Imagine how much of a trash human being you would have to be to go to a Pixar film, in which there will be many children, and yell out, "What is this gay shit?"
Christ. People are awful.
Polygon: The polarized reactions to Pixar’s Bao are rooted in culture
- Thread starter Sibersk Esto
- Start date
Imagine how much of a trash human being you would have to be to go to a Pixar film, in which there will be many children, and yell out, "What is this gay shit?"
Christ. People are awful.
So a few twitter responses is a controversy now? Everyone at my theater liked it from the reactions I heard.
I thought it was great...very touching. Most of the audience was clapping in my showing.
Yep. Some randos on Twitter have their knickers in a twist and suddenly it's a headline. Funny how other news outlets like BBC News managed to miss all the controversy.
Yep. Some randos on Twitter have their knickers in a twist and suddenly it's a headline. Funny how other news outlets like BBC News managed to miss all the controversy.
I mean, I thought it was a really nice and charming story, and then she freaking ate her child which was so out-of-nowhere and at odds in tone with everything that came before that I couldn't help but laugh. Then it all being a dream/hallucination/metaphor just made the ending fall flat for me. While it's bizarre that some people don't understand the plot and don't even attempt to engage with it, I don't get all the hand-wringing over laughing at the sudden 180 in tone
i agree that the "NOT FOR YOU" excuse is stupid, but also the story is not that hard to grasp if they thought about it for one second. a lot of the "polite confusion" in those screenshots comes off as dismissive, when the theme tackled in the short is a pretty common issue among families.
The bao is a dream, and her eating the bao is her desire to not let her son go, despite their fraught relationship.
I was responding more to your very broad stroke of not including the short in front of the Incredibles 2 if they thought it wasn't for general audiences.
I took your post at face value.
I think the stark contrast between coming from a culture where family is emphasized and coming from a culture where independence is emphasized is more the reason than race, though race can heavily influences one mindset over the other. So when someone who is more independent sees the mom eating her dumpling son, it's "silly" because why would she do that? Whereas with people from more familial cultures, you can understand the desperateness of the mom to keep the dumpling son close to her that of course she would want to eat him. The fact that she did so is surprising, but in a more depressing way. You understand she did that because either you know your mom or dad have felt that desperation to cling onto you or you have felt that way with your own kids.
I left thinking it was the best Disney animated short, until my brother had to remind me that Paperman existed. That said, it's weird to love it so much then get home to find people yelling on the internet that it's not for me.
Sorry if it wasn't obvious in my response, but I was trying to back up your point. The evidence that the article presented for this being some sort of widespread cultural misunderstanding is rather anecdotal and unconvincing.
Struggling to believe people don't actually 'get' this short, it's not like any of its meaning is hidden in any way.
Is the average person really that much of an idiot? I guess it would explain a lot about the world right now if something like 'Bao' is too complex for folks.
Is the average person really that much of an idiot? I guess it would explain a lot about the world right now if something like 'Bao' is too complex for folks.
I totally see how americans misunderstood completely the short, im not asian, but reading the article i understand where the author is coming from because it's very similar to mexican culture, so i understood perfectly the context of the story and was able to completely sympathize with the motther character.
But it's not like that in america, americans have this extremely weird tradition of kicking their children out at age 18 that is absolutely baffling to our foreign eyes, i even recently mused about it on my blog, not precisely as a reaction to Bao, but curiously very close to me seeing the movie:
Altho i focused on the economic side of things, as someone from a culture where families are expected to stay together for longer much like the Author of the article explains, the idea of kicking your child out at age 18 is bizarre to us, and when a person does such a personal story that's deeply rooted on their culture, it's not a surprise that Americans would not understand it one bit.
But it's not like that in america, americans have this extremely weird tradition of kicking their children out at age 18 that is absolutely baffling to our foreign eyes, i even recently mused about it on my blog, not precisely as a reaction to Bao, but curiously very close to me seeing the movie:
Altho i focused on the economic side of things, as someone from a culture where families are expected to stay together for longer much like the Author of the article explains, the idea of kicking your child out at age 18 is bizarre to us, and when a person does such a personal story that's deeply rooted on their culture, it's not a surprise that Americans would not understand it one bit.
The short was confusing and strange. I can see why it would disturb a child.
Beautiful animation, but still. Mom makes dumplings, one comes to life but she eats the other identical dumplings. Dumpling grows up and starts acting like a brat so she eats it whole.
The only thing that distinguishes the live dumpling from all of the other food is that it starts moving. You can't tell me this short has the same broad appeal and clear message of most of Pixar's past ones.
Beautiful animation, but still. Mom makes dumplings, one comes to life but she eats the other identical dumplings. Dumpling grows up and starts acting like a brat so she eats it whole.
The only thing that distinguishes the live dumpling from all of the other food is that it starts moving. You can't tell me this short has the same broad appeal and clear message of most of Pixar's past ones.
I hate people like this. The short is for everyone. Just because it has a Chinese person doesn't mean it's only for Chinese people.
I absolutely loved the short. Had me tearing up by the end of it. I wish it was available online to rewatch
Is this really all that you got from it or are you trying to simplify it?
You "joke", but i bet you also dread confirming if anybody has done vore fetish art out of the short.
Because in your heart you know chances are, yes, they have.
No, I'm isolating the weird bits. I understand the metaphor and I got the emotional message. What I'm saying is the way the story is told is odd and maybe off-putting.
You just know there is one of Bao sitting inside of Tails, while Tails is inside of Sonic's stomach, while Samus Aran is being inflated so she can swallow all 3.
I can understand it being odd and off-putting if you (not you, but in general) stopped watching after she ate the bao. Once her son comes into the picture though it's like a beacon of light and I would think everyone would get it. But alas...
My wife thought it was super weird and didn't like it at all and she loves Pixar and most of the shorts that come before the feature. I thought it was quirky at first but it came together in the end.
Eating her dumpling son was super freaky weirdo stuff, symbolism be damned.
Eating her dumpling son was super freaky weirdo stuff, symbolism be damned.
I wonder if people who don't understand it are sort of disconnected from the concept of deep parental love. Either they don't get their own parents' feelings, or aren't parents themselves, or their parents were absent from their lives in some manner.
My youngest didn't take to it well. I can see how the message is moving upon reflection but that twist came out of nowhere and is not poetic to an 8 year old. She saw a parental figure snap and lash out with terminal violence. Her subsequent shock has soured me on what is, undoubtedly, a brave and interesting vignette if considered without this context.
It's pretty unusual for a mainstream film. General audiences aren't used to narratives like that.
I'm with you there since I married into the culture I could relate. Kicking your kids out at 18 (especially girls) is abhorrent to my in-laws.
it is a weird way, as far as modern western audiences go, to tell a tale. It would fit right in with old school fairy tales though. Probably an issue of presentation. People were expecting a cute something or other for the kids, not a deeper emotional something for adults.
I'm not surprised. It was a bit too metaphorical and depressing for what was beforehand just a fun silly story about a walking food.
Also, the director did a poor job of making it clear that the walking bao portion of the film was just a dream/nightmare.
Also, the director did a poor job of making it clear that the walking bao portion of the film was just a dream/nightmare.
Yikes. Loved the short but glad they overruled the idea to prolong the bao-eating scene with chewing and shots of the meaty bits. The creative process sure is collaborative.
Thought it was extremely creepy. Especially when kids organs kept falling out. Good to hear it was creepy on purpose
I dont see how this requires "Bao: EXPLAINED!!!!! ALL EASTER EGGS YOU MISSED" level of analysis
I dont see how this requires "Bao: EXPLAINED!!!!! ALL EASTER EGGS YOU MISSED" level of analysis
Last edited:
People really don't understand such a simple metaphor? It's not like it's some high art or something, lol. People really don't want to use their head even for just a tiny bit, huh.
Lol what. It was more than obvious at the end. Before the son reveal tho you werent supposed to know is was a dream/nightmare.
No, because he wants to leave with his new wife. She wants him so much for himself she ends up eating him - which she obviously immedately regrets. About 20 to 30 seconds later it's of course revealed as a big metaphor for her experience with her real son when he finally comes back.
Also, It's OK if kids get scared or emotional from media. Pixar's Coco literally was about
a man murdering his best friend out of greed, ending with his grand-grand-son singing his dying great-grandmother who also suffers form Alzheimers the song she remembers from her childhood to make her remember the father she never saw again after he left when she was a child. THAT shit was fucked up.
Last edited:
I feel really stupid saying it but when I saw it I thought the main character was a boy living with his grandpa and at the end his dad, who had run off to live with his white girlfriend, came back into his life. So yeah, I totally missed pretty much everything about it. Looking back its obviously a mom but to be fair in my Dolby screen they totally skipped all the previews so everyone was still settling in and talking and suddenly the short started with no previews (except the cast talk) so lot of distractions going on. Also the food on screen looked amazing so I got super distracted by that thinking of when and where we could have dim sum.
Its a fine short, its just weird putting it in front of Incredibles 2 since most (all?) of the shorts before the kids pixars movies have been very light hearted. Still better than that insanely long Frozen "short" before Coco, that thing was torture.
Its a fine short, its just weird putting it in front of Incredibles 2 since most (all?) of the shorts before the kids pixars movies have been very light hearted. Still better than that insanely long Frozen "short" before Coco, that thing was torture.
Someone waking up from a fantastical scenario and seeing an image from their dream before rubbing their eyes and revealing a person somehow metaphorically related to the dream is an incredibly common trope. It's blowing my mind that people didn't get this.
Well that's pretty plain and expected.
At first I thought she accidentally ate him, like she wasn't paying attention and he wandered on her plate...
Then I thought she just got tired of his shit and just Merced him. I was all damn.
I can understand that it was a metaphor at the end, but at the pivotal moment, I was horrified. It was so out of left field based on everything else that it seemed like the main character just committed murder in an animated short.
I thought the short itself was very well-done, though.
I thought the short itself was very well-done, though.
I swear I don't get what people are going on about
What culture nauce? The culture nauce of a mother missing her son? The theme of this short is not specific to any culture, it's a theme that's applicable to every culture. Like I said in my earlier post in this thread, it's really weird that people are calling out others not even because they're saying the short is bad but just that they didn't understand it and then trying to make it about them being racially biased.
Feels like I'm taking crazy pills over here.
I thought the short was really cute.
There really shouldn't be any controversy over the ending.
Like, it was shocking, but relatively tame compared to some other emotional moments in other Disney animated works.
There really shouldn't be any controversy over the ending.
Like, it was shocking, but relatively tame compared to some other emotional moments in other Disney animated works.
I haven't seen the short but my mom did and she also had a lot of questions about it. So after reading a bit about it I guess I can see where it's easy to get confused (and that's not a "you never went through this in life, so you won't get it" thing). She had the same feelings brought up as she saw her kids start leaving the home (we had long discussions in the past how it was seeing all her kids go, some having kids of their own and her empty nest syndrome) but even then I guess the short didn't do as good of a job conveying this? It could still be a touching short but for some it just wasn't enough of something to really trigger the empathy and understanding for what the mother in the story was going through with the absence of her son. Dunno. I'll have to wait awhile to actually watch it.