Disney+ has released a special documentary that takes viewers behind the scenes of the latest Pixar film, Turning Red. Directed by Domee Shi in her feature debut, the film was released on the streaming service on March 11, although it got a theatrical release in countries without Disney+.
The trailer for the documentary, titled Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red, features footage of Shi and her all-female filmmaking team, and highlights the personal elements that the director brought to the story. Turning Red tells the coming-of-age tale of Meilin Lee, a Chinese teenage girl living her best life in Toronto. One day, Mei discovers that the women in her family have inherited a gift that transforms them into a giant red panda under duress, which Shi said in the trailer is “basically a metaphor for growing up.” In her words:
“When I started this movie, I was determined to make something different. It was a long time since I was 13, but I just remember a lot of highs and lows... So, the red panda is basically a metaphor for growing up, and how that transition happens.”
Shi, who is described by producer Lindsey Collins as a “force of nature,” had previously won an Oscar for directing the animated short Bao. The filmmaker said in the trailer that she understood that making a feature film would probably take up four-five years of her life, and so, they had to “go big.”
Controversially (and ironically), the film received only a Disney+ release in the U.S. Turning Red is the third Pixar film in a row to have been sidelined to streaming, after Soul and Luca. The streak will conclude with the upcoming Toy Story spinoff Lightyear, due out later this year.
Both Turning Red and the making-of documentary are available to watch on Disney+ right now. You can check out the trailer for the documentary here, and read the official synopsis for Turning Red down below:
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! Directed by Academy Award winner Domee Shi (Pixar short Bao) and produced by Lindsey Collins (Finding Dory), Turning Red launched exclusively on Disney+ on March 11, 2022.