学进去

It’s not unusual for kids to change friends, change schools, or change the way they dress as they’re growing up. But what about changing into a giant (巨大的) red panda? That’s the life of a 13-year-old girl named Mei Lee, the perfectly imperfect main character of Disney and Pixar’s new film, Turning Red.

Turning Red tells a coming-of-age story like no other. Mel is a Chinese Canadian girl who turns into a giant red panda anytime she experiences strong emotions, and must find a way to manage both her school life and home life in early 2000s Toronto, Canada. Mel tries to deal with hanging out with her three best friends, the boy band they like and her protective mother, who isn’t ready to let go of her growing daughter.

“Turning Red is inspired by the difficulties of growing up and trying to find out how to honor your parents, but also stay true to yourself,” said director Domee Shi. “For Mei Lee in the movie, before becoming the red panda, she thinks she has it all figured out, like we all did before we woke up one day and realized all of a sudden, we’re covered in body hair, our feelings are all over the place, and we’re hungry all the time.

Turning Red describes the complexities (难题) of mother-daughter relationships well. In fact, the real-life experiences of the film’s crew (摄制组成员) inspired several scenes. To make her crew share more about their childhood, Shi created a video at the office with her team. She encouraged everyone to look back to the past and bring out their embarrassing teen pictures and memories. It worked! “The crew started bringing in their old middle school yearbooks,” said producer Lindsey Collins. “They shared stories of their funny moments in middle school. Also, those of us who are parents shared our bad parenting moments. It’s meaningful. As a team, we just really tried to be real with one another about our daily failures and our daily successes.” It seems that however old you are, there is a little bit of Mei in all of us.