The countdown is on. One more month to go before Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” launches on Disney+. The March 11 premiere date marks Domee Shi’s feature directorial debut. In 2018, Shi earned Academy Award-winning praise for directing the short film “Bao.” As a story artist, Shi also contributed to “Inside Out” and “Toy Story 4.”
“Turning Red” is paving the way on many levels. This is Pixar’s first animated film with a creative team helmed by women. Shi shares co-writing credit with Julia Cho. Lindsey Collins (“Finding Dory”) serves as producer. Rosalie Chiang voices Mei Lee, who is described as a confident yet dorky 13-year-old. Lee is torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence – whenever she gets overly excited, she “poofs” into a giant red panda.
Ming (Mei Lee’s protective and slightly overbearing mother) is voiced by Sandra Oh. The film also includes characters voiced by Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen, Lori Tan Chinn, Mia Tagano, Sherry Cola, Lillian Lim, James Hong, Jordan Fisher, Finneas O’Connell, Topher Ngo, Grayson Villanueva, Josh Levi, Sasha Roiz, Addie Chandler, and Lily Sanfelippo.
Other key female positions include Patty Kihm as the film’s lead supervising animator and Rona Liu as production designer. In addition, visual effect supervisor Danielle Feinberg (director of photography-lighting for “WALL-E,” “Brave,” and “Coco”) is the first woman to hold that position at the studio in 20 years.
Billie Eilish and brother FINNEAS lend their GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter skills to the mix with three songs for the film’s fictional band, 4*Town. GRAMMY, Oscar, and Emmy-winning Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, who is known for his work on “Black Panther” and “The Mandalorian,” composed the score.
The buzz around the film has been gaining even more momentum recently. It was just announced that Air Canada has partnered with Disney and Pixar, bringing a “Turning Red” themed aircraft to life. Domee Shi, being from Canada, and the film set in Toronto, made the collaboration a perfect fit.
The film is said not to shy away from metaphors associated with the awkward preteen years that every female goes through. Shi and Collins have geared the movie toward young audiences hoping to normalize “taboo” topics that should be part of everyday conversation.
“Turning Red launches exclusively on Disney+ on March 11, 2022.
