'Turning Red' Director Open To A Sequel: 'Love To Continue The Story'

Disney/Pixar's film "Turning Red" debuted on Disney's streaming service, Disney+, in March 2022 and became a hit amongst fans almost immediately.

The film has since gone on to be nominated for several Annie Awards, a Golden Globe, a British Academy Film Award, and a Grammy. And this weekend, the film could potentially win an Oscar as it is up for best-animated feature film at the 2023 Academy Awards.

"Turning Red" director Domee Shi recently sat down with "Good Morning America", where she expressed how much this film means to her.

"When I pitched it, I was super excited about this chance to just show how you can tell a super-specific story about this Chinese-Canadian girl going through magical puberty and have it resonate with ... everyone all over the world," she told the ABC talk show, "because we've all had that experience of just waking up one day and being like, 'What happened to my body?'"

Shi went on to say that she "knew from the beginning" that the story told in the film would be something "a lot of people would identify with and enjoy."

"Turning Red" tells the story of 13-year-old Mei Lee (Rosalie Chiang) struggling with a family curse that turns her into a red panda when experiencing any strong emotion, which is often triggered by her mother (Sandra Oh). Per the official description, "Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” introduces Mei Lee, 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, 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!"

Thanks to the success of the Pixar film, Shi said she would love to work on a sequel. "I would love to continue the story in some way," she said. "I want to see how this red panda affects her into adulthood, into her own motherhood."

"I also just love, like, all of the characters that we've created in the movie, like 4*Town, our own boyband," she continued to explain. "I kind of want to see them stay alive after the movie's done as well. Your characters are kinda like your children and you kind of want to see them grow and you want to see what happens to them next."

Pixar's "Turning Red" is up for an Oscar for best-animated feature film along with Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio", "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On", "The Sea Beast", and "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish".

The 2023 Oscars will air live from the Dolby Theater on Sunday, March 12 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Disney and Pixar's "Turning Red" is currently streaming on Disney's streaming service, Disney+.