Disney Pixar’s latest film, Turning Red, premieres today on Disney+! A wonderfully sweet and fun coming-of-age story about a Chinese-Canadian girl, Mei Lee, and her friends, Turning Red also features Pixar’s first ever boy band! The fictional group, 4*Town, is an integral part of the story (what modern coming-of-age experience doesn’t involved a boy band to some extent?) and director Domee Shi and the creative team pulled out all the stops to create a realistic group.
4*Town is a five-member boy band (yes, the name is kind of confusing), voiced by Jordan Fisher, Grayson Villanueva, Josh Levi, Topher Ngo and Finneas O’Connell. Leading up to the film, Pixar has leaned fully into making 4*Town feel like a real boy band, releasing a music video, posters and other related content from the group.
I had the opportunity to speak with Fisher, Villanueva, Levi and Ngo about their roles in the film, how much fun they had recording the music and even some of their personal boy band favorites.
Check out our conversation below and be sure to watch Turning Red exclusively on Disney+!
Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh), is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda! Directed by Academy Award® winner Domee Shi (Pixar short “Bao”) and produced by Lindsey Collins “Turning Red launches exclusively on Disney+ on March 11, 2022.
Ron is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of POC Culture. He is a big believer in the power and impact of pop culture and the importance of representation in media.
