Turning Red’s deleted debate scene would have changed the movie’s tone

The Blu-ray and DVD edition of Pixar’s joyously strange anime-inspired movie Turning RedThe package arrives May 3rd, and includes some surprising, substantiative deleted scene. Pixar movies are unaffected by this package. It’s time to turn red Clearly, the story went through many changes over its development. The actors voiced the deleted scenes and they were developed to the animatic stage. They show the dramatic early direction Julia Cho and director Domee Shi took.

Polygon offers an exclusive look at one of these scenes. It is a sequence in which Meilin Lee, the protagonist, would have run for class president against Tyler Nguyen Baker (Tristan Allerick Chen). As the complete four-minute version of this clip from the Blu-ray shows, this scene would have taken place after Mei first learns she’s the latest in the line of Lee women who turn into giant red pandas when they experience strong emotions. So as Tyler baits and publicly mocks her, she’s at risk of exposing her panda transformation to her entire class for the first time.

Note that in this scene, she’s wearing her junior power suit with the exaggerated shoulder pads — the same suit she wears in the completed film for her presentation to her parents about why she should be allowed to attend a concert by 4*Town, the boy band she and her four best friends are all obsessed with.

In the full clip, though, Mei winds up throwing caution to the winds when Tyler repeatedly mocks 4*Town as a terrible trash band, and she deliberately turns into a giant panda to attack him, as her friends desperately try to hold her back. The complete cut scene would have changed the tone of the movie somewhat, with a fart joke, more childish insults and heightened emotion (Mei sneers at Tyler here for “flunking bio,” because he’s getting a mere B-), and Mei deliberately setting out to use her panda power to assault someone in public.

But the scene also would have provided more setup for the Mei/Tyler rivalry that runs throughout the film, and for the eventual reveal about how Tyler really feels about 4*Town. Like so many deleted scenes, it feels inessential to the point where cutting it makes sense, but it’s also a fun look at an alternate path for the story, and a different sense of development for the characters.

It’s time to turn red Digital rental will begin on April 26. The Blu-ray/DVD set, however, will become available starting May 3.