Concept Art of what would've been Mei's cousin, Leo.
For a film that revolves around change, it's perhaps fitting that Turning Red went through a number of changes itself during its production.
- Much like Soul and Luca, the film was originally planned to have a theatrical release. However, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Omicron variant, Disney decided to release the film onto Disney+ instead, much to Pixar's frustration. Disney would later release all three films in theaters in 2024.
- The film was supposed to have more stylised animation but was changed.
- The film originally
had a very different plot early on in development, with it originally being about an inter-generational family feud that had a far bigger amount of relatives involved, and would've had Mei be pitted against a rival cousin named Leo, who also had a red panda form himself. His depiction had a size-shifting aspect and appeared far more fierce in design. This was scrapped early on, as the team found it to be too complicated and taking away from the film's theme of puberty and growing up. According to Domee Shi's Instagram◊, elements of Leo formed the basis for Tyler in the final film.- Leo's mother's name was Christina, and she was the Cool Aunt to Mei, but was ultimately cut from the final film like Leo. Judging by her concept art, it's likely that she was repurposed into Aunt Lily.
- Grandma Wu was originally meant to be a Posthumous Character who would've been dead in the film, as opposed to being alive in the final film.
- The film was originally planned to have a traditional Big Bad early on, in the form of a Chinese gangster called Benny Blacktooth who wanted to take the temple for himself. Although he stuck around for several drafts, he was scrapped due to the staff feeling he was too complicated and realizing that he didn't fit in a story about puberty.
- Concept art of the red panda spirits shows them sporting eight or nine tails, similar to the huli jing fox-spirits of Chinese folklore.
- Mei's red panda form was originally planned to have size-shifting powers that would've had her grow larger the angrier she got. This element was scrapped when the team decided to simplify Mei's red panda abilities. Remnants of this element is still present with Ming's kaiju-sized red panda form, representing A LOT of repressed anger she contained since she was a teenager. Mei was also going to possess fire powers in her red panda form that activated the angrier she got.
- Likely related to the aforementioned size-shifting powers, concept art shows that the fight between Mei and Ming was originally planned to have both of them be kaiju-sized, with the fight taking place all over Toronto, as opposed to being contained within the SkyDome.
- Ming was originally planned to have been incredibly happy that Mei turned into a red panda due to it being a good luck charm for the temple, and would've planned to monetize Mei's red panda form for profit. This direction for Ming was scrapped due to Shi feeling it made her too much of a "one-note villain".
- In the official artbook, there's concept art of Miriam and Tyler about to kiss in full view of Mei, and another of them with their braces stuck together after kissing, implying that there were originally plans for them to have a romance, but it appears to have been scrapped in the final product.
- There was going to be a scene where Mei discovers her love for 4*Town after watching their concert ad with Miriam, Priya, and Abby and telling the audience about it.
- One of the scenes from the alternate storylines involved Mei officiating a mafia wedding while in her red panda form.
- A piece of concept art of Mei's bedroom revealed that she would've been named 'Fei Shi', as shown in her spelling bee certificate.
- In a deleted scene where it's just Mei (called Fei) and Miriam on the bleachers, Miriam reveals that she got 4*Town tickets from her divorced parents rather than Mei having to hustle the panda in order to raise money for the tickets and Miriam's parents (who don't appear to be divorced in the final film) saying she can go if she can raise the money herself.
- An early version of a magazine page depicts Jesse with brown eyes (he has blue eyes in the final product) and the name Chad. Other concept art shows that Jesse was also going to be quite muscular, as opposed to the slender, youthful figure he has in the movie.
- Some concept art also mentions Mateo as part of 4*Town. Mateo is likely an early version of Tae Young.
- Following the events of Tyler's party, after ditching the ritual to remove her panda, Mei was going to head to Tyler's house to apologize for what happened, find out there that he's a closet 4*Town fan rather than at the concert, and drag him along to the concert with her. This was ultimately cut because it messed with the flow of the movie and the replacement scenes resulted in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it continuity error.
- Scrapped ideas for the red panda curse included only Mei having it or only Mei and Ming having it before it was finalized to only female members of the family to keep the puberty theme. The original plot with Mei's cousin Leo also had the curse being bestowed upon them by Sun Yee because they were destined to stop the family conflict.
- Mei and Ming's fight in the SkyDome would've been even more dramatic and serve as an extended therapy session, but the crew decided that it would be "too superhero-y" and wanted to do something a bit more unique.
- The scene where Mei shows her parents that she can control her powers was almost cut because the crew thought it might've been redundant since it takes place right after she figures out that her friends help her neutralize the panda.
- According to Rosalie Chiang, when Mei lashes out at Sun Yee over the red panda spirit, she was going to ask why she didn't wish for anything else, including "fame, money, [or] a smokin' hot bod".
- In an alternate ending, Mei meets Robaire on a plane where he recognizes her and declares he's a fan of hers. Mei responds by turning into a panda the size of the plane with her tail sticking out the door.
- There was a version where the movie ended just before Mei got to the concert.
- The scene where Tyler makes the deal with Mei was initially shot facing away from the bleachers.
- Just as Mei was at one point called 'Fei Li', Sun Yee was apparently called 'Sen Mu' at one point.
- There was going to be a scene where Miriam would have found out she would have to move away and she and Mei would have had a sad goodbye scene during which they would have sung "1 True Love" and in fact the song was written for that scene. This explains why that song is barely in the final version of film unlike the other two original songs.
- According to the director's commentary, Mei was originally going to go through with the ritual and banish her red panda spirit. However, she would then pray to try and get her panda back, realising she made a mistake in getting rid of it.
