General Information:

Media Type: Home Video
Type: Bluuray - Open Edition
Release Date: 2022-05-03

Geek's Thoughts: Disney/Pixar’s Turning Red is now on home video, available digitally now and disc Tuesday, May 3rd. Turning Red is the story of 13-year old Mei balancing adolescence with family life. Complicating Mei’s journey is a family issue that when she loses control she turns into a giant red panda.

 

Turning Red Home VideoThis initial home video release includes a handful of bonus features. There is a full length audio commentary by director Domee Shi, producer Lindsey Collins, and director of photography Mahyar Abousaeedi. The trio shares some insight and stories from the creation of the film.

There are three featurettes –

Life of a Shot (14:35) – This is a fairly traditional making of type featurette that showcases the amount of work that goes into a single shot. It discusses the number of decisions that are made, people involved and the amount of effort that goes into making these films. One line that stood out to me is “in animation you get nothing for free”. This is because everything you see and hear has to be added by someone. Another interesting stat that stood out was the target time of 55 hours to render a frame. As computing power has increased the complexity of the films has and render times remain high.

Ani-Mei-Tion (9:35) – Anime influenced many members of the creative team and aspects of this were incorporated into the film.

Build your own Boy Band (8:33) – This featurette talks about all the pieces that went into creating the 4*TOWN band for the film. It discusses the music as well as the effort taken to create an authentic boy band for the teenagers in the film.

Deleted Scenes (23:17) – A half dozen deleted scenes featuring introductions by director Domee Shi where she talks a little about the scene and why it was not included in the final film. These are in various stages of completeness with some rendered and others in storyboard form. Three scenes Pixar shared are at the end of this post.

For more details on the release and technical specs, here is the full press release for the digital and disc versions.

For an initial home video release the variety and depth of the bonus features is average. The featurettes are traditional in the topics they cover and the way they do it. I enjoyed the “Life of a Shot” one the most. I always enjoy learning about the film making process and what goes into these movies and this featurette delivers a look behind the curtain at that. My only complaint at just under 15 minutes it still felt short. I did appreciate the introductions to the deleted scenes. The central feature is the full length commentary. If you are a fan of these then this release will make a nice addition to your library.

As of my writing this these features are only available on the home video release (digital or disc). The Disney+ release has not bonus features, only a trailer (which is not included in the home video version).