food, which was dumplings, and it was really cute, and I think those were the reasons why they chose it as the official Pixar short.
Shi explained that her mentor, Inside Out director, Pete Docter urged her to stay true to her weird and wonderful idea, which evidently was the right decision, "He heard my altered version of the pitch and he was like, 'No you have to pitch to them your original ending. Don't wimp out, just embrace the weirdness, embrace how shocking it is, that's what I love about it and that's what I think they'll love about it too.'"
What do you think about Bao's ending? What did you think about the short itself?
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