The Week Junior - UK (2022-03-05)

20 The Week Junior • 5 March 2022

Entertainment

Red alert

O

riginally intended for a cinema release, the new

film from Disney and Pixar, Turning Red, will now

be streamed on Disney+, making it the third

Pixar film in a row to premiere that way.

This coming-of-age story follows a

confident 13-year-old named Mei

Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) who

is dealing with the challenges of

becoming a teenager. As if that

wasn’t enough, when Mei Lee feels

a strong emotion, she doesn’t just go

red – she turns into a giant red panda.

Turning Red director Domee Shi

said, “We wanted to use the red panda in

this movie as an adorable metaphor for the scary,

un-adorable, awkward and cringey changes we go

through during this age. A time when all of a

sudden our emotions are all over the place.”

Turning Red marks a number of firsts

for its director and Pixar. It is the first

feature-length animation for Shi, who

won an Oscar for the Pixar short film

Bao, and it is the first production team

for Pixar led by women.

It is also the first Pixar film to break

what is known as the “fourth wall”, when

Mei Lee talks to the audience through the

camera. The term “breaking the fourth wall”

comes from theatre and it is when a character on

stage talks directly to the audience during the play.

The fourth wall is the imaginary wall separating the

stage and the audience – the other three are the walls

behind and on both sides of the stage.

Shi drew a lot of inspiration for the film from her

own childhood because she grew up as a Chinese-

born Canadian. Turning Red shows the cultures of

both countries. “I’m most excited about surprising

people,” says Shi. “I think people are going to go in

with this expectation of, ‘Oh, it’s just gonna be a cute

movie about this cute teenage girl that turns into a

cute panda,’ but then we’re going to surprise them.”

Turning Red is on Disney+ from 11 March.

Three more great animated films for 2022

The Bad Guys

A gang of the world’s most-wanted criminal animals

try their most challenging con yet... to behave nicely.

When a new villain arrives on the scene, will the gang

finally become the good guys? Out on 1 April.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

(Part One)

Miles Morales is transported to the Multiverse to

join forces with Gwen Stacy to confront an evil more

powerful than anything they have ever seen before.

Out in October.

Lightyear

The star of the Toy Story films gets his own feature,

which focuses on Buzz Lightyear’s history. He’s part

of the Universe Protection Unit, who are doing

battle against the evil Zurg. Out on 17 June.

Mei Lee in her

red panda form.

Prepare for pandemonium with Pixar’s new film.

Director

Domee Shi.

FAMI

LY^

SECR

ET

Scienti
sts^ thin
k^ that^ r
ed^

pandas

are^ mo

re^ close

ly^

related

to^ skun

ks^ than

to^ gian

t^ panda

s.