It’s a pretty monumental day in Toronto movie history, with Friday marking the Disney+ premiere of the new Pixar feature. turn redDisney’s first-ever animated feature set right here in 416.
Toronto has a long history of appearing in film and television, often serving simply as a stand-in for other cities thanks to local incentives that make it more profitable to dress Toronto like New York or Chicago than to host a production in these places.
With a new movie celebrating Toronto culture, blogTO took to Twitter to share some of their favorite movies and TV shows shot or filmed in Toronto.
With “Turning Red” releasing on Friday, which movie or TV series best represented Toronto?
—blogTO (@blogTO)
There were obvious choices that would be criminal to ignore, with many and of course, .
A more recent success, Kim’s Convenience, also fans. While it’s not the only past TV show about a convenience store in Toronto’s multicultural neighborhood noted by Twitter followers, with telling similar stories through a Jewish-Canadian lens from 1975 to 1980.
A wide range of responses included throwback classics, including those gritty teen dramas that permeated the airwaves of the 90s and 2000s. Among this genre, Ready or Not portrayed 90s life in suburban Toronto with a cast which included Ryan Gosling. Word is restarting.
Ready or Not – covers more of the GTA/suburban landscape of the 90s. But the show was so Canadian it hurts. Please add it to the Weird Sex and Snowshoes archive.
— Charmaine May Santiago (@_CellarDoor86)
Another 90s series shot in Toronto, Forever Knight was about – and I swear I’m not making this up – an 800-year-old vampire working as a homicide in Toronto to overcome the guilt of killing for centuries.
I just go for the classics… “Forever Knight”. I love seeing what the city was like in the 80s and 90s. It’s funny, I was a teenager and I loved this series at home without knowing that I was going to end up here
— Edgar J. Rodríguez (@Kensalgestar)
Luckily, one commentator mentioned Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s dark and mind-bending 2013 film, Enemy.
pic.twitter.com/09Vzl6jkVS
— ROB 9000 (@robgro2_0)
In this writer’s opinion, the oppressive, sepia-toned Toronto is by far the most aesthetically impressive depiction of the city, especially the end credits sequence (major spoiler alert if you watch the shortly before the credits).
There were more obscure choices, like the late which serves as more of a window into the popped-neck club bro era than a representation of the city itself.
Some entries weren’t even filmed in Toronto, like the ’90s cop comedy-drama Due South. Although it’s set in Chicago, no effort has been made to hide the obvious evidence that it was filmed in and around 416.
Directly south. Yes, it was in Chicago but Toronto was visible all the time. Plus the flags 🇨🇦 in the background of the shots. The writing was purely Canadian.
—Theresa O’Connor (@Theresa_OC)
It may not show filmed depictions of the city, but the computer-animated Turning Red has already tapped into the city’s nostalgia and culture to create what could become a memorable depiction of the city we love.
Comments are closed.