‘Turning Red’ Director Domee Shi & Producer Lindsey Collins On Mother-Daughter Relationships And Embracing Your “Inner Beast”
With Turning Red, director Domee Shi revisited her own past to create a story of a young girl struggling with pleasing her family as she comes into adolescence. It’s a story so relatable that Lindsey Collins, who was running Pixar’s creative development at the time, says she practically begged Shi to let her produce the film. Turning Red follows Meilin (Rosalie Chiang), a 13-year-old girl from Toronto who works at her family’s temple to make her mother Ming (Sandra Oh) proud. Due to a family blessing/curse, Meilin finds herself transforming into a large red panda whenever she experiences strong emotions, which is less than ideal for a teenager.