The film stars an ensemble cast including Jimmy O. Yang, J.K. Simmons, Chloe Bennet, Lisa Lu, Sharon Horgan, Catherine Tate and John Cleese.

In a world of anthropomorphic animals, Zhi (Jimmy O. Yang) is a slow loris living with his grandmother in a rural Chinese village.

During downtime between the stages of the race, Zhi meets and then falls in love with Shelby (Chloe Bennet), a fellow slow loris.

During the production of Charming, Venokur came up with the film's idea and planned to make a koala as the main character.

He changed the lead character into a slow loris in order to focus the idea of a "slow-moving animal who wants to be a race car driver".

[4] Visual effects supervisor Alexei Nechytaylo cited films like Rush and Senna as influences for the racing scenes, and well spent several days in Shanghai to study settings and Chinese culture.