Exclusive: Director Domee Shi and Producer Lindsey Collins talk Pixar’s Turning Red
Coming out this week on Disney+ is the Pixar animated film Turning Red, directed by Academy Award winner Domee Shi (Pixar short “Bao”) and produced by Lindsey Collins.
It is the first Pixar film to be solely directed by a woman, the first to take place in Canada, and the second to feature an Asian lead character after Up.
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), 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!
Members of the voice cast also include Ava Morse (Miriam), Hyein Park (Abby), Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Priya), Tristan Allerick Chen (Tyler), Mia Tagano (Lily), Sherry Cola (Helen), Topher Ngo (Aaron T.), Grayson Villanueva (Tae Young), Josh Levi (Aaron Z.), Addison Chandler (Devon) and Lily Sanfelippo (Stacy Frick).
For Domee Shi, this is her first feature length film. She directed the 2018 short film Bao, becoming the first woman to direct a short film for Pixar. Bao won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards. She had previously worked as a storyboard artist and director for Pixar since 2011. She has contributed to multiple films, including Inside Out, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4.
Collins joined Pixar in 1997. She co-produced WALL•E, for which she received an award for Outstanding Animation in an Animated Motion Picture from the Visual Effects Society (along with Andrew Stanton, Jim Morris and Nigel Hardwidge). She has also worked on Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life. Prior to Pixar, Collins worked for The Walt Disney Company on films such as Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with Shi and Collins on the making of Turning Red.
