The stories of movies changing dates or moving to venues other than cinemas continue to roll in as the pandemic brings up more challenges to moviegoing. Disney has decided to move another Pixar film off the cinematic schedule, pushing Turning Red straight to Disney+.
As with Soul and Luca, the film, from director Domee Shi, will debut on the streaming service for no additional charge, arriving on 11 March, the same day it had been scheduled for cinemas.
Turning Red focuses on Mei Lee (Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited, she “poofs” into a giant red panda.
Clearly concerned about current moviegoing trends and nervous about launching an original story in cinemas, Disney has made the decision. There's no word yet on whether Pixar's Lightyear, which has ties to its established Toy Story films, will see a similar shift. That one is due out on 17 June.