GROWING PAINS

TURNING RED Pixar’s teenage body-swap feature is set to break new ground with an adorkable shape-shifting protagonist.

- MATT MAYTUM

TEASER

We wanted to tell this unique coming-of-age story about a girl going through big changes in her life,” explains Turning Red director Domee Shi. “But I really wanted to punch the audience in the face with it! From the very beginning of the movie, I just wanted to make it known that this isn’t going to be your typical Pixar movie, and that we’re not going to shy away from topics like puberty, and getting your period, and all kinds of cringey, awesome stuff.”

“I think it’s the first time we break the fourth wall, too,” adds producer Lindsey Collins. “That was the first scene in the movie that we boarded, just as a test scene to show people what the tone was going to be. And it was super-different and refreshing.”

In terms of story, style and tone, Turning Red is a departure, even for a studio with a history of breaking the mould. Set in Toronto in the early 2000s, the film is led by Pixar’s first teenaged female protagonist, Meilin Lee (voiced by newcomer Rosalie Chiang). The awkwardness of adolescence and the on-set of puberty take a unique metaphorical form here: Mei wakes one day to discover that when she gets overexcited or overcome by extreme emotion - boom! - she transforms into a huge red panda.