Film
Bao
An eight-minute Pixar animated short about a lonely Chinese mother whose handmade dumpling comes to life as a mischievous boy. Tender and absurdist, it mines genuine emotion from an impossible premise—a meditation on motherhood, control, and letting go wrapped in whimsy and specificity. A small film that packs devastation.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you want a short piece of animation that packs a whole family's tenderness into a few minutes, and you don't mind a story that tugs at the heart with food as its language.
Skip it if you need a feature-length story to settle into, since this is over almost before it has warmed up, and its sentiment lands fairly plainly.
What it asks of you: Eight minutes, nothing more, and a mood that starts bright and gradually turns more wistful, with almost no plot to track.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Turning Red2022
Pixar exploring the intimate texture of mother-daughter tension through magical transformation. Rich with cultural specificity, genuine teenage awkwardness, and a visual language that makes the fantastical feel lived-in and real.
But It's a kids' film about girl emotions that some find schmaltzy. The magical-transformation metaphor can feel on-the-nose if you're not in the mood for directness.
Wolfwalkers2020
Hand-drawn Irish animation about a girl discovering wildness and wonder. Carries the same emotional specificity and tender weirdness as Bao—a small story that feels essential, with gorgeous craft and genuine stakes beneath the magic.
But Slower pacing than most animation. Its quieter moments demand patience; if you need constant movement, it might lose you.
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya2013
Studio Ghibli's devastating portrait of parenthood, sacrifice, and the distance between a parent's love and a child's autonomy. Exquisite hand-drawn animation and a willingness to sit with sorrow without prettifying it.
But Contemplative and melancholic throughout. The pacing is deliberate and the ending offers no comfort—not a film for seeking reassurance.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bao
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Grave of the Fireflies1988
Both use animation's peculiar gift—the ability to make impossible things feel real and close—to tell intimate stories about family obligation, loss, and the terror of not being able to hold onto what matters.
Isao Takahata's animated war film about siblings trying to survive after firebombing. Visually stunning and emotionally brutal—it takes animation's capacity for beauty and uses it to make suffering impossible to look away from. A masterwork that honors real loss.
But Relentlessly bleak. It does not offer catharsis, redemption, or comfort. If you come seeking emotional recovery, this will not provide it. Some find it too punishing to watch.
More like this (8)
Song of the Sea2014
Lyrical Irish animation about loss and sibling love. It shares Bao's gift for saying huge things in small moments, with watercolor-soft visuals and folklore woven through intimate family drama.
But Oblique and dreamlike—sometimes frustratingly vague. If you need clarity and forward momentum, the mythic register can feel frustratingly slow.
Coco2017
Pixar exploring intergenerational family bonds and cultural memory through magical-realism and death. Vibrant and joyful, but also genuinely about grief, obligation, and what we owe the people we lose.
But It's a fairly conventional narrative underneath the eye candy. Some find the messaging about family duty a bit prescriptive and heavy-handed.
Inside Out2015
Pixar mapping the interior life of a child going through change. Clever premise executed with real emotional intelligence—it understands that growing up involves actual loss, not just gain.
But The metaphor can oversimplify. Once you clock the emotional-personification setup, the execution feels slightly mechanical to some.
A Letter to Momo2012
A Japanese animated feature about a grief-stricken girl who finds solace in yokai and nature. Visually stunning, patient with sorrow, and willing to let mystery stand alongside explanation.
But Pacing is genuinely slow. The story resists plot momentum in favor of mood, which can feel meandering if you're not tuned to that wavelength.
Spirited Away2001
Miyazaki's masterpiece of a girl navigating a magical world. Endlessly inventive, gorgeously animated, and underneath the wonder sits a real story about identity, work, and reclaiming yourself.
But It's widely beloved to the point of feeling inescapable. If you come to it hunting for novelty, you might feel like you're chasing hype. Also: some body-horror imagery that can be unsettling.
Mary and Max2009
Stop-motion animation about unlikely friendship spanning decades. Crude-looking but incredibly tender, funny, and willing to sit with loneliness and mental illness without sentimentalizing either.
But Deliberately ugly aesthetic in its craftsmanship. The humor is dark and the worldview melancholic—not a comfort watch, more like a warm handhold in the dark.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind2004
Both explore a parent or lover's desperate desire to preserve connection with someone who's slipping away—and both arrive at the tragic conclusion that you cannot simply choose to let go. The price of love is the inevitability of loss.
A live-action science-fiction film about memory, love, and the things we can't unsee. It's structured like a dream and feels like being inside someone's unbearable tenderness. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet do their best work.
But Emotionally exhausting and deliberately disorienting in structure. If you need a film to make sense linearly, this will frustrate. It's also very sad in ways that don't resolve neatly.
A Monster Calls2016
Both use an impossible magical intrusion—a dumpling boy, a tree monster—as the only honest language for saying what ordinary speech cannot: the bewilderment of watching someone you depend on recede, and the anger underneath the love.
A boy coping with his mother's cancer finds himself visited by a tree-creature. It takes magical realism seriously as a tool for processing real grief. Saoirse Ronan is extraordinary, and the film never abandons the actual pain beneath the magic.
But It's fundamentally about childhood grief and parental mortality. If that subject lands too close right now, it will hurt. The sentimentality can tip into maudlin if you're not generous.
People
Cast
Daniel KailinTV Son (voice)
Sindy LauMom (voice)
Sharmaine Yeoh(voice)
Tim ZhangDad (voice)
Directing
- Domee ShiDirector
Writing
- Hyein ParkStory Artist
- Domee ShiWriter
Production
- John LasseterExecutive Producer
- Pete DocterExecutive Producer
- Becky Neiman-CobbProducer
- Lourdes Marquez AlbaProduction Manager
Recommended by
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