Turning Red

***Turning Red*** is a 2022 American animated coming-of-age 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 written by Shi and Julia Cho. The film 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.

## Turning Red

Set in Toronto, Ontario, in 2002, *Turning Red* follows Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian student who transforms into a giant red panda when she gets into a state of strong emotion. Inspired by Shi's experiences in Toronto, the film began development in 2018 after she pitched it to Pixar in October 2017. As Pixar's 25th feature film, it is the first Pixar film solely directed by a woman and the second to feature an Asian lead character after *Up* (2009).

After a special screening that took place in London at Everyman Borough Yards on February 21, 2022, *Turning Red* had its world premiere on March 1, and was released on the Disney+ streaming service on March 11, along with simultaneous limited runs at the El Capitan Theatre, AMC Empire 25, and Grand Lake Theatre in the United States and Showcase Cinema de Lux in the United Kingdom. It was released theatrically in most countries without Disney+, and received critical acclaim for its story, humor, animation, vocal performances, and use of culture.

## Plot

In 2002, Meilin "Mei" Lee is a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl living in Toronto, Canada. Mei helps take care of the Lee family's temple dedicated to their ancestor, Sun Yee, and works to make her strict, overprotective mother, Ming Lee, proud. She tries to hide her personal interests from Ming, such as her crushes on boys and the fact that she and her best friends Miriam, Priya, and Abby are fans of the boy band 4\*Town.

Ming inadvertently embarrasses Mei in front of several students including Tyler, a school bully, leading Mei to have nightmares. Mei wakes up to discover that she has transformed into a large red panda. After hiding from her parents, Mei discovers that she only transforms when she is in a state of high emotion; her parents believe her distress is caused by her first period. Later, Ming finds out the truth when she again embarrasses Mei at school, causing her to transform again.

Ming and Jin, Mei's father, explain that Sun Yee was granted the ability to transform into a red panda in order to protect her daughters, and every female member of the family since has inherited the ability when they come of age. This has become inconvenient and dangerous, so the red panda spirit must be sealed in a talisman by a ritual on the night of the Red Moon, in a month's time. Mei's friends inadvertently discover her transformation but take a liking to it, and Mei finds that concentrating on them and breathing deeply prevents her from transforming. She convinces her parents to let her continue her normal life, though Ming keeps an eye on Mei.

4\*Town announces a show in Toronto as part of their concert tour, but Ming refuses to let Mei attend it. Using her red panda form, Mei and her friends begin to raise money for the tickets secretly. Tyler asks Mei to entertain at his birthday for money. At the party, Mei discovers that the concert will actually be on her ritual night. She gets angry and attacks Tyler when he insults her about her family, scaring all of the other kids. Ming discovers Mei's recent activities and chastises her friends for seemingly corrupting and taking advantage of her. Mei fails to come to her friends' defense because she is ashamed and afraid to stand up to her mother.

Mei's grandmother, Wu, and her aunts come to assist in her ritual, much to Ming's dismay. As Mei prepares herself, Jin finds videos she took of her as the panda with her friends and tells her this was the happiest he has seen her. During the ritual, just as the red panda form is about to be sealed, Mei decides to keep her powers. She abandons the ritual to attend the concert at the SkyDome with her friends, who forgive Mei for her actions at the party and discover Tyler is also a 4\*Townie like the girls and Mei. However, during her escape from the temple, Mei inadvertently damaged her mother's talisman; an enraged Ming transforms into a gigantic red panda and disrupts the concert, intending to take back Mei by force. While the audience hides, Mei and Ming argue about Mei's independence, and Mei accidentally knocks her mother out.

The rest of the Lee family arrive to help. All of the women break their talismans to use their red panda forms to help bring 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 Ming and helps her mend her bond with Wu, whom Ming accidentally scarred at some point during her first transformation and drove Ming's perfectionism. The other Lee women conceal their red pandas in new talismans, but Mei decides to keep hers as she is finally figuring out who she wants to be.

Sometime later, Mei and her family help raise money to repair the SkyDome. Mei and Ming's relationship has improved, and Mei balances her temple duties with spending time with friends, now including Tyler.

## Voice cast[edit]

* Rosalie Chiang as Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who suddenly transforms into a huge red panda whenever she experiences any strong emotion, such as excitement or anxiety, due to her ancestors' associated mystic connection with red pandas.
* Sandra Oh as Ming Lee, Mei's strict and overbearing mother, whose panda form is much larger than the other women of the family.
* Orion Lee as Jin Lee, Mei's quiet father.
* Ava Morse as Miriam Mendelsohn, a singing tomboy with braces who is one of Mei's best friends.
* Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Priya Mangal, a calm and cool person who is one of Mei's best friends.
* Hyein Park as Abby Park, an energetic girl and one of Mei's best friends.
* Wai Ching Ho as Wu, Mei's grandmother.
* Tristan Allerick Chen as Tyler Nguyen-Baker, Mei's classmate who initially picks on her.
* James Hong as Mr. Gao, a local elder and a family friend of the Lee family who helps in the red panda-sealing ritual.
* Addie Chandler as Devon, Mei's secret crush and the local convenience store clerk.
* Sasha Roiz as Mr. Kieslowski, Mei's teacher at Lester P. Pearson Middle School.
* Lily Sanfelippo as Stacy Frick, one of Mei's classmates who sees her red panda form in the girl's restroom.

Additionally, Mei's aunts – Chen, Ping, Helen, and Lily – are voiced by Lori Tan Chinn, Lillian Lim, Sherry Cola, and Mia Tagano, respectively.

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, respectively. In the UK version, Anne-Marie voices Lauren, one of Mei's classmates.

## Production

### Development

Writer, director, and producer Domee Shi
Shi had completed the Pixar short *Bao* in 2017 when Pixar invited her to pitch three ideas for a full-length film. Her concepts all turned out to be based on coming-of-age centered on teenage girls, with the one that became *Turning Red* based around a girl going through a "magical puberty" which Shi has written based on her own personal experiences. Shi said "Everyone has been there. Everyone has been 13 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 these concepts, including *Turning Red*, to Pixar on October 31, 2017. According to Pixar producer Lindsey Collins who sat in on Chi'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 Mae 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."

On May 8, 2018, it was reported that Shi, who wrote and directed the Academy Award-winning Pixar short *Bao* that same year, was writing and directing a full-length feature film at the studio, making her the first woman to solely direct a Pixar film, as well as the first solo Pixar director for a feature film. On November 26, 2018, Shi confirmed that she was working on a film at the studio. Shi also said that the film was in early stages of development, with the story still being worked on, and that "[she is] really excited to play in this new 90-minute film format". On December 10, 2020, Shi's film was announced with the title *Turning Red*, with the plot also being unveiled.

### Casting

In 2017, Pixar hired Chiang to provide scratch vocals to support the development of the film. Chiang, then only 12 years old, was selected in part because she was a local child actor conveniently based in nearby Fremont, which is only about 35 miles (56 km) from Pixar's Emeryville headquarters. After two years of development, Shi and Collins reached the point where the film was "solid" enough to start casting professional voice actors. Despite listening to various auditions, the two realized they had already fallen in love with Chiang's scratch vocals and could not envision anyone else playing Mei. They escalated the issue to Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter, who personally approved casting Chiang in the film's lead role.

During an early 2020 recording session, Shi suddenly surprised Chiang with an additional script page, in which Shi, reading in character as Ming, offered Chiang the role. This session, right before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, turned out to be their last one conducted in person. To keep production going, Pixar shipped an enormous amount of professional audio equipment to Chiang, who turned one of the rooms in her parents' house into a makeshift recording studio. Sandra Oh was Shi's top pick for Ming, as besides being both an Asian Canadian, Shi believed Oh could cover the range of complex emotions they wanted to portray in Ming.

### Design

#### Setting

The film takes place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, during the early 2000s, specifically through 2002 to 2003, as indicated through scenes in the teaser trailer and on Mei's student ID in the teaser poster, as well as confirmation by a production designer in February 2021. As the film takes place through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl, the entire environment has been stylized to convey a sense of 2000s youth. This included capturing the popularity of boy bands at the turn of the millenium and how teenage girls reacted to them. Pixar animators visited various 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.

#### Inspirations

Shi described the film's overall look as an "Asian tween fever dream". Several anime influenced the looks of the film, including *Sailor Moon*, *Ranma ½*, *Fruits Basket*, and *Inuyasha*. Shi was also inspired by *My Neighbor Totoro*, in creating an "iconic grabbable giant animal that you just want to rub your face in". Shi also compared the plot of the film to Disney's *A Goofy Movie*, a similar coming-of-age movie involving a parent and child trying to mend their relationship, with a pop band as part of the film's climax. The film also deals with aspects of puberty, though the film does not directly talk of biological changes. For example, Mei's mother first mistakes Mei's reaction to her transformation as if she was having her first menstruation. Shi said they were "unapologetic" about the discussion of these topics in the film; the title *Turning Red* itself an allegory for this time in a young woman's life. Red itself also reflected other feelings often experienced by a teenager, according to Shi, such as embarassment or lustful feelings, and furthered this analogy. Shi and her staff had feared that studio executives would want these scenes referencing puberty removed, but the scenes were accepted into the film. Rona Liu served as production designer in the film, after previously doing so for *Bao*. Liu said that working on a feature film was "a dream come true" for her.

### Music

 Released
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Ludwig Göransson composed the film's score, making it his first animated film composition.

Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell wrote three original songs performed in the film by the fictional boy band 4\*Town. According to Collins, "U Know What's Up" was intended to be a confidence booster, "1 True Love" was intended as the group's love ballad, and "Nobody Like U", the song that everyone knows from the group. Collins said had decided to approach Eilish and O'Connell at the start of the production, near the same time that Eilish was coming to fame herself; Collins said that her own child had become a fan of Eilish's music which has inspired this choice. To pitch the idea to the pair, production created a scrapbook based on scenes of Mei and her fascination with 4\*Town they had already developed for the film, at times putting cutouts of Eilish' and O'Connell's heads in place of the 4\*Town members to show their appreciation for the pair. Both were already animation fans, and Eilish said that when they saw the concept from the material they got, she immediately got the idea they were aiming for, as she herself had been a fan of boy bands herself and recognized the bond Mei had with 4\*Town.

The film includes a Cantonese chant used as part of the ritual to contain the red panda spirit that was created with help of Herman Wong, operations director for Disney Character Voices International. This chant then also had to be integrated with Ellish's and O'Connell's "Nobody Like U" as part of the film's climax, which was done by Göransson to make sure the two rhythms matched in beat and key.

Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack album digitally on March 11, 2022. Subsequently, tracks from 4\*Town appeared in multiple languages, some of which were performed by boy bands such as Da-iCE for Japanese and W0LF(S) for Mandarin. "Cha Cha Slide" by DJ Casper and "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child are also heard in the film but not included on the album.