( Brenda Chapman was hired to direct “Brave” (2012), about a defiant princess in ancient Scotland, and retains a credit. Shi directed it, the first woman in the studio’s 36-year history with that solo distinction.
The studio’s 25th feature, “ Turning Red,” will arrive on Disney+ on March 11. That eight-minute movie, “ Bao,” about a dumpling that comes to life, giving an aging Chinese woman relief from empty nest syndrome, won Shi an Oscar - and put her on course to break an even bigger glass ceiling at Pixar. She stayed on as a staff artist, contributing to films like “Inside Out” and “Incredibles 2.” In 2018, she became the first woman to direct a Pixar short. Shi, who likens herself to a cat oscillating between “lazy and grrr,” arrived at Pixar as a storyboarding intern in 2011, when she was 22. “Get some ladies!” Domee Shi told me recently.
But the Disney-owned animation studio has been trying to evolve, largely because many of its own artists have demanded it. Pixar has a well-deserved reputation for dudes - movies focused on dudes (20 out of 24 feature films), movies directed by dudes (23 of 24), movies written by dudes (50 of 59 screenwriters).
