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Turning Red is available to stream on Disney Plus beginning on March 11, 2022.
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I think people are gonna 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 gonna surprise them,” she told the outlet, adding that Turning Red is about so much more-including puberty, body image, family and what it means to grow up as a young girl of color today.įor everything there is to know about Turning Red-from when it premieres online, to how to watch Turning Red for free even if you aren’t a Disney+ subscriber yet-just keep on reading up ahead.
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“I’m most excited about surprising people. In an interview with Colliderahead of the film’s release in March 2022, director Shi explained how Turning Red will “subvert people’s expectations” when they watch it for the first time. The film, which is written and directed by Academy Award-winner Domee Shi (Pixar’s Bao) is the first Pixar project to be directed solely by a woman, the first to take place in Canada and the second to feature an Asian lead character after 2009’s Up. Her transformation takes place anytime she gets overly excited, angry or anxious-which, for a teenager, is pretty often! Suffice to say, she “poofs” into a red panda over and over again throughout the film. She wakes up one morning shocked to realize that she has transformed into a big red panda, only to learn later that her ancestors have a historic connection to the species. Set in Toronto in the early 2000s, Turning Red follows 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian Meilin “Mei” Lee as she juggles what it means to be an obedient daughter and a good friend while going through all the growing pains of puberty.
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