“The inspiration behind Turning Red just came from my own life growing up in the early aughts” director Domee Shi said of her feature directorial debut at Pixar. “[A] Chinese Canadian, dorky, sassy, nerdy girl who thought she had everything under control. She was her mom's good little girl, and then boom, puberty hit, and 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. And making this film was kind of my chance to go back to that time… And understand and excavate what was happening back there.”
(Deborah Coleman / Pixar)
Producer Lindsey Collins hopes the film makes it easier for kids going through that tough adolescent transition. “One of the worst things about going through some of this is how alone it makes you feel,” she shared. “It feels so foreign, and so sudden, and so personal, and a little out of control. You feel like you don't quite understand your own behavior. You're supposed to be the expert on yourself, and it feels very weird and you feel off-kilter. Hopefully that this movie will kind of dispel that, and be like, no, everybody's feeling this way when they're going through it. Either they felt it before, they're about to feel it, or they're actively feeling it right now. And it's actually super normal. It's part of growing up, and it's part of you becoming an adult. All of these weird feelings, it's a huge evolutionary growth moment in your life, and it's really okay.”
Writer Julia Cho was well aware of the significance of a mainstream animated film tackling the subject of puberty. “Stepping into a Pixar project, I did have this sense of like, ‘This is someone's collective generational memory,’” she revealed. “The way I've been touched by Pixar movies, and the way my kids are touched by them. And I think that the thing that I'm proudest of, is that we created, we hope, a film that makes anyone watching it, you know, girl or not girl, kid or parent feel seen and understood. And for me, that was always the goal. And fingers crossed, we landed it.”
Turning Red tackles a variety of topics, including a strong mother/daughter relationship. Sandy Oh voices Ming Lee, the mother of main character Merlin Lee. “I'm not afraid of that concept of tiger mom,” the award-winning actress said of her character and her own mother. “I love my mom and she's a fierce, fierce person. Tiny, but fierce. I actually do have something that I posted a very long time ago on Instagram. Because it was such an unbelievable quote that my mom said in the kitchen. I had to write it down on Post-It, and then I put it up on Instagram. And it was basically she said, I'm not joking, I'm not joking, ‘If only you were neater, I would love you more.’ So, I happen to have a really good relationship with my mom, and I know not everyone does. But I do, and in the way of, like, I can't stop her from being herself and I'm not gonna stop her, and I'm gonna enjoy her. I'm not gonna do what she wants me to do because that's just not me. Within that is that pull that we are always having, I think, with our mothers and with our Asian mothers that it's very, very difficult to satisfy them.”
(Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
Voicing Mei is Rosalie Chiang, who was originally cast as the character’s temporary voice while the story was being developed. “After watching the movie, my mom and I kinda looked at each other like, ‘This is really similar,’” she shared. “My mom's middle name is Ming [Mei’s mother’s name]… My favorite animals are actually red pandas. Before the whole project even started, before I was introduced. But the main thing is that my mom actually calls me Mei-Mei before this project, 'cause Mei-Mei means little sister in Chinese.”
Another big theme is the power of friendship, with Mei surrounded by three best friends, each with their own unique personalities. “I'm a story artist at Pixar, too,” explained Hyein Park, who also voices Abby, one of Mei’s BFFs. “When we finally got the chance to make this female friendship, it was very important that it was authentic,” she added, with the team intentionally avoiding any behavior that could be perceived as catty or backstabbing, as is often the case with the depiction of female friends on screen. “Domee talked a lot about her own experiences with her friendship… We actually shared a lot of different stories of moments that we love in terms of female friendship. And then she actually asked a lot of different people within the studios too to get a really authentic insight on how girlfriends are really like and how they're there for each other.”
As any Pixar fan knows, the filmmakers love to hide Easter Eggs in these films and Turning Red is no exception. “There's a lot of 'em in there,” Lindsey Collins revealed, adding that the usual suspects (A113, the Pixar Ball, and the Pizza Planet Truck) are all in the film. “We have a couple in there that are super fun, though, that are from the Spark Shorts… And then we also obviously have, as we always do, a nod to the next film up. That's always something we have a good time figuring out what's the right placement for. Obviously, ours is a nod to Lightyear, which is coming up… You just gotta look.”
You can see Pixar’s Turning Red streaming exclusively on Disney+ beginning Friday, March 11th.