Turning Red, which premieres through Disney+ on March 11, explores the rich and imaginative world of teenage girlhood in a rather unique way. The story follows young Meilin Lee (voiced by rising star Rosalie Chiang) as she makes a dramatic entrance into puberty by turning into a red panda whenever her emotions get too riled up.
Domee Shi, who previously directed the Oscar-winning short film Bao, takes the reins on the new animated adventure. In order to create the specific animation required for the film, she was aided by plenty of talented Pixar artists, including visual effects supervisor Danielle Feinberg (Inside Out). The film not only explores the connection between Mei and her new fursona, but also how her best friends and mother Ming (Sandra Oh, Raya and the Last Dragon) are affected by her recent change.
Feinberg spoke to Screen Rant about the challenges of creating a new visual style for the red panda-filled adventures.
Screen Rant: How was the concept pitched to you, and what were the first steps you had to take to prepare yourself for Turning Red?
Danielle Feinberg: That's a great question. Revisit traumatizing middle school.
No, the cool thing was that - it was roughly four years ago - we had a company meeting where some of the shows that were in development showed a scene from their movie or a pitch about it. Domee got up there in front of the company and showed a scene, which is very close to what was in the movie, where we first meet Mei. She's getting on the bus, and she's doing all the stuff at school, playing the flute and whatever. And I just thought, "Who is that? I love that character. She's so unapologetically dorky. And who is this director? She made Bao, she's brilliant. This is brilliant. I want to work on that film."
And then I started hearing that she was really going for a different look for the film, which is really exciting to me as a lighting person and a lover of computer animation. When I got on the film, it was really about trying to immerse myself in what Domee was after. What did she love? What were the references we were going for? And then thinking about how we even pull that off. A new look is so hard, what are we going to do? How are we going to achieve that?
That was kind of the path.
2002 is such a specific year, and I do not realize how many references would be straight out of my life. How did that setting influence the choices that you made visually?
Danielle Feinberg: I think it helps in some ways, because you can find references and know exactly what you're going for. But 2002 is not as clear an era as say, the 70s or 80s, which have some clear visuals or color palettes to them. In 2002, I was just working at Pixar making movies, so it wasn't a clear time period for me. Whereas for Domee or Rona, that was when they were middle school, and I very clearly remember my middle school years.
But one of the fun things was that one of the artists in our art department was working on some sketches for Toronto, as we were trying to figure out how to bring Toronto to life in this world and in this style. He's on Google Earth, going down streets and looking at different things that make it Toronto. He's in art review, and he's showing something that has parking meters. And someone was like, "But is that what parking meters would look like in 2002?" Because parking meters have actually changed. So, it was this very funny thing of trying to remember, "What is 2002?"
I don't know that it so much changed things I was doing, but it was more just trying to make sure that we were being authentic to the time period. It was such a specific time period, because this was when Domee was 13.
What was the collaboration process like from the start? How did your professional relationship - not just with Domi, but with the whole team - grow over the course of the film?
Danielle Feinberg: Domee's really a brilliant mind. She's very decisive about things in a fantastic way. If you have a director who's like, "Well, I don't know, could I see more?" maybe you can spend a lot of time and spin your wheels a lot. She's much more decisive than that, and if she doesn't have a clear answer, she would ask her trusted people. Rona was a great proxy for her, because they're on the same page. And that just makes life a lot easier.
In terms of the crew, I think we managed to pull together a group of supervisors that were very excited about making a new look, and we were able to bring everyone together despite the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, we got together in small groups doing looks development, so they all bond it. We got a really collaborative thing going and tried really hard to foster that, knowing that for a new look, you had to bring your A-game and everybody had to be talking. I'm really proud of the crew because, despite being at home over Zoom, they found this really collaborative and wonderful place to create the film.
The red panda is obviously an integral part of the look. How did you approach the creation of that? It can't look necessarily realistic, but it also has to be recognizable.
Danielle Feinberg: The first thing was to go to the San Francisco Zoo and look at red pandas, and then imagine if they were eight feet tall and if they were animated and in this world and chunky cute. What would they be? There are a lot of design decisions, for sure.
Domee starts by drawing storyboards; she comes from story, and that's how she's conveying things. And she's drawing them with a lot of things that show up in anime, with the cat mouth that Patty and Aaron made reference to. It's sort of shaped like a bean, and then this teeny tiny mouth and this giant mouth. She's super expressive in the manifestation of this 13-year-old girl's emotions, so you know she has to do all this big acting.
We knew she was going to be a big challenge, and that she was going to need some different technology. We were going to have to throw out those profile movers that I mentioned, and that was one of the ways that we tackled that.
It's not just Mei Lee going through puberty, since all of her friend group are growing up at the same time. How do you differentiate each girl in her world, and which of the best friend posse do you relate to most?
Danielle Feinberg: That group of girls is so amazing, because they're so different but you totally believe they're friends somehow. But they're all really unique, and I'm so charmed by them. That's some of the magic of Domee, honestly. They were really fun to bring to life. They have completely their own personalities, and a lot of thought and time was put into figuring out how to make them different. But they're all a little dorky, and they all feel like they would be friends.
I think one of the things is that they each have their own color palette. Rona spent a lot of time thinking about color on this film; it was a big thing, and very consciously chosen. Somehow that, for me, was the icing on the cake with them of really differentiating them on this last visual level.
In terms of which one I relate to the most, probably Miriam. I like Mei Lee a lot, but if we're picking from those three, I might pick Miriam.
Aside from the transformation, what was the most surprising aspect from your perspective as visual effects supervisor? What was either most challenging for you or most rewarding?
Danielle Feinberg: It's so hard, because everything goes back to trying to make this new look. Because it's so hard, and it's in every department. In every department, we're trying to do something a little bit different, and each of that required a little bit of something to get there. Or a lot of something; a lot of thought and experimentation. Probably a little less technology-wise, but that was probably where the most work [went in].
That's not a specific answer, but it really is the look. That was really the thing that was pervasive all the time.
If you were going to turn into an animal, which one do you think you would become the cuddly, fuzzy, 8-foot-tall version of?
Danielle Feinberg: Wow, I don't know. I'm like an elephant? But they seem dangerous. If you take the dangerous out of it, then I could be.
