Timeline-YATAD/Turning Red

**Screenplay by:**
Domee Shi
Julia Cho

***Turning Red*** is a 2022 American animated fantasy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It was directed by Domee Shi (in her feature directorial debut) 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, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen, and James Hong.

## Premise

Set in Toronto, Ontario in 2002, the film follows Meilin "Mei" Lee (Chiang), 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.

## Plot

In 2002 Toronto, 13-year-old Meilin "Mei" Lee lives with her parents, Ming and Jin. She 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, Mei agrees to attend school bully Tyler's birthday party as the red panda. 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 accuses her friends of corrupting and taking advantage of her. Ashamed of her actions and afraid to stand up to her mother, Mei fails to come to her friends' defense.

To Ming's dismay, Mei's grandmother and aunts arrive to assist with Mei's ritual. As Mei prepares herself, 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, she reconciles with her friends and discovers that Tyler is also a 4\*Town fan. However, an enraged Ming, having become a *kaiju*-sized red panda, disrupts the concert, intending to take Mei back by force.

Mei and Ming argue about the former's independence. As they quarrel, 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. She helps her mend her bond with her own mother, whom Ming accidentally scarred in anger before her own red panda form was sealed. 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.

Later as the Lee family raises money to repair the damage to the SkyDome, Mei and Ming's relationship has improved. Mei balances her temple duties (where her red panda form is now an attraction) with spending time with her friends with Tyler now in the group.

## Voice cast

* Rosalie Chiang as Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who can transform into a red panda whenever she feels a strong emotion.
* 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 at first bullies and picks on Mei, but during the climax, redeemed himself and joined Mei's friend group.
* 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 (U.K. version)

Mei's aunts (Chen, Ping, Helen and Lily) are voiced by Lori Tan Chinn, Lillian Lim, Sherry Cola and Mia Tagano. The members of the 4\*Town boy band (Robaire, Jesse, Aaron Z., Aaron T. and Tae Young) are voiced by Jordan Fisher, Finneas O'Connell, Josh Levi, Topher Ngo and Grayson Villanueva.

## Production

### Design

#### Setting

The film takes place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2002, as confirmed by a production designer in February 2021. As it takes place through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl named Mei Lee, the entire environment has been stylized to convey a specific feeling; Shi described the film's overall look as an "Asian tween fever dream". According to executive producer Dan Scanlon, "It feels more like a very soft, colorful, magical, idyllic, almost youthful version of the city". Shi also considered how video games like *Pokémon*, *EarthBound* and *The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild* were able to "stylize their world in such an appealing, chunky, cute kind of way". Part of this desired setting was capturing the popularity of boy bands at the turn of the millennium and how teenage girls reacted to them. Pixar animators visited locations around Northern California for inspiration and visual references. They studied red pandas at the San Francisco Zoo, and looked at architecture in Chinatown in San Francisco and the Bok Kai Temple in Marysville.

## Release

### Theatrical and streaming

*Turning Red* had special screenings that took place in London at Everyman Borough Yards on February 21, 2022, and in Toronto at TIFF Bell Lightbox on March 8, 2022. It premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on March 1, 2022. It was released simultaniously in theaters and streaming on Yonatan Ashad Play and Disney+ on March 11, 2022. Disney canceled the Russian release in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 28, 2022. *Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red*, a 48-minute documentary about the film especially focusing on its all-female creative team, was released on Disney+ the same day.

### Tie-in media

Yonatan Ashad and Disney licensed several books based on the film, which were released both before and after the U.S. premiere, including novelizations, short stories, a sticker album, a behind-the-scenes book and coloring books. A manga focused on 4\*Town, titled *4\*Town 4\*Real*, was released by Viz Media on April 25, 2023.

Avalanche Software developed and released a *Turning Red* tie-in video game for the PS4, PS5, XBOX One, XBOX Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

### Home media

*Turning Red* was released on digital services on April 26, 2022, and by Yonatan Ashad Home Entertainment and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on May 3, 2022.