We had the pleasure of attending the early press event for Disney-Pixar’s Turning Red and can’t wait to share our findings with you! The new animated feature film ‘Turning Red‘ will bypass theaters and premiere exclusively on March 11, 2022, via Disney+. During the press event, we were able to hear from Director Domee Shi and hear the inspiration behind Mei Lee, her family, friends, and explore a mystical tale in the modern world. Well, in the early 2000’s at least!
Related: New issue of “Disney twenty-three” highlights Pixar’s Turning Red
Shi shared how she pitched her idea for Turning Red to Pixar after the success of her Pixar short Bao. Domee elaborated that at Pixar you pitch several ideas at once and “all of my ideas were coming-of-age teen girl stories because that was something I was super passionate about telling and at the time it wasn’t something that I saw a lot in media and in animated films.“
Domee went on to explain how Mei Lee’s story is heavily influenced by her own upbringing but shares the “universal struggle” of people who aim to honor their parents or guardians while also staying true to themselves.
“I was born in Chongqing, China. And I emigrated to Toronto, Canada when I was two years old, like Mei Lee, I’m an only child and I was always super close to my parents, especially my mom since my dad had to go away for work often. It was just the two of us. We did everything together. We commuted together to work and to school in downtown Toronto, we went on mother/daughter bus trips and vacations together.”
She continued, “Then as all kids do, I started to grow up, I started changing, I started getting into anime, comics, hang out with my friends more and more and less and less with my mom. And she didn’t understand why I was obsessed with these fictional characters with huge eyes and colorful spiky hair. Basically, I was being pulled in one direction but my duty and loyalty to my parents and my mom was pulling me in another direction.“
Related: Disney-Pixar Announce ‘Turning Red’ will Premiere Exclusively on Disney+, NOT in Theaters
Domee shared during the press Q&A that the red panda has been the tranformation choice for Mei Lee since the pitch and before Mei Lee even had a name! The movie was always going to feature a red panda and the animation team loved getting to play with Mei’s size, expressions, and design, but the red panda stands for more than Mei Lee’s family legend.
“For Mei Lee, the red panda is that magical spark that sets off this internal conflict within herself. Up until that point, Mei thinks she has it all figured out, like we all did before we woke up one day and realized all of a sudden, we’re covered in body hair, we smell funky, our emotions are all over the place, and we’re hungry like all the time.“
She continued, “We use the red panda in this movie as an adorable metaphor for the scary, unadorable, awkward, and cringy changes we go through during this age. More specifically, we want to explore the nuances of Asian parent child relationships and dealing with change and all of the intergenerational conflict and how it shapes who we become. Turning Red is quirky and surreal, but at its core it is a mother/daughter finally embracing change and all of its messy ephemeral, even if it means saying goodbye to the relationship they once had.“
Related: New Trailer and Poster for Pixar’s Turning Red
Turning Red will not only be the first Disney-Pixar film to feature an early teens female protagonist but is also led by an all-female lead production team that includes Director Domee Shi, Producer Lindsey Collins, with Danielle Feinberg, Sabine Koch, Rona Liu, Lisa Fotheringham, and Patty Kihm.
“There was something about the confidence of having so many women in leadership positions on the [film] that, I think, let us be a little bit bolder with some of the choices we were making and not second guess it before we even got it through story or through editorial,” Producer Lindsey Collins shared during the Q&A portion of the event.
In Turning Red, Mei Lee and her friends are obsessed over the band 4Town, and though the boy band of Mei’s dreams may be fictional, the music had to come from somewhere! Domee and Linsdey shared that Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell wrote the music for 4Town. To request the songwriting siblings the Turning Red team put together a physical scrapbook made out of the film’s characters with cut-outs of Billie and Finneas over the character faces, drawings, fan art, ticket stubs, and more. They must have appreciated the effort because the pair wound up writing three original songs for 4Town that will be used in the film!
There is so much more about this film to enjoy including the early 2000’s flare, fashion, supportive friendships, awkward teenage moments, and learning how to accept who you are while maintaining the special bond between a mother and a daughter as you grow. Though we will share our spoiler-free review at a later date, we hope you are ready to see Turning Red when it premiere on Disney+ this March.
Related: Pixar Staff Members are “Disappointed” that ‘Turning Red’ will Skip Theaters and Premiere on Disney+
Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh), is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda! Directed by Academy Award® winner Domee Shi (Pixar short “Bao”) and produced by Lindsey Collins “Turning Red releases on March 11, 2022.
Be sure to check back here at Chip and Company for updates and all things Pixar!
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