Pixar’s next movie is called Turning Red and it’s about a young teen who, when she gets excited, transforms into a massive red panda. It’s certainly a wild premise, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen stoiries along these lines, and now that the full trailer is here and it reveals some more plot details, it confirms that Turning Red was clearly inspired by the Michael J. Fox comedy Teen Wolf.
Teen Wolf saw a high school student discover that his family had a curse that caused them to transform into werewolves. Turning Red’s trailer confirms that when Mei transforms into a red panda, the reason is because of a mystical connection her family has to the animal. Check out the trailer below.
The similarities between the two are strong. We have the family legacy, and the stress induced transformations. Teen Wolf saw Michael J. Fox’s character become a high school basketball star with his new found wolf abilities. Turning Red shows Mei pound some poor sucker in a dodgeball game, which maybe isn’t exactly the same thing, but it feels close enough.
That’s not to say the two look perfectly parallel. Mei is obviously a very different character. Her interest in boy bands, which will clearly be a big part of the movie, is her own thing. It also appears that, while a lot of people will end up seeing Mei as a panda, there is still an attempt to keep her secret, which isn’t really part of the ’90s movie.
More to come…