SPOILERS are ahead for Turning Red, now available to stream with a Disney+ subscription.
Remember a few years ago when it seemed that all Pixar movies were sequels? That time is most definitely not now considering all the original concepts we’ve seen from the studio lately. From Onward to Soul, and Luca and the now-available Turning Red being the latest examples, the animation studio seems to be taking a break from franchises, but that doesn’t mean someday we wouldn’t like to see some of these stories be forwarded somehow. Sandra Oh has an especially incredible idea about how Turning Red 2 could happen.
When CinemaBlend sat down with the voices behind Turning Red’s mother-daughter duo Ming and Mei, Sandra Oh and Rosalie Chiang, they shared their enthusiasm for telling more stories as these characters after the movie’s emotional ending. Check out what they said:
Sandra Oh: We’d love to do another film and visit Mei in her panda, like when she goes to college and then starts her own business, maybe becomes a mother herself, we could just keep on going and that’d be great to explore basically where Mei is having gone through it. (To Rosalie Chiang) We’re going to have to wait until you’re 19.
Rosalie Chiang: I’ll be there. I’ll be there.
Sandra Oh has really thought about this, and it’s a beautiful idea! Not unlike audiences following Andy as a kid through the Toy Story movies before seeing him go off to college and give away his precious toy collection, it’d be interesting to catch up with Mei in her adulthood.
Maybe she goes off to college many miles away from her home in Toronto and finds herself unable to control her panda once again. She’d need the support of her friends and mother to help her get through it, don’t you think? Or perhaps Mei reunites with them all to see 4*Town on a reunion show years after the band breaks up. As Oh shared during the interview, they’d likely want to wait until Rosalie Chiang is the same age as her matured character, so potentially around five years from now, give or take.
As someone who grew up when Toy Story was coming out and then seeing an all-grown up Andy in Toy Story 3 as I was saying goodbye to my own childhood, I’d say that’s an incredibly effective way for Pixar to go about its plot lines. Now this generation of young girls and boys can watch Turning Red and then return to these characters during another phase of their lives.
Sandra Oh’s other idea is about Mei becoming a mother herself and having to face the struggles that her own mother does, or perhaps just new struggles as her own child deals with the red panda gift/curse. It’s probably a bit too soon to get our mind set on a sequel idea as we discuss the prevalent themes in Turning Red or imagine Disney Parks concepts for the movie, but here’s hoping someday the story will continue in a thoughtful way.
