Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red is finally available to watch and enjoy on Disney+. That’s right. You can go away, gather your friends, some snacks, and journey back to the early 2000s with this fun, quirky, and incredibly fluffy animated film all about growing up… and red pandas. What a combination. Before you rush off though, we have something exciting to share with you.
To celebrate the immense achievement that is Turning Red, we had the chance to participate in an exciting conference with the wonderful cast.
Sandra Oh (Ming)
Rosalie Chiang (Meilin)
Ava Morse (Miriam)
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Priya)
Hyein Park (Abby)
We’d love to share some of the hilarious moments and genuinely interesting discussions we had with the voice cast for Turning Red. It was a great opportunity to get to know the faces behind the characters, as well as understand their own thoughts and feelings about this project.
Get to know the characters:
Ava: “Okay. Um, so I’m Ava, and I’m the voice of Miriam. And [LAUGH] Miriam is the best friend that you could ever want. She’s funny, she’s always there for you. She’s a party animal. And she just always knows how to cheer you up when you’re down.”
Maitreyi: “I voice Priya. Uh, Priya is pretty sarcastic, dry, um, [LAUGH] very deadpan. Um, but you know what? She’s really cool. I think she’s one cool cat. And, yeah, she’s-she’s always down to clown, but always… Always with a cool attitude.”
Hyein: “Oh. I’m-I’m Abby. Um, Abby’s like this little ball of energy. [LAUGH] And very loving. Very passionate. But comes up a little too explosive at some times. Um, and I would say she loves her friends so much, especially when they’re fluffy.”
Sandra: “Oh, I play Ming, uh, Mei’s mother, who is, I’d like to call her a hypervigilant, loving mother. [LAUGH] Uh, and we basically go through this-this, uh, change in our relationship where, you know, a natural change between mothers and daughters when daughters have to, uh, become their own independent people.”
Rosalie: “Hello, I’m Rosalie Chang and I voice Meilin Lee. Um, she is a 13-year-old Chinese Canadian who’s confident, she’s ambitious, and she’s a little dorky and a bit of an overachiever. [LAUGH] But, um, she has-she puts so much value in her friendships…and her relationship with her mom. And in this movie, she goes through these huge changes and she’s dealing with this. But at the same time, she has all these things in her life, but she doesn’t want to lose herself… “
How has important has friendship been in your own lives, and how important is that message in Turning Red?
Sandra: “So, I have relationships and friendships that are 40 years old… So, so what I love about this film through friendship, and also music, it’s that precious time when you’re starting to figure out who you are, when your friends become really, really important. You know, for me, the girls that I grew up with in, like, Nepean, Ontario, um, we’re still all friends.”
Ava: “Yeah, I mean, I think obviously, I’m currently a high school student, and everybody is just growing and changing together. And it can be very stressful and, like, dark at times, ’cause everyone is going through a lot, and not everyone knows how to handle that. But at the same time, it’s kind of a beautiful thing, um, ’cause everybody’s in that together, and just kind of, put it all into living their lives the best they can. And I think that’s great, all my friends mean so much to me and they’re all very supportive no matter what. And I think kind of, um, I was really inspired by my own friends kind of putting them into Miriam herself, ’cause she is such a supportive, an amazing friend to, um, Mei-Mei and, um, the other girls. But, um, ’cause my friends are so supportive and always there for you no matter what. So that was-it was really cool to kinda give back in that way.”
Let’s talk 4*Town… do you guys have a favorite boy band in real life, and anymoments that stick out to you where you were kind of fangirling over them a little?
Maitreyi: “I remember when, and it’s gonna be very Canadian of me, but I remember going into, you know, grade nine, going into high school. The summer, I went to my first concert to see Marianas Trench. And I… Lost my mind. I was always wondering, like, why do people cry at concerts? Like, shouldn’t you be excited to be there? Like, you would be smiling. Maybe laughing. Who knows? But then as soon as they came out on stage, bawling. I was done, I was like, I understand why I’m crying. I was so emotional and I didn’t know why. But it just, it made sense. So, ugh. Yet again, music. The importance of, like, music growing up totally shapes who you are. But also, like, enjoying that with your friends. And shoutout to specifically female friendship… which is so key. I love that we show, like, the importance of, you know, four young girls being supportive of each other just to show good female friendships.”
Kaitlyn Booth from bleedingcool.com asked- “Teenage female friendships are so often portrayed as catty or backstabby, and Turning Red completely rejects these tropes. Can you talk about the importance of good portrayals of female friends for the younger generation?”
Hyein: “Well, it’s important because those tropes are wrong. “
Ava: “I agree. I totally agree. I don’t know who was in charge of that, because… That was not my experience. But then we start behaving like those tropes because that’s what we see.”
Hyein: “Yeah, I totally agree. And because I’m a story artist at Pixar too it is actually very important. And when we finally got the chance to make this female friendship, it was very important that it was authentic. So, Domee talked a lot about her own experiences w-with her friendship, and, like, she would hate to add on to those trope and, like, just make it real. Then she actually asked a lot of different people, like, within the studios too to get a really, authentic insight on how, like, girlfriends are really like.”
Sandra: “And I think this is an extremely good representation of deep friendships, and the highs and the lows.”
Who were some of the onscreen friendships you guys really enjoyed watching?
Rosalie: “when I was younger, um, one of my favorite shows was, That’s So Raven. And it was those three. And even though there was a guy there. But… Even though, you know, sometimes we have arguments. I mean, It’s not gonna be completely perfect. But at the end of the day, they truly value their friendship. And they, like, never let go of that throughout the entire show. And it’s something that I resonated with because I have had many friends come and go throughout my life. But the friends-my-my squad right now, I’ve known them my entire life.”
Maitreyi: “I would say my representation of good female friendships? Got to kick it to Sailor Moon. Right? Like, they got each other’s back, then they fight crime. And have powers, so. That was cool. I like that.”
Why should girls look up to Mei? What do you take away yourselves from this and what do you hope others watching take away?
Rosalie: “I’d say her drive. I feel like she has such a drive to-once she sets her mind on something, she goes for it. Like, she puts all her time and energy to make sure she gets her point across, or whatever goal she has. Also, the fact that she goes through change, is something that everyone goes through in their life. Especially puberty. It’s such a messy and weird and awkward time that I literally went through when I was during the duration of recording for Pixar. And I think-I th-I hope people admire, um, what she goes through and how she deals with it.
Hyein: “I guess, like, I would say her ability to be vulnerable. Which is a, really, really difficult thing to do. And to actually own up to mistakes and apologize to her friends, and mend the relationship. Those two things are, I think, so-so difficult to do as a human being in general. And the fact that she can do it at such a young age, I think it’s amazing.”
Maitreyi: “I think it’s, for me, I think it’s a kind heart. Mei has such a kind heart that wants to always do the right thing, and I think that’s so honorable. And, you know, she’s just, she’s so giving. You know, she’s just trying to be who she is. You know, choose herself and be there for friends, be there for her mom.”
Ava: Yeah. And she’s crazy smart. Like, she is, like, she crushes school. I remember recording, and Domee was just like, “They’re not nerds.” Like, they are not nerdy. Even though… Like, they are very-they are nerdy, and that can be a very, like, um, degrading term nowadays. It’s like, “Oh, you’re so nerdy.” But, like, I feel like this kinda movie, it doesn’t necessarily romanticize it, but it just makes it seem cool.”
Everyone chatted and they all had such a great dynamic. Honestly, picking the highlights was an absolute struggle. Seeing the cast express themselves and explore their own characters was incredibly fun and it actually helps enhance the experience of watching Turning Red. Yes, it’s a film. But it’s also a great dive into growing up, particularly from the female perspective. It just added that extra layer. You can feel the love and support that flowed through this project and through the cast themselves.
We hope you liked this very brief but insanely fun discussion with the cast of Turning Red. If you missed it, don’t forget to check out our review right here.
Pixar Animation Studios’ 25th feature film introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. And if that wasn’t enough, whenever she gets too excited, she “poofs” into a giant Red Panda- Surely it can’t be that bad, right?
Turning Red is available on Disney+ now! Will you be watching Mei Lee’s transformative adventure? Let us know in the comments, and if you’ve already watched it we’d love to know your thoughts.
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