Shout Out / Turning Red

• Mei calls the two red panda statues outside her family's temple Bart and Lisa.
• One of the drawings in Mei's notebook is of her and her friends as the Sailor Guardians from Sailor Moon. Director Domee Shi has also mentioned that the 90s anime adaptation's soft colour palette was an influence on the overall look of the film.
• The book Priya is reading is not only a spoof of The Twilight Saga, but it is also titled Nightfall.
• While running back home from school in her red panda form, Mei briefly stops by the Daisy Mart to ogle Devon, and starts thumping her foot like Thumper and howls like Wolfie.
• Mei leaping haphazardly across rooftops in single bounds can bring to mind Peter Parker trying out his Spider Man enhancements for the first time.
• The first thing Priya does when she encounters Mei's red panda form is immediately ask if she's a werewolf, which coincides with her love for vampire/werewolf fiction, as in her introduction she is reading a Twilight parody which involves werewolves, which makes it a double Shout-Out to both Teen Wolf and Twilight.
• Mei's freakout in the bathroom after she first transforms into a red panda is also a Shout-Out to Teen Wolf.
• Mei and Ming watch a Chinese TV drama called Jade Palace.
• The climax of the film with Ming's panda form, from the form itself to the camera angles used in the coliseum to even how Mei ultimately takes her out (air maneuverability, a weak spot to hit) is a near-perfect homage to Attack on Titan.
• When Mei is jumping along the rooftops at night, time slows for a moment and she poses like the iconic jumping shot◊ from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
• Mei has a Tamagotchi that she takes with her everywhere, and which she names Robaire Jr. after her favourite member of 4*Town. At the end of the film, it's revealed that Ming's red panda spirit has been sealed inside it since there weren't many other containers available, and Ming has to regularly feed it like a typical Tamagotchi.
• After the climax, during a shot of the SkyDome, a blue jay lands on a pole in the foreground. The Major League Baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, have played at the SkyDome (known as Rogers Centre since 2005, three years after the movie's events) since 1989. In fact, in our world, there was a Blue Jays game at the SkyDome the very night the concert takes place (May 25th, 2002).
• At the end of the film when Mei meets up with her friends, she transforms her ears and tail, resembling the raccoon power up from Super Mario Bros. 3, which also appears earlier where she changes her hands to paws as well and during their money hustle, sell fake ears and tails as merchandise.
• Vince Carter, who became the Toronto Raptors' breakout superstar in the early 2000s, is honoured twice: one of Mei's classmates is named "Carter," and Tyler wears a pinstriped purple #15 basketball jersey similar to the one Vince Carter wore in Toronto.
• When coaching the kids during dodgeball, Mei's teacher shouts "Be water!"
• The DVD release has chapter titles that act as shout-outs. There's "Mingzilla Attacks" and "Aunties Assemble" as stand out examples as well as the "Besties Assemble" scene at the introduction that introduces the main characters.
• When the aunties are running just before they break their talismans, Lily can be seen doing a Naruto run.
• Mei has Hello Kitty figurines on a shelf above her bed: Hello Kitty herself, Chococat, Badtz-Maru and Kerropi.
• The handshake Mei and Priya share right after the latter's introduction is the same as the one Will and Jazz do in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• The silent star in the name 4*Town is a reference to *NSYNC.
• 4*Town's outfits at the end of the film are reminiscent of the Backstreet Boys' all-white fashion era for their album Millennium and their "I Want It That Way" music video.
• Tae Young's name is a reference to V of BTS.
• Tyler's bandaid and headband look is a reference to Nelly.
• The breakfast Ming makes for Mei, a bowl of congee with eggs and other ingredients to create a smiley face, is a reference to Mulan where Mushu makes Mulan a similar dish.

---