The Oscar-winning director returns to the box office

UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS FROM THE ARCHIVES

Dear reader,

My five-year-old is a Disney-princess girl. She knew about Elsa letting it go long before she’d seen Frozen and would rather spend her weekly swimming lesson perfecting Ariel-style fin flips than the front crawl. A few months ago, seeking respite from the assault of sparkles and ball gowns, I insisted on a non-royal pick for our Friday-night movie. After some serious side eye, my kid flashed me a suspiciously sweet smile and requested “the red panda one”—a movie I’d previously said was too mature for her.

Turns out, she didn’t need to be versed in menstrual allegories, the complexity of mother-daughter relationships or the quest for belonging to appreciate Turning Red, Scarborough-raised animator Domee Shi’s first feature film. Her interest in a super-fluffy mammal, ride-or-die friends and a semi-fictional boy band singing Billie Eilish songs was enough to keep her hooked.

When I told my daughter, now firmly in her space-obsessed Lilo and Stitch era, that the person behind the red panda has a new alien movie in theatres, she promptly added Shi’s latest release, Elio,to our list of vacation must-dos. Before heading to see it yourself, check out our 2022 profile of the Oscar-winning Pixar director below.

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—Stéphanie Verge
Features editor

THE ANIMATED LIFE OF DOMEE SHI

She was a storyboard artist at Pixar when she pitched an idea about a sentient dumpling and won an Oscar. Now she’s releasing Turning Red, a film about a Toronto teen who morphs into a giant red panda—and it’s going to be huge

BY EMILY LANDAU | MARCH 8, 2022

Toronto has long had a hangdog self-image about its place on screens big and small. The city’s $2.2-billion film and TV industry is thriving, yet Toronto rarely appears as itself. Turning Red is a refreshing exception. To see the city translated into a lush Pixar landscape, all stretched, squished and gleaming, is a pure dopamine hit. In this long-read, Emily Landau tracks Scarborough-bred director Domee Shi’s rise through the ranks of Pixar.

READ THE FULL STORY

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