Brené with Domee Shi on Creativity, Curiosity, and Turning Red

What It Covers

Brené Brown interviews Pixar director Domee Shi about creating Turning Red and Bao, exploring her creative process, handling feedback without self-censoring, building collaborative teams, and depicting intergenerational trauma and puberty through animation storytelling.

Key Questions Answered

• •Pitching authentic ideas: Shi initially changed Bao's controversial ending where the mother eats the dumpling, fearing rejection. Director Pete Docter remembered her original pitch and insisted she present the shocking version, which got greenlit. Never self-censor before receiving feedback.
• •Creative collaboration strategy: Shi shared rough story outlines with fellow artists before projects were approved, recruiting collaborators like production designer Rona Liu through informal pitches and Chinatown field trips. Building community around side projects generates momentum and motivation to complete them.
• •Animation production timeline: Feature films require four years with eight major screenings where the storyboarded movie gets feedback and reworking. Halfway through, departments overlap as script rewrites happen simultaneously with voice recording, animation, lighting, simulation, and camera work across specialized teams.
• •Normalizing shame through specificity: Female leadership encouraged pushing cringey puberty moments further rather than pulling back. Depicting universal awkwardness around periods, crushes, and body changes in specific detail creates collective cringe that removes shame's power when audiences recognize shared experiences.