Director's Spotlight: Domee Shi

In 2018, Incredibles 2 was released to a lukewarm reception.

While audiences lauded the animation and Brad Bird’s direction, the overall film did not seem to leave a lasting impact. It received multiple token nominations and also won a few of them.

Only three years prior, Pixar had set a new and lofty standard for itself with Inside Out. Hailed as one of the best films the studio has ever made, it revolutionized and ushered in a new age for western animation. Inside Out was not just well-animated and entertaining, it expressed emotional truths and could be used as a tool for teaching children and parents about the difficulties of growing up.

Since then, Pixar has been trying to recapture that magic, with mixed results. The studio managed to produce some bangers, but equally as often fall back on formulaic stories rendered attractive with fluid animation. For every Soul, there’s a Finding Dory. For every Coco, there’s a Car 3.

In any case, successful Pixar films share commonalities: they feature original stories, and universal lessons, and try to capture new experiences. The latter does not only mean moving away from past franchises. It also means exploring non-western culture, highlighting voices from all corners of the world.

We see this in films like Coco and Soul, the latter of which was co-directed by Pete Docter, the man behind Up and Inside Out. In other words, the man behind Pixar’s most recent renaissance.

(Image credit: Pixar Post)

Docter’s magic is the final, most difficult ingredient in the new Pixar recipe – authentic emotion. Known to have conceptualized the story of Inside Out from his own anxiety with his daughter’s introversion, there’s no wonder why Docter was able to tell that story with such emotional clarity. He was drawing from something real.

But again, this seems like magic – like lightning in a bottle. Is it really an ingredient if it is so hard to replicate? Has there ever been a glimpse of someone capable of doing what Docter did, but also able to see the world from a drastically different viewpoint?

Let us return to 2018 once more. During the screening of Incredibles 2, Brad Bird saw his spotlight stolen by a short film that precedes the Parr family’s adventure.

(Image credit: Polygon)

In that short film, audience members were greeted first with a strange premise. In Toronto, Canada, a Chinese-Canadian woman cooks a “baozi” – a Chinese traditional bun – for her husband. The bun suddenly came alive.

Some in the audience may have been horrified. But the woman raised the bun as a child. The bun grew up in a sweet montage reminiscent of the legendary opening sequence of Up.

But the women became overprotective, at which point many Asians in the family begin to see themselves in the bun. The woman and bun’s relationship grew tense. The bun brings home a blonde fiancé. The bun fights the woman – his surrogate mother.

Then, the woman ate the bun. Some in the audience may have screamed.

But the tone of the film shifted immediately. We felt the woman’s pain. She had hurt her only child. She curled up in her room and cried. That’s when her human son entered the room, revealing that the short film had been an allegory.

(Image credit: IMDb)

The proceeding reconciliation scene brought tears to many eyes, as Pixar’s feature films often do – but this is a rare occasion for Pixar’s opening shorts.

The year Incredibles 2 was beaten by Spider-verse, Bao won the Oscar for best animated short. Pixar had found its star.

(Image credit: The Illuminerdi)

This was Domee Shi, a young animator/ story-boarder who a year earlier pitched the idea of Bao to her mentor – none other than Docter himself. By 2022, her short film success gave her an opportunity to direct her first feature-length film.

That film was Turning Red, the story of a girl who at 13 years old, acquires a strange condition where she turns into a red panda whenever she feels strong emotions.

A weird premise that hides a deeply emotional allegory, much like Bao. Shi’s storytelling style seems to be as consistent as her chunky, energetic, manga-inspired animation.

While the film expresses the director’s core style, it is also a return to form for Pixar studio.

This is an unapologetic coming-of-age story that tackles subjects previously deemed taboo for animated films. In other words, it’s the closest Pixar has come to recapturing the magic of Inside Out.

But to really appreciate the story of this film, we need to look back at how this young animator even got to this place.

Domee Shi was born in China the same year the Tiananmen Square massacre happened. At 2, her family migrated to Canada, eventually settling in Toronto.[1]

In school, Shi spent a lot of her time reading manga and watching anime. She even became the president of the anime club in school.[2]

Her passion for animation seeped into her college life, where she spent four years at Sheridan college studying Animation.[3]

As she was about to graduate in 2011, 21-year-old Shi was accepted for an internship at Pixar’s studio. It was an eye-opening experience, a chance for her to learn the industrious nature of Pixar’s production. She had to learn to draw fast and not be attached to each and every drawing. as she put it, “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life”[4].

Her first storyboarding job was Inside Out[5] – the film that I think became the greatest influence on Turning Red. Likewise, she sharpened her skills while working on The Good Dinosaur and Toy Story 4.[6]

This narrative is one of a determined artist breaking through to the limelight with hard work. But if her debut film is any indication, her life has not been as streamlined.

In an interview with CBR.com, Shi said that much of Turning Red’s story comes from her own childhood. In her words, she had been a “dorky, sassy, nerdy girl who thought she had everything under control”.[7]

Indeed the 13-year-old spectacled protagonist Mei-Lin matched that very description. And it’s probably not a coincidence that one of the first conflicts in the film was triggered by Mei Lin’s drawing.

(Image credit: Times of India)

The idea of expressing one’s emotion through some sort of art is a constant theme in the film. Drawing, dancing, and singing – especially singing – are all integral to the plot. No doubt Shi felt some connection to that.

In a 2015 interview, she expressed joy at working with dramatic scenes, “boarding the nuances and the facial expressions when two characters are talking or having a moment”.[8]

Equally important were the comedic, high-energy moments. The film featured some of the most kinetic sequences in recent Pixar films.

This high-energy approach gives texture to a story where the main character must deal with her increasingly erratic emotion – encapsulated in a large, gaudy, sometimes adorable, sometimes fierce red panda.

Shi has spoken of being inspired by the films of Studio Ghibli. And while most western animators can’t deny that same influence, there are sequences in Turning Red that evoke the magical realism of Spirited Away. Still, it retains a distinct Pixar flavor.

But of course, the most talked-about aspect of the panda is how it’s an allegory of puberty, and more succinctly, menstruation.

This is where Turning Red surpasses Inside Out in how groundbreaking it is. While children expressing negative emotions can be a difficult issue to discuss, menstruation taboo is a real thing and something that still has to be overcome in many cultures. Most of all, the Asian culture Shi grew up in.

Turning Red is pretty unapologetic with this, certainly by Pixar’s standard. And it has drawn some criticisms, with one review saying the film teaches kids that it’s okay to be rude if you have a period. [9]

Shi saw this very differently, expressing hope that this film would be helpful to girls growing up.

(Image credit: Rolling Stones)

“I just wanted to give this movie to that 13-year-old me who was very confused and never got “the talk” from her mom and who was in the bathroom freaking out like Mei is in the movie when she first turns into a red panda.” She said in an interview[10]. At that moment she becomes a “Pixar director”, concerned more than anything else about how her film may be helpful to people growing up.

Indeed, she has spoken about other issues her film tackle, including the diverse positions of women in Asian cultures, multi-ethnic friend groups, and boybands.[11] That the film highlights the role of diaspora communities in western society is a no-brainer.

Whether these issues are brought up correctly or with enough criticality is another, almost unrelated issue. What makes Domee Shi an interesting addition to Pixar’s canons of directors is her willingness to make her film about something substantial, and perhaps even controversial.

I cannot remember the last time a Pixar makes me this interested in the issues it covers. Nor can I remember a Pixar film that occupies the public zeitgeist beyond the classic praises of excellent animation and industrious quality control.

Maybe Shi is a one-hit-wonder, maybe she’ll become as legendary as Docter. We will never know. But if anything, she already seems to know what Pixar needs at this moment.

[1] https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/movies/animation-is-filmmaking-in-slow-motion-how-domee-shi-made-bao-pixars-latest-must-see-short [2] http://www.theanimatedjourney.com/2016/03/08/episode-003-interview-with-domee-shi-pixar-story-artist/ [3] https://www.sheridancollege.ca/newsroom/articles/arts-design/drawing-inspiration [4] https://thatshelf.com/pixar-story-artist-domee-shi-interview/ [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] https://www.cbr.com/turning-red-domee-shi-reveals-connection-to-story/ [8] https://thatshelf.com/pixar-story-artist-domee-shi-interview/ [9] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/well/family/turning-red-periods-discussion.html [10] https://www.chatelaine.com/living/entertainment/turning-red-domee-shi-interview/ [11] Ibid.