Turning Red


Turning Red is a 2022 American animated coming-of-age fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Domee Shi and produced by Lindsey Collins, from a screenplay written by Shi and Julia Cho, and a story by Shi, Cho, and Sarah Streicher. The film marks the first Pixar feature film solely directed by a woman. It stars the voices of Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Orion Lee. Set in Toronto, Ontario in 2002, the film follows Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian student who transforms into a giant red panda when she experiences any strong emotion, due to a hereditary curse.
Shi, who previously directed the short film Bao, developed the film based on her experiences growing up in Toronto. She pitched three concepts, including Turning Red, to Pixar in October 2017. Development began in May 2018 when Shi was announced as writer and director of a full-length film; several Pixar animators visited locations around Northern California gathering inspiration and visual references. The design and animation were inspired by anime works. To capture these anime influences, hand-drawn 2D animated effects were added atop Pixar's 3D animation. Development on Turning Red lasted for four years, on an approximate $175 million budget, becoming the fastest production for a Pixar film. Ludwig Göransson composed the film's musical score for his first animated film, with Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell writing original songs for the film.
Turning Red was first shown in London at Everyman Borough Yards on February 21, 2022, as a special screening, in Toronto at TIFF Bell Lightbox on March 8, and at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on March 1. Originally planned for a worldwide theatrical release, plans were changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was released on March 11, 2022, on the Disney+ streaming service and was released theatrically in most countries without the streaming service, grossing over $21 million. It was paired with the short film Kitbull for its theatrical release in the United States and the United Kingdom on February 9, 2024. Turning Red received critical acclaim and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 95th Academy Awards, among numerous other accolades.

Plot

In 2002 Toronto, 13-year-old Meilin "Mei" Lee lives with her parents, Ming and Jin, helps take care of the family's temple dedicated to her maternal ancestor Sun Yee, and works to make her mother proud. She hides her personal interests from Ming, such as the fact that she and her friends Miriam, Priya, and Abby are fans of the boy band 4*Town. One night when Ming, who is strict and overprotective, discovers Mei's crush on Devon, the 17-year-old local convenience store clerk, she inadvertently humiliates Mei in public.
That night, Mei has a vivid nightmare involving red pandas. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds that she has transformed into a large red panda. She hides from her parents and discovers that she transforms only when she is in a state of high emotion. When Mei reverts to human form, her hair remains red, and so she goes to school in a touque. Ming initially believes Mei is experiencing her first period, but learns the truth when she gets into an altercation with the school's security guard, causing Mei to transform from embarrassment and run home in panic and tears.
Ming and Jin explain that Sun Yee was granted this transformation to protect her daughters and her village during wartime, and that all her female descendants have also had this ability. This has become inconvenient and dangerous in modern times, so the red panda spirit must be sealed in a talisman by a ritual on the night of a lunar eclipse, which will take place in a month's time. Mei's friends discover her transformation, but take a liking to it. Mei finds that concentrating on them enables her to control her transformations.
Ming allows Mei to resume her normal life, but refuses to let Mei attend 4*Town's upcoming concert. Instead, the girls secretly raise money for the tickets at school by exploiting the popularity of Mei's red panda form while lying to Ming about how Mei is spending her time. To raise the last 100 dollars, Mei agrees to attend school bully Tyler's birthday party as the red panda. Before Mei leaves, Mei's grandmother and aunts arrive to assist with Mei's ritual. At the party, Mei is upset to discover that the concert will be on the night she is to undergo the ritual. In her rage, she attacks Tyler when he insults her family, frightening the other kids. Ming discovers Mei's activities and blames Mei's friends for everything. Mei fails to come to her friends' defense to maintain Ming's approval.
While cleaning, Jin finds videos she recorded of herself as the red panda with her friends and tells her she should not be ashamed of this side of her, but to embrace it. During the ritual, as Mei's red panda form is about to be sealed, she decides to keep her powers and abandons the ritual to attend the concert at the SkyDome. In making her escape, she breaks Ming's talisman, releasing her red panda form as well. At the concert, Mei reconciles with her friends and Tyler. However, an enraged Ming, having become a kaiju-sized red panda, disrupts the concert while intending to take Mei back by force.
Mei and Ming argue about the former's independence. As they fight, Mei accidentally knocks her mother unconscious. Mei's grandmother and aunts break their talismans to use their red panda forms to help drag Ming into a new ritual circle. Mei's friends and 4*Town join in singing to complete the ritual, sending Mei, Ming, and the other women to the astral plane. Mei reconciles with her mother and helps Ming mend her bond with her own mother, whom Ming accidentally scarred in anger in the past. The other women contain their red pandas in new talismans; but Mei decides to keep hers and Ming accepts that she is finding her own path.
One year later, the Lee family raises money to repair the damage to the SkyDome. Mei and Ming's relationship has improved. Mei balances her temple duties and spends time with her friends and Tyler.

Voice cast

  • Rosalie Chiang as Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who discovers she can transform into a giant anthropomorphic red panda whenever she expresses strong emotions
  • Sandra Oh as Ming Lee, Mei's strict and overprotective mother
  • Ava Morse as Miriam Mendelsohn, a singing Jewish Canadian tomboy with braces who is one of Mei's best friends.
  • Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Priya Mangal, a mellow and deadpan Indo-Canadian girl who is one of Mei's best friends
  • Hyein Park as Abby Park, an energetic and aggressive Korean Canadian girl and the shortest of Mei's best friends
  • Orion Lee as Jin Lee, Mei's quiet yet supportive father
  • Wai Ching Ho as Wu, Mei's grandmother and Ming's mother
  • Tristan Allerick Chen as Tyler Nguyen-Baker, Mei's classmate with front teeth braces who initially picks on Mei
  • James Hong as Mr. Gao, a local elder, shaman, and friend of the Lee family
  • Addie Chandler as Devon, a local convenience store clerk and Mei's secret crush
  • Sasha Roiz as Mr. Kieslowski, Mei's high-school teacher at Lester B. Pearson Middle School.
  • Lily Sanfelippo as Stacy Frick, a British Canadian girl and one of Mei's classmates who sees her red panda form in the restroom
  • Anne-Marie as Lauren, one of Mei's classmates
Mei's aunts are voiced by Lori Tan Chinn, Lillian Lim, Sherry Cola and Mia Tagano.
The members of the 4*Town boy band are voiced by Jordan Fisher, Finneas O'Connell, Josh Levi, Topher Ngo and Grayson Villanueva.

Production

Development

In 2017, Shi had recently completed the Pixar short Bao when Pixar invited her to pitch three ideas for a full-length film. Her proposed concepts were all coming-of-age stories centered on teenage girls. The one that became Turning Red was based on a girl going through a "magical puberty", which Shi wrote based on her own personal experiences. Shi said, "Everyone has been there. Everyone has been thirteen and feeling like they're turning into some wild, hairy, hormonal beast, and I think that's why Pixar was drawn to it". Shi pitched all three concepts, including Turning Red, to Pixar on October 31, 2017. According to Pixar producer Lindsey Collins, who sat in on Shi's pitch meeting, the Pixar staff were drawn to the Turning Red idea as "it was so clear that Domee had such a sense of who these two main characters were, that Mei and Ming were really clear and special and unique, more than any of the other ideas" and that "she had this really personal experience with these two characters that were kind of versions of her own life. That's like the magic equation, right there". The approach of using more personable stories followed from Luca under Pixar's new chief creative officer Pete Docter's oversight, which shifted the direction the studio took with both storytelling and film production. Brenda Hsueh, writer of the subsequent Pixar film Elemental, worked on the film as a consultant to Shi for the ideas.
The film was developed under the working title of Red. Shi was announced as writer and director of an upcoming Pixar full-length film on May 8, 2018, making her the first woman to solely direct a film in the studio. The film's creative leads were also the first all-female team for Pixar, which Pixar's CEO Jim Morris said "happened very organically" rather than by intent. Rona Liu served as production designer, after doing so for Bao. Liu said that working on a feature film was "a dream come true". By November 26, 2018, Shi confirmed that the film was in the early stages of development, with the story still being worked on, and that " really excited to play in this new 90-minute film format". The title Turning Red was finalized by December 10, 2020. According to Morris, Turning Red had one of the fastest development times of a Pixar feature film, taking only four years to complete.