Color wasn’t the only consideration for production designer Rona Liu and director Domee Shi when they were developing the look of Disney Pixar’s “Turning Red,” available on Disney Plus March 11. They also wanted “chunky cute.”

That meant building everything to look bigger and rounder for the coming-of-age story of a middle school girl, Mei, voiced by Rosalie Chiang, who transforms into a giant red panda each time she feels anxiety or gets angry, as she navigates between being a free-spirited teen with her posse of best friends and an obedient, all-a student for her mom.

Liu says it was Shi who wanted to use the idea of a red panda, an animal native to Asia that has not been widely portrayed in media. “They’re reclusive and sleep all day,” says Liu. “As Domee and the team were working on the story, we all thought, ‘Wait, that describes...