Domee Shi has been on the ride of a lifetime with her feature directorial debut, "Turning Red."
In the year since the Pixar film first won the hearts of viewers when it debuted on Disney+ last March, it has been nominated for some of the biggest awards in the industry: several Annie Awards, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and even a Grammy. This weekend, however, it's up for best animated feature film at the 2023 Oscars.
Shi told "Good Morning America" she feels "lucky" to have the chance to "almost train and practice" with making "Bao," for which she won the Academy Award for best animated short film in 2019, before taking on the gargantuan task of directing "Turning Red."
MORE: 'Turning Red' director Domee Shi on what message she hopes people get from the film"Turning Red" tells the story of a 13-year-old girl named Meilin (Rosalie Chiang) who, due to a family curse, transforms into a giant red panda when experiencing any strong emotion -- often brought on by her strict and overprotective mother (Sandra Oh).
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"Both stories are kind of about my relationship with my mom," Shi shared. "And they kind of draw from personal experience, so I felt like at least I had that as my North Star as I, like, started this huge task."
Shi said she "knew from the beginning" that the story would be something "a lot of people would identify with and enjoy."
"When I pitched it, I was super excited about this chance to just show how you can tell a super-specific story about this Chinese-Canadian girl going through magical puberty and have it resonate with ... everyone all over the world," she explained, "because we've all had that experience of just waking up one day and being like, 'What happened to my body?'"
Given the positive reaction to "Turning Red," Shi said she is open to a sequel focused on Meilin, saying, "I would love to continue the story in some way."
"I want to see how this red panda affects her into adulthood, into her own motherhood," she teased.
Shi said it's her hope that some of the other film's other characters live on in some form, specifically calling out 4*Town, the boy band Meilin and her friends are obsessed with.
"I also just love, like, all of the characters that we've created in the movie, like 4*Town, our own boyband," she said. "I kind of want to see them stay alive after the movie's done as well. Your characters are kinda like your children and you kind of want to see them grow and you want to see what happens to them next."
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