As The Batman breaks box office records, Pixar are set to see their third consecutive feature film head for a debut on Disney+ when Turning Red drops this Friday. The disappointment will not only be felt by theatre chains and families around the world, but also by Academy Award winning director Domee Shi, who has spoken out about how her coming-of-age cartoon has skipped cinemas altogether, saying that “it’s a lot of emotions”.
Following the pandemic related change in release strategy for both Soul and Luca, Disney made the decision at the start of the year to put the well-received (read our ★★★★ review here) Turning Red on their Disney Plus streaming platform for no additional charge, unlike the $30 premium required with early lockdown release Raya and the Last Dragon. Now director Domee Shi has been speaking to Tech Radar about the films release, diplomatically saying that “shit happens”, but that Turning Red was meant to be “seen on the big screen”.
Shi, who won an Oscar for her wonderful Pixar short Bao, told them “You know, it’s a lot of emotions. We made this movie with the intention of it being seen on the big screen but, you know, shit happens. With Covid, this seems like the best possible way to deliver the movie to the most amount of eyeballs safely in the world.”
The films Producer Lindsay Collins added “If we’ve learned nothing else over the last two years, every time we think we can anticipate what the next two months will look like, we’re wrong. Whatever the decision was going to be, we knew we had to make it now. It takes that long to mobilize marketing, press, and everything else. The last thing we wanted was to have something out in the world, but nobody able to see it. We’re glad Disney Plus came along, because we don’t know what we would’ve done without it. But it still kind of sucks that we can’t release this in theatres.”
Do you share their disappointment with the Disney+ release strategy for Turning Red? Would you rather be watching it in a cinema, or are you happy you’ll be able to stream it on Friday morning? Let us know by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red 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. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh), is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda! Directed by Academy Award® winner Domee Shi (Pixar short “Bao”) and produced by Lindsey Collins.
Turning Red arrives on Disney+ on March 11th.
