“They were drawing over all this in all the proofs, over the beams, trying to really put that element of 2D onto it,” Collins says. Shi and producer Lindsey Collins credit Pixar animator Rob Thompson with developing the look of that particular effect. The light-beam also doesn’t look quite like anything else in Turning Red, because it incorporates flat 2D overlays to enhance the 3D CGI of the rest of the film. I love how it activates right on the beat. “At that moment, in the movie’s act three, we cranked up the anime to an 11, because it’s this action-packed, emotional, exciting, dramatic moment, and it just felt like a perfect opportunity to have that epic beam of light. “Throughout the whole movie, you’re gonna see this combination of Western and Eastern animation styles,” Shi told Polygon. Shi and her team drew from several of her favorite anime series to create the look and feel of the film, and to inspire details like the big pink poof of smoke whenever protagonist Mei turns into a giant red panda, or the giant quivering “anime eyes” the characters have in moments of intense emotion. “But it is very reminiscent of Thundercats.” “That’s just a homage to anime in general, not specifically to Thundercats!” she told Polygon in an interview ahead of the film’s release. The sword looks a lot like the Thundercats’ signature weapon, the Sword of Omens, and the action in that sequence feels a lot like the sequence that ended virtually every episode of the original 1980s incarnation of the show, with series protagonist Lion-O activating the sword and emitting a giant red blast of light to summon his allies or break them free of magical influences and physical restraints.īut Turning Red director Domee Shi says any similarity there just comes from the way both Thundercats and Turning Red draw on the same influences and iconography. Later in the film, when the same character raises the sword over his head and that gem emits a vivid red beam of light, the moment feels even more familiar. If you’re anything like me and you grew up during an era when there was a Thundercats series on TV, you may have perked up during the new Pixar movie Turning Red at the point where one character picks up a sword with a very familiar-looking design, centering on a big red circular stone on the crossguard.
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