Danielle Feinberg Interview: Turning Red
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.
Related: Pixar’s Turning Red Trailer Shows Mei’s Mystical Red Panda Connection
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
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