Chiang, then only 12 years old, was selected in part because she was a local child actor conveniently based in nearby Fremont, which is only about 35 miles (56km) from Pixar's Emeryville headquarters.

But while the city’s recognizable skyline, architecture style, street signs and Chinatown proved invaluable resources to filmmakers, their re-creation would be unique. Miriam's skateboard has stickers of Buzz Lightyear's Star Command logo and Sox on it as a sneak peek at the upcoming Lightyear.Mei refers to the red panda statues in the temple as "Bart and Lisa", which is a reference to Bart and Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons.

Nintendo games, such as Earthbound, Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda, have also been cited as a major influence for the film. Artists started with the actual dimensions of Toronto’s SkyDome, then played with the scale to find the sweet spot, allowing the climactic ending to unfold to its greatest potential. GROWING PAINS -- Disney and Pixar’s all-new original feature film “Turning Red” introduces 13-year-old Mei Lee, a confident-but-dorky teenager torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence.Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) • Pinocchio (1940) • Fantasia (1940) • Dumbo (1941) • Bambi (1942) • Saludos Amigos (1942) • The Three Caballeros (1944) • Make Mine Music (1946) • Fun and Fancy Free (1947) • Melody Time (1948) • The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Famous pop culture songs like "Cha Cha Slide" by DJ Casper and "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child are heard in the film. We took several trips to historic temples in California built by early Chinese settlers just to get a feeling of what these grassroots temples are like.

Disney canceled the Russian release in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 28, 2022. Ming initially believes Mei is experiencing her first period, but learns the truth when she gets into an altercation with the school's security guard, causing Mei to transform from embarrassment and run home in panic and tears. In the lead up to the film's release, Disney partnered with Mozilla to promote the film via the Firefox web browser, as red pandas are also known as "firefoxes". Ming takes her duties as spiritual leader and local entrepreneur quite seriously, but the role she prizes most is that of mother to her precious only daughter, Meilin. Ava Morse as Miriam Mendelsohn, [4] a singing Jewish Canadian tomboy with braces who is one of Mei's best friends.On February 27, 2023, it was announced that Red Panda Mei would become a meet-and-greet character at Shanghai Disneyland for a limited time, from March 1 to May 31, 2023. Some "Wassup" graffiti is seen on one of the bathroom stalls, a reference to the Budweiser ad campaign that ran from 1999 to 2002.

Here's the plot: "Thirteen-year-old Mei is experiencing the awkwardness of being a teenager with a twist – when she gets too excited, she transforms into a giant red panda.Directed by Domee Shi and produced by Lindsey Collins, Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” is now streaming on Disney+. When Sun Yee's husband went to fight in a war, she asked the gods to give her power to protect her daughters. It was brand new at the time and all the rage—it was attached to a cable so it could move across the wide spans of a stadium.