On March 11 we saw the premiere of Turning Red through Disney +, which presents us with the story of a Chinese-Canadian girl who turns into a red panda when she gets carried away by her emotions. The director of this film is Domee Shiwho was inspired by Nintendo games to come up with the visual style of Turning Red.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Domee Shi said that she and her team filled Turning Red with references to nerd culture, such as anime series and nintendo games. According to Shi, both she and production designer Ron Liu have a love for Nintendo, which influenced the film’s visual style.
We both just love the cute, beefy aesthetic, and that definitely comes from playing Nintendo games, like Pokémon, like Earthbound,” said Domee Shi.
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It is true that the character design of Turning Red does not stray too far from that of the series of mother, but Domee Shi says they also looked at more recent games when looking for what kind of identity to give the movie. One of those games was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which came to the Nintendo Switch five years ago.
When we were looking at developing the look for our movie, we looked at Breath of the Wild and said ‘Wow, how can they make the world feel so beautiful and rich but still manage to simplify it?
According to Shi, one of the reasons why he looks to video games for inspiration is because he feels that this medium takes more risks when it comes to proposing a visual style, unlike animated films that tend to follow a more traditional look. However, like many gamers these days, Shi says his parents viewed his hobby as a waste of time.
If someone told my 13-year-old self who drew Pokemon and Sonic fan art for a few bucks that I could do that for a living and make a multi-million dollar movie about it, I thought I’d be in awe.”
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Growing up, Domee Shi used to play Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda on her Game Boy Color and Nintendo DS Lite, while recently playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Hollow Knight, and Metroid Dread. During the production of Turning Red, Shi got a Playstation Pro 4 to try out the latest games, and says he’s become a fan of Red Dead Redemption 2, Ghost of Tsushima, The Witcher 3, and Death Stranding.
Now that you’re done working on Turning Red, Domee Shi says that she hopes to have time to play Elden Ring and try the remakes of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Peark. “I am very excited to return to video games. I have a list of games I want to try”, said the director.