Everyone loves a special livery, and none more so than Air Canada. In the last few months alone, the airline has unveiled a special ‘Fly The Flag’ livery to support its Winter Olympians, along with the stunning TCA retro liveried A220. But what’s even better than a historical retrojet A220? Why, its one that’s inspired by an animated movie of course!

Ok, so perhaps a Pixar livery isn’t quite such a big thing to get excited about, but it has its fan base. For Air Canada, the decision to apply a rather cute homage to the forthcoming Pixar movie ‘Turning Red’ was particularly poignant. The animated movie is set in Toronto and has been directed by Academy Award winter Domee Shi, a Chinese-born Canadian animator.

Turning Red is a forthcoming computer animated coming of age comedy produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar. Set in Toronto in around 2002, it features a 13-year-old girl who poofs into a giant red panda whenever she becomes flustered. Originally destined for the big screen, Turning Red will now be aired straight to Disney+ on March 11th.

A220 is turning red

The livery is pretty eye-catching, featuring three giant red pandas on one side of the plane and three images of the lead character on the other. Air Canada has released a video of the livery coming to life on the aircraft, an almost-brand-new Airbus A220-300 registered C-GVDP.

As you can see in the video, the livery is a meticulously applied decal. While they can be fussy to apply, these vinyl coverings are relatively easy to remove once the promotional period has passed. Speaking about the decision to partner with Disney and Pixar for this promo, Andy Shibata, Vice-President, Brand at Air Canada commented,

"As Canada's largest airline and the country's flag carrier, our collaboration with Disney and Pixar for Turning Red, directed by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Domee Shi is a wonderful opportunity to showcase Canadian talent and bring the best of Canada to the world. We wanted customers of all ages to be able to enjoy the special livery and be a part of the excitement around this very special Canadian moment."

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The other side features the lead character and the French movie title. Photo: Air Canada

Movie contest

As well as turning the plane into a giant promotional tool for the movie, Air Canada is getting all its passengers into the Turning Red mood with a special onboard video inspired by the movie’s trailer. On some flights, passengers will also be able to enjoy Domee Shi’s top places to visit in Toronto, and for fans of the director, March’s enRoute magazine will feature an interview with her.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a contest open to all Canadian residents running from now until February 20th. Five lucky winners can bag a prize package including a trip to Toronto for four people to attend the Canadian premiere of the event on March 8th.

If you, like us, are more interested in the plane than the motion picture, you’ll find C-GVDP zipping around between Canadian cities with fair regularity. Before being given some downtime for her decals, she was usually jetting between Halifax, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Over the next couple of days, the aircraft is currently scheduled on route from Montreal to Vancouver and Edmonton. Although its subject to change, it is currently scheduled on AC1073 and 1072 on the 10th, which will see it heading across the border to Denver.

What do you think of the livery?