Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1469382
12 cgw a p r i l • m ay • j u n e 2 0 2 2 core, it is a mother-daughter finally embracing change and all of its messiness, even if it means saying goodbye to the relationship they once had," Shi explains. From the start, Shi wanted the film to look and feel different from the typical Pixar film — for one, it features a contemporary teen girl protagonist. As such, she wanted the world to reflect that character: colorful, chunky and cute, bold, and in your face, just like Mei. This is a big departure even for Mei's short, Bao. As she notes, Bao was more intimate, inspired by fairy tales, so the world is soer, rounder, cuter. In contrast, Turning Red's protagonist is a spunky, en- ergetic 13-year-old girl, so the world is less cutesy and childlike, with a certain grittiness — for instance, as Mei walks down the street in Chinatown, you can feel all the details on the pavement and in the shop windows. Shi and the crew describe the film's aesthetic as "Asian tween fe- ver dream." Turning Red is set in the early 2000s. "Not just because it's when I grew up as a tween, but it was also the height of tween/ teen pop mania in the late 90s/early 2000s, when you had those boy bands and pop idols," she says. "We also just wanted to avoid social media and just tell this story in a simpler time of flip phones, CDs, jelly bracelets, and Tamagotchis." Additionally, the multicultural aspect of the city was particularly appealing to Shi, and this is reflected in Mei's band of friends, who are far from perfect. As Shi notes, they reflect a teen's typical group of friends: "dorky, sweaty, sometimes gross, but ultimately loving and supportive of each other." These are all great concepts and ideas, but Shi and the filmmak- ers had to find a way to present them using stylized 3D animation, which is a "super challenging task," she points out, because 3D's default is hyperrealism. "How do they abstract the world enough to feel unique, while also rich enough to feel immersive, like you're actually in the Lei family temple or there with Mei covered in thick, dense, smelly panda fur?" Those are questions Shi presented that had to be answered. Make no mistake, this is not a typical Pixar film. "On this show, we wear what we want, say what we want, and we will not hesitate to do spontaneous cartwheels if we feel so moved," Shi stated in a video while assembling the team. As a result, the crew started bringing in their old yearbooks and shared stories of their awkward moments in middle school. Those who are currently parents also shared their bad parenting moments (writer's note: we all have them). "As a team, we just really tried to be real with one another about our daily failures and our daily successes. It was an energy I hadn't experienced before, frankly, on a feature film," she adds. The assembled team, in fact, is just as atypical as the style of the film. It includes Pixar's first all-female-led production team, including Lindsey Collins as producer (Wall-e, Finding Dory), who pioneered Pixar's SparkShorts program. "I felt as if we were making history on this show," says Shi. Collins agrees. "I have worked with a lot of amazing women at Pixar for many, many years in different ways, but I think this [project] in particular allowed us to be a little bolder in our choices for our filmmaking — in the performances, the lines, the script, but also aesthetically in the choices we made about the stylization," she says. "There was something intangible about having a lot of women who were very supportive of those choices and really understood why the choices were happening." Along the way, this women-led team joined Shi in challenging their inner 13-year-old selves and their collective personal experi- ences to bring this story to life, including their recollections of teen pop and early-2000s movies and culture during the time period presented in the film. The group wanted to incorporate all of the things they loved at that age: best friends, boy bands, punky music videos, and glitter accessories. "We talked about uncomfortable moments — and boy bands," says Collins about the group's many discussions. There obviously were men on the show, too, and they quickly got comfortable with these throwback discussions. "They had no choice," she adds with a laugh. A new crowds pipeline maximized detail and efficiency.