pixar has been focusing on bringing out original films for several years. The next to arrive will be ‘Red’, the first feature film from the animated studio directed by a woman. Its exclusive premiere on Disney + will take place next March 11thin Espinof we have already been able to participate in a presentation in which several key aspects of the film have been discussed.
The talk was attended by the director and co-writer Domee Shithe producer Lindsay Collinsthe production designer Ron Liuthe visual effects supervisor Danielle Feinbergwho noted that ‘Red’ “It’s the first time we’ve had an all-female lead team in a Pixar movie.‘, and the animation supervisors Patty Kihm and Aaron Hartline.
The origin of ‘Red’
The film stems from Shi’s need to make the leap to feature film after winning the Oscar with ‘Beam’a short film in whose promotional campaign is the genesis of ‘Red’, as revealed by the director herself:
I was promoting ‘Bao’ and a lot of people were asking me why Bao was a boy. I replied that because I only had eight minutes to tell this story, for a mother-daughter story I would need a whole movie.
Shortly after presented three ideas for a Pixar film, all revolving around a similar concept, and finally the chosen one was ‘Red’, which Shi pointed out that “is inspired by that universal difficulty of growing up, trying to figure out how to honor your parents but stay true to yourself“. In addition, he highlighted the following about the particular case of this film:
I think for Mei that difficulty is unique and very specific to a lot of immigrant children, Chinese children who really love their mother. She has her mother as a reference for her, as a kind of goddess whom she is afraid of but she also admires, and whom she wants to impress.
own Shi was born in China and immigrated to Canada when he was just two years old., so ‘Red’ has a strong autobiographical component. She herself confesses that the fact of having chosen a red panda was something that was clear to her from the first moment and what part of her personal experience was decisive for it:
I think they are modes and they are the least popular pandas so I wanted to draw attention to them. I think they are very cool and remain cute throughout their lives, even when they are old. They are monkeys and native to China, from the same area my family is from, Sichuan province. I wanted it to also be a small tribute to my roots.
Of course, it also had to serve the needs of the story, on which he specified that “we wanted to use the red panda as a metaphor for the changes we go through during adolescenceTherefore, they studied the behavior of the pandas and, as Hartline revealed, they detected something that they did not hesitate to include in the film:
When a red panda gets scared, they immediately throw their paws up in the air. It is way and strange. We had to use it.
The identity of the film
The next key step was to determine the visual identity of the film and Shi was very clear that “I wanted it to be different, like no other Pixar movie we’ve seen before. It’s going to be the first contemporary Pixar movie with a female lead, and I wanted that to reflect“. In this regard, Collins noted the following:
In other movies, it’s like no one knows the camera is there. It should be invisible. Whereas in this movie, even in the storyboarded version, you’re very aware that this is the first time that a character has even broken the fourth wall in one of our movies and spoken directly to the camera.
Shi points out that one of his inspirations were movies and series with a mischievous touch of Disney Channel from years ago as ‘Lizzie Maguire’, because “I wanted to take that energy and put it into the film. It also gives it a nostalgic touch.“.
However, the big challenge for Shi was “get that asian teen fever look“, for which they needed “stylize the animation in 3D, a very complicated task because 3D tends to hyperrealism“. For this, it was concluded that the ideal was to mix two of the great passions of the directoras Kihm summarized
We wanted to delve into Domee’s passion for two animated genres that she loves, anime representing the East and Pixar representing the West. ‘Red’ moves between those two styles. We take references from both and mix them. We often reference anime eyes in the movie. And one of the best things about anime is that it doesn’t shy away from taking character designs to the extreme.
Shi noted that “Since everything is seen through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl, we imagined that Mei’s world would be vibrant and very colorful. Our version of Toronto would be full of bright and beautiful pastel colors, and our nighttime setting would feel dreamy, with everything full of city lights.“, highlighting this small clarification made by Liu:
The statues, the altar, the signs and even the details of the ceiling, everything is inspired by pandas. We wanted our characters to be iconic and memorable, so we gave each of them distinctive colors.
For example, Mei, the protagonist, is associated with fiery red, while Ming, her mother, with emerald green., also looking for a contrast between the two that went beyond their personality. In order to create the world they live in and even their personalities, Liu highlighted the process they followed to achieve the desired look:
Our adolescence was filled with our best friends, boy bands, thug music videos and glitter accessories. And we also watched a lot of anime and TV series.
Another essential detail for get the desired look was what the design of the red panda would be, in which in addition to also looking for the contrast with the human version of Mei, the following details were taken into account according to Collins:
Her fur is very soft but also clumpy in some areas to show that she is not quite groomed. And we designed his whiskers to be uneven and wrinkly. And to give it the feel of a magical red panda, we gave it a little swirl on each arm.
Other details
To achieve this and for the film to achieve that special touch that Shi was looking for, Feinberg revealed that he dared to use a new technology call profile movers so that the movements of the characters, taking as reference the joints, felt more natural. Feinberg wasn’t entirely sure if he was worth the risk, but he summed up what led to his decision:
I thought it could help us take Panda Mei’s expression as far as Domee wanted.
The curious thing about all this is that for some things they had to work very hard, but for others they hit the target the first time. I refer to the signing of the young Rosalie Chiang to lend her voice to the protagonist of ‘Red’. They initially brought her in for a preliminary version of her with the idea of hiring someone else later, but Collins couldn’t explain it any more clearly:
Over the next few years, we tried to find other actresses to replace her in the final version. Honestly, no one even approached him. Rosalie had become Mei and there was no other option.