Audiences can see a glimpse of him in the trailer for Turning Red.

By Ashima Sethi

Turning Red is an upcoming coming-of-age feature-length animation by Disney Pixar that’s slated for release in March 2022. Directed by Domee Shi who directed Pixar’s celebrated short film Bao (2018), the movie will follow the story of 13-year old Mei Lee who turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets too emotional.

Although all Pixar films are worth getting excited about no matter how old you are, this one is particularly special to Indians everywhere, as for the first time ever, it will feature a Sikh man as one the characters. This week marked the release of the movie’s trailer, which happily surprised the Punjabi community as it showed an animated Sikh man wearing a uniform, a navy turban, and a kara on his wrist, which holds major significance to the Sikh religion.

Not much more is known about the character’s significance to the film’s plot except that he is to be the guard of a school. Considering the film is set in Toronto, Canada, home to a large Indian diaspora, netizens have applauded Disney Pixar for trying to embrace as much diversity as possible to represent this bustling cosmopolitan city accurately.

Watch the full trailer below.