Domee Shi’s feature film debut ‘Turning Red’ coming soon to Disney Plus

Posted by Brandy McDonnell on Mar 7, 2022 | 0 comments

Pixar Animation Studios’ “Turning Red” – the feature film directorial debut for Domee Shi, who won an Oscar for her 2018 short film, “Bao” – will debut March 11 exclusively on Disney Plus.

It will be third straight Pixar animated film – following “Soul” and “Luca” – to go straight to the streaming platform during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Variety.

“Turning Red” will be free for Disney Plus subscribers to watch when it bows on Disney Plus.

“Disney Plus subscribers around the world enthusiastically embraced Pixar’s Academy Award-winning ‘Soul’ and the critically-acclaimed ‘Luca’ when they premiered exclusively on the service, and we look forward to bringing them Pixar’s next incredible feature film ‘Turning Red,’” said Kareem Daniel, chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, in a statement, per Variety. “Given the delayed box office recovery, particularly for family films, flexibility remains at the core of our distribution decisions as we prioritize delivering the unparalleled content of The Walt Disney Company to audiences around the world.”

Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh, “The Chair,” “Killing Eve”), is never far from her daughter — an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda.

Produced by Lindsey Collins, the film’s voice cast also includes Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Orion Lee, Wang Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen and Addie Chandler.

Grammy-winning brother and sister Billish Eilish and Finneas O’Connell penned three original songs for the film, which will be performed by the fictional boy band 4*Town. O’Connell, Jordan Fisher, Josh Levi, Topher Ngo and Grayson Villenueva play the band members.

Grammy-, Oscar- and Emmy-winning Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson (“Black Panther,” “The Mandalorian”) composed the score for “Turning Red.”

“I’ve been a fan of his for a while,” said Shi in a statement. “We were drawn to his versatility — he’s a composer, but he also produces pop music. We knew he would help us create a very unique sound.”

The animated coming-of-age story was co-written by Shi and Julia Cho (“Halt and Catch Fire”).

-BAM

 

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