The glitziest premiere for Turning Red may have been in Los Angeles
but it was the Canadian homecoming that counted most.
Some of the film's star voices and the director Domee Shi are from here and the movie is set here
When I first pitched it it was like a Chinese-Canadian girl going through magical puberty
set in Toronto in the early 2000s and it was just so specific that I think it made the idea stand
out and that's what drew Pixar to it
I'm Meilin Lee and ever since I turned 13 I've been doing my own thing making my own moves 24/7, 365.
The sights are easy to see, the CN tower the streetcars
even the old Skydome gets a shout out.
It's the whole thing about you are you can self-identify you know what I mean
for Canadians and especially for Torontonians, I mean you'll know the streets
You'll see this you'll see the CN Tower in it and it makes you proud.
But replicating Toronto, making every cityscape postcard perfect
That was the easy part, capturing Chinese Canada that was much more personal
So there's that kind of, sort of Canadian representation right in the film
there's also Asian representation, Chinese representation yeah and a lot of it is
You see it right in the faces, you hear it in the in the language and the accents
you see it in the traditions, but I'm kind of curious like if you if you really
kind of dig down under the hood so to speak the layers of representation
that you guys must have had to really put thought into, right?
About how do we do this authentically and ways that maybe a layman wouldn't see
or it wouldn't be obvious to them talk to me about that.
Yeah me and my parents were really grateful for Chinatown
because that was like the only kind of slice of home that was around
when we first immigrated. One of my favourite scenes in the movie
is just near the beginning where Mei and her mom
are just like hanging out in the living room making dumplings
and watching Chinese soap operas on TV and her dad's like stir-frying up a storm
in the background I was so excited to kind of put this very slice of life moment
into the movie that just felt very typical from my background
but like not a lot of people know about like not a lot of people know that Chinese dad's
cook really well, like they cook just as much as Chinese moms do.
And if that description sounded familiar it was also reminiscent of the opening scene
of Bao a short film she directed and won an Oscar for in 2019
but both Shi and the cast of Turning Red will tell you
there's a deeper layer of authenticity they were after.
Our representation is so important, and like when I was younger I looked up to Sandra
because she was like one of the only Asians on screen in Hollywood
in the movie I think not only is there an Asian lead but in the background
there's so much representation and people of different
It's super Toronto
Yeah, people of different cultures and it just it's normal it's just there
There's no they're not emphasizing it like look at what we're doing, it's like
Natural inclusion
Exactly yeah
A reality
Yeah, just yeah reality that we walk in every day.
That's goes back to what you were saying about that's home
you feel seen. Part of that is that diversity of like
this is what my reality looks like this is a school that I went to
especially those like little middle school scenes those bustling hallways, I love that
What struck me I guess when I watched the film was that
it doesn't hit you over the head with its Asian-ness if that makes sense right like
it's not about being Chinese it is just part of the the backdrop
We're like telling a very universal story with a very culturally specific paintbrush almost
but really what I'm excited about is that like we're like as we're seeing all of these movies
coming out we're redefining what universal stories look like
and who gets to tell them.
and you're absolutely right like this story is is not specifically about a girl being Chinese
but like it's telling this universal story about a girl just struggling with bodily changes
with her mom, with growing up.
And so I can't help but wonder if your mother is going to watch the film and think
oh my gosh, was I like that?
She knows she was like that because like she saw the trailer
where they played a clip of Mei's mother hiding behind a tree and with sunglasses on
following her to school and it actually happened to me
Your mother came to your school when you were a kid?
Yes, my first day of middle school I thought I had made some new friends
we walk out of the building and one of them says
hey who's that lady behind the tree? And I look up and it's my mom
like peeking out and she wore sunglasses because
she thought I wouldn't recognize her and she was just worried about me she she's like checking in
Just making sure you're OK
Yeah in that moment, I really like literally wanted to
it explode, so I had to put a girl going through that like literally exploding in the movie
There is at least one other way Turning Red is a sign of progress
it's Pixar's first feature film directed by a woman and led by a creative team full of them
I mean it wasn't something we like super consciously set out to do
but it ended up being so awesome that most of the key leadership on the show were women
and I think that led to a lot of bold filmmaking choices in the movie and I think it was because
a lot of us had that experience of of growing up of all those awkward moments
of getting our periods, of our moms embarrassing us
Could this film have come together the way it did without that kind of a
makeup in the team?
I think like this movie wouldn't be the specific movie it was
without the leadership on the team without the crew.
It's just so great for us to be able and for Pixar to have said hey Domee Shi
we believe in you we want to tell your exact story and for all of us to have a place
to be able to help her vision come to fruition we just want people to enjoy it