If you’re anything like me and grew up in a time when there was a Thundercats series on TV, you might have perked up during the new Pixar movie To redden at the point where a character picks up a sword with a very familiar looking design centered on a large red round stone on the crossguard. Later in the film, when the same character raises the sword above his head and this gem emits a glowing red beam of light, the moment feels even more familiar. The sword looks very similar to the Thundercats’ signature weapon, the Sword of Omens, and the action in this sequence feels very similar to the sequence that ended virtually every episode of the original 1980s incarnation of the series, with the series protagonist Lion-O activates the sword and emits a huge beam of red light to summon his allies or free them from magical influences and physical bonds.
but To redden Director Domee Shi says that any resemblance only comes from the way both are thunder cats and To redden drawing from the same influences and the same iconography. “This is just a tribute to anime in general, not specifically thunder cats!” she told Polygon in an interview ahead of the film’s release. “But it is very remembers thunder cats.”
Shi and her team drew from several of her favorite anime series to create the film’s look and feel, inspiring details like the big plume of pink smoke as protagonist Mei transforms into a giant red panda, or the huge, quivering “anime Eyes”. ‘ the characters have in moments of intense emotion.
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Image: Pixar Animation Studios
“Throughout the film, you’ll see this combination of Western and Eastern animation styles,” Shi told Polygon. “In that moment, in the third act of the film, we shot the anime at 11 because it’s that action-packed, emotional, exciting, dramatic moment and it just felt like a perfect opportunity to have that epic ray of light. I love how it activates right on the beat. It’s very satisfying.”
The beam of light doesn’t look quite like everything else, either To redden, because it includes flat 2D overlays to enhance the 3D CGI of the rest of the film. Shi and producer Lindsey Collins applaud it Pixar animator Rob Thompson with the development of the appearance of that particular effect. “They painted over all of that in all the proofs [of this scene], over the bars and trying to really get that 2D element onto it,” says Collins. “That was really fun.”
Shi says that part of what gave her the confidence to make the film the way she wanted and to draw inspiration from her anime favorites was her work on the 2019 Pixar project bagwhich won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. bag evoked some strange reactions in theaters from viewers who didn’t understand its symbolism or meaning, but it also garnered a strong, vocal positive response. Shi relied on those two reactions when deciding to make To redden culturally and personally specific, knowing that people would see different things in it and interpret it in different ways, but would have a strong reaction either way.
“bag gave me the confidence to push it in To reddenand really take a lot of creative risks that I don’t think I would have taken without them Bag,” Say Shi. “It gave me this craving for reactions — big, big, shocking audience reactions. I hunted that dragon again and we managed to get him To redden.”
