Disney and Pixar's Turning Red Will Premiere on Disney+, Skipping Theaters

By Spencer Perry

In a move that may not surprise many people, The Walt Disney Company has announced that the upcoming Pixar feature film Turning Red will be skipping movie theaters entirely for its premiere and will be released exclusively on Disney+ for streaming in March. The movie had previously been set to arrive in theaters on March 11 globally but will now stream in the territories where Disney+ is available. Disney has confirmed via a press release that the places where Disney+ is not available will still see the film be released theatrically but dates for those countries will be announced later.

"Disney+ subscribers around the world enthusiastically embraced Pixar's Academy Award-winning 'Soul' and the critically-acclaimed "Luca" when they premiered exclusively on the service and we look forward to bringing them Pixar's next incredible feature film 'Turning Red'," Kareem Daniel, Chairman, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, said in a statement. "Given the delayed box office recovery, particularly for family films, flexibility remains at the core of our distribution decisions as we prioritize delivering the unparalleled content of The Walt Disney Company to audiences around the world."

Turning Red marks Pixar's 25th feature film and had been planned to be the first film from the studio to be released in theaters since Onward which arrived in March of 2020. Since then the Academy Award winner for Best Aniamted Feature, Soul, was released on Disney+ on Christmas of 2020 with their most recent movie Luca arriving in the summer of 2021. As of this writing the Toy Story spin-off movie Lightyear remains on the schedule for a theatrical release on June 17, 2022.

Disney and Pixar's Turning Red introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother's dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh), is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren't enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she "poofs" into a giant red panda! 

Directed by Academy Award winner Domee Shi (Pixar short Bao) and produced by Lindsey Collins, Turning Red arrives on Disney+ on March 11.

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