“Turning Red” may not be hitting the multiplex, but longtime Pixar fans won’t want to miss this movie when it debuts Friday on Disney+, as it represents quite the evolution for the storied animation powerhouse.
The film follows a 13-year-old girl named Mei Lee who turns into a giant red panda every time her emotions get out of control, which as you might guess, happens a lot when you’re a young teenager.
The setup is a thinly-veiled metaphor for puberty, and while themes about the difficulties of growing up are pretty standard fare in Pixar’s film catalog (see “Inside Out,” the “Toy Story” franchise, and even last year’s “Luca”) “Turning Red” approaches the subject differently, focusing on how Mei’s changing worldviews and shifting priorities affect her relationship with her overprotective mother Ming.
During a recent press event, director Domee Shi revealed that much of the film, which is set in 2002 Toronto, was based on her own childhood.
“The inspiration behind “Turning Red” came from my own life growing up in the early aughts,” Shi said, adding that she was a “Chinese Canadian dorky, sassy, nerdy girl who thought she had everything under control.
“[I was my] mom’s good little girl and then boom, puberty hit. And I was bigger and I was hairier, hungry all the time. I was a hormonal mess and I was fighting with my mom like every other day and making this film was kind of my chance to go back to that time.”
In addition to tackling some difficult subject matter in a new way, “Turning Red” also represents a big change from the established Pixar style, adding more fantastical elements that tie back to the story. Says Shi, “Our intention from the beginning was to try to push the style of the movie to just really reflect the point of view of the character of Mei: How does she see the world?”
To accomplish this, Shi once again looked to her childhood, saying “I was really excited to push this style to try to like blend in all of the things that I love about Japanese anime which inspired me and influenced me so much growing up,” adding that the final product “pushed the look of CG animation in a really nice way.”
While “Turning Red” may represent some big leaps for Pixar’s usual style, it looks like the film studio will be getting back to basics this summer with the theatrical release of “Lightyear” a “Toy Story” spinoff that follows the “real” in-universe astronaut Buzz Lightyear, whose likeness inspired the “Toy Story” character of the same name.
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