Director Domee Shi adds a charm factor to the perils of puberty in ‘Turning Red’

“All of a sudden, you wake up and you’ve gone through a transformation overnight,” director Domee Shi says of puberty and the inspiration for her animated film “Turning Red.” Intrigued by the perils of puberty, writer-director Domee Shi put a uniquely whimsical spin on this physiological metamorphosis in her first animated feature, “Turning Red.” “All of a sudden, you wake up and you’ve gone through a transformation overnight,” Shi mentions to The Envelope. For Shi, a key motivation to set “Turning Red” in the early 2000s, the period when she was a young teen, was to experience a boy-band concert vicariously through her excited characters. Us working through the answer in what we do is our way of figuring it out ourselves.” Now that “Turning Red” has reached viewers worldwide, many of whom have sent her adorable fan mail, Shi can finally muse on the experience of having won an Oscar in 2019 for her animated short film “Bao.” Although she appreciates the validation of receiving that honor, she recalls having to fly back home the day after the ceremony to get back to work. “I didn’t feel like I inherited any filmmaking superpowers from the statue,” Shi says with a laugh.