Directed by Domee Shi, the forthcoming Turning Red (2022) is about eighth-grader Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang) as she navigates growing up. There’s the joy of her time with a tight-knit group of girlfriends. The challenges of an evolving relationship with her overbearing mother Ming (voice of Sandra Oh). All with the added stress of a new discovery. Any time she feels a large emotion, she transforms into a giant red panda. Last week, Shi joined co-screenwriter Julia Cho and producer Lindsey Collins at a press conference moderated by People editor Melody Chiu to discuss and reflect on Turning Red.
Shi notes from the top that much of Turning Red “just came from my life growing up in the early aughts.” Mei, in particular, is a stand-in for the “Chinese-Canadian, dorky, sassy, nerdy girl who thought she had everything under control” that Shi remembers herself being. All of which became especially complicated when puberty entered the picture: “I was bigger. I was hairier. Was hungry all the time. I was a hormonal mess. And I was fighting with my mom, like, every other day.” Those points elicit laughter from Cho and Collins. Wrangling puberty is a “shared experience” that bonded the three of them.
Cho expands on the idea of inspiration. She reflected on crafting Mei’s friends Priya, Miriam, and Abby. Each of them was inspired by “friends [she] had growing up,” which resulted in organic character evolution. “Sometimes I feel like, with writing, it’s not even conscious. Characters can just show up,” she says.“And it felt like the girls showed up, and they were all, like, fully born almost from the beginning.” Shi agreed fully, noting that “even though [Julia and I] are in different generations, I feel like-like there’s always…those friends.”
A shared goal motivating the production was also to push the bounds of what a Pixar movie normally looks like. The team defines the launch point as “chunky-cute.” Shi expanded to say that her goal was to craft an “East-meets-West anime-Pixar hybrid kinda style.” It didn’t take long for the crew to get entirely on board. As Collins mentioned, “they really ran with it. I think by the end [the animators] were going like, ‘Okay, we think there’s maybe an opportunity here in this shot.” That level of creative synergy across departments, Collins said, allowed for an “invigorating” production process. Shi agrees, noting she’s “very excited about the look of the film.”
Something else the team was excited about was “normalizing female puberty” in terms of its depiction in Pixar films. “It feels very timely,” says Cho. “I think we are living in this cultural shift where it has gone from being something to be embarrassed and ashamed of, to being really embraced.” Collins adds that “I think as parents talking to this next generation who are going through it now, we’re trying to be much more intentional, much more kind and open about it.” A large part of this is Turning Red’s tonal approach to puberty, which the three women point out is “funny and charming” in addition to treating the emotional and physical changes as serious business.
Behind the scenes, Turning Red is also notable for being only the second Pixar film directed by a woman. Asked about giving advice to aspiring female filmmakers, Shi trumpets the importance of finding “a support system.” “When I first started at Pixar, there were only, like, four or five women in the story department,” she notes. That group had “lunches together” and started “sharing stories.” This led to one lunch where they went around and “said their goals aloud.” It was the “first time” she vocalized her hope of becoming a director. She credits that group with motivating her to pursue it.
Shi continued on the thought, saying that “it can feel so lonely being a woman, being a person of color in this industry, that I think it’s so important to find those colleagues. Those allies to kinda just help you not feel alone as you struggle and work your way through this industry.” Cho seconds the thought, making sure to note of Shi that “it’s just incredible how collaborative you were,” something both Cho and Collins credit with making Turning Red “so successful.”
Turning Red debuts exclusively on Disney+ on Friday, March 11. Stay tuned for further coverage and our upcoming review of the film.
Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.
