High School woes, heartthrob boy bands, puberty, relationships, and chaotic family drama play a huge part in teenagehood. In ‘Turning Red,’ we see Mei Lee, a confident but dorky 13-year-old, who navigates the difficult journey of being a dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence.

Directed by Domee Shi, Disney and Pixar’s upcoming Turning Red takes us on a wild journey with Mei Lee, who turns into a giant Red Panda when she gets overexcited, and watch her overcome her biggest weakness triggered by her emotions. This is also Disney and Pixar’s first film to have an all-female creative team, with a female director, producer, visual-effects supervisor, and production designer among its lead creatives. Turning Red is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.

Talking about Mei’s character, Domee Shi said, “She’s spunky, confident, nerdy, passionate, weird and a little bit snooty.”

“When I was her age, I was Mei. I was writing Harry Potter fan fiction, passionately drawing fan art. I had a secret sketchbook that my parents did not know about. Now that I’m grown, I know so many amazing women who all had nerdy beginnings. I just wanted to show that with Mei,” she further added.

The film is penned by Domee Shi and Julia Cho and produced by Lindsey Collins. The film’s characters have been voiced by the likes of Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Orion Lee, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Hyein Park, Wai Ching Ho, James Hong, and others.

(Featured Image Credits: Special arrangement)