There used to be lots of really great, dark kids’ movies, like “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and “The Dark Crystal.” I don’t think we should shy away from these dark elements, because they’re a part of this world as much as light elements are, and we want to equip children with the tools that they’ll need in life.

How did you get into animation? In high school, I was really into this supernerdy online community called DeviantArt. I could follow artists, and I could email them. In the past, you’d have to be in California or know a guy who was friends with this other guy that worked at Disney or something. Online art communities are probably a huge reason that you’re seeing a lot more girls getting into animation and illustration.

The animated food in “Bao” looks surprisingly appetizing. How did you achieve that effect? I’m a huge Hayao Miyazaki fan and love how he depicts the process of eating or making food. There’s also a whole community of people on the internet that make tiny food items. It still looks delicious — it looks very real — but there’s something really cute about it. Some people cook actual, real miniature food. Like, a tiny little hamburger with, like, flour and water, and they’ll make a tiny little patty out of real ground beef, and they’ll cook it in their tiny little kitchen. It’s crazy.

Before “Bao,” you worked on other films at Pixar. Was anything different about your team on this movie? There were a lot of really awesome female supervisors on our team. I felt comfortable talking in the room; there wasn’t any fighting for the floor, with people getting worked up and yelling and pounding the table. My production designer, Rona Liu, and I are both Chinese, so we knew our subject, the setting of the world of “Bao,” very well. We were able to explain to the crew and to the people we were working with what we were looking for in a really clear way. And I think that was cool, ’cause it’s not often like that.