Movie: Turning Red
Director: Domee Shi
Screenplay by: Julia Sho and Domee Shi
Where to watch: Disney +
This review contains no significant spoilers for the film in question.
Turning Red is Pixar’s newest outing and you can watch it now on Disney+. I’m a bit baffled by the decision to keep this one out of theaters, but I’ll get to that later.
What happens
Meilin Lee (Mei or Mei-Mei) is a freshly turned 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl living in Toronto who is torn between two facts: she loves her mother and doesn’t want to do anything to disappoint her and she’s a teenage girl who is growing up, finding herself, and becoming her own person.
This might not be so hard if Mei’s mother, Ming, weren’t so overbearing. She loves her daughter and wants the best for her, but generational trauma and inherited behaviors from her own mother lead her to not hearing, seeing, or communicating with Mei in impactful and significant ways.
This comes to a head when Mei, mortified by an embarrassing incident caused by Ming and Mei’s shared inability to communicate with one another, transforms into a giant red panda—a trait shared by all the women in her family as they come of age, but which has been hidden from her until now because of Ming’s deep discomfort and shame surrounding her own panda experience.
The plot ensues. There is a ritual that can be used to seal the panda away and make Mei normal, but the earliest it can be performed is about a month off . Mei finds that she has more control over the panda than she first thought when her friends show her love and accept her for who she is, “panda or no panda.”
What follows is a very typical (but so fun) coming of age story where Mei and her three best friends lie to their parents and begin rebelling so they can make their way to a concert being performed by their favorite boyband. Mei’s red panda form is popular, cute, and a cash cow (panda?), allowing the girls to make enough money for the expensive concert tickets.
I’ll stop here as we’ve established the shape of the story without any major spoilers. This is a movie you’ll want to watch.
Why it’s good
It’s rare that something in our culture gives teenage girls permission to be teenage girls with no caveats or exceptions. It’s a sad truth that our society bags on teenage girls nearly constantly. One need only look at the culture surrounding Twilight to see what I mean—it’s been popular for years to crap on everything Twilight related, despite—or maybe because of—its meteoric success with a primarily female audience.
It’s refreshing, then, when a film leans into the inherent awkwardness of being a teenager and doesn’t apologize for it. Turning Red is, at times, cringey in the way all teenagers sometimes are—and it’s totally charming for it. This movie is sometimes adorable and sometimes important and it knows itself really well. The director and writers understood this film and made it accordingly. It’s a window into Asian-influenced families that felt very real and valid. It’s a celebration of being a girl. It’s a movie that gives kids permission to not be perfect and explains why that’s okay.
The script is tight, the theming is spot on, the dialogue feels real and natural, and the main and side characters are fleshed out in ways that make them feel like people you might know. It’s cartoonish and surreal in certain moments. There are events that feel melodramatic. It struck me as I watched it that this is what it felt like to be a young teenager: little things that we invest in become really important. We become convinced that our favorite band is a part of our identity because our identity is in flux and we’re scrambling to understand ourselves. It is devastating to lose out on something we put hard work in for, even if that thing won’t matter much in a year or two.
Something that I appreciated was how unapologetic the film was about being a girl. Menstruation is discussed in real—fumbling and awkward, but all the more real for it—ways that make it clear that the fact that a solid half our population bleeds every month shouldn’t be this taboo or weird subject. It had no qualms being honest about romantic/sexual attraction beginning in those awkward and early teenage years.
This movie was very grounded in those real things, so the fantastic pieces (the fact that Mei turns into a red panda nearly the size of a car) work.
What didn’t work
I don’t have any serious issues with this film. I feel like it was a very solid outing from Pixar and accomplished what it was trying to do very well.
In a lesser movie with a worse script, I’d complain about the reliance on directly addressing the audience in the opening and closing of the film—here, I feel it was justified and done well. It may be a narrative crutch, but if it works this well it’s clearly a valid choice.
There are bits of the second act that are rushed and some further fleshing out of Mei’s popularity due to becoming the panda might have been nice. The fact is, I’m looking for things to nitpick. This was a well-executed film.
Should you watch it?
I think you should check this film out.
Some people are calling the focus too narrow. To them, I say they should open their minds and not be so myopic. This is a coming of age story about teenagers. What you relate to here is likely much greater than what you don’t. It’s also a fact that not everyone is going to have some universal experience with every film. That’s totally cool. Give this one a shot before dismissing it.
Some are saying that it promotes teenage rebellion or the dissolution of the family or some other such nonsense. Does The Sandlot? Does A Goofy Movie? I mean, all coming of age stories tend to be about acting contrary to how one was brought up, if only for a time. There’s a great apotheosis moment at the end of this film where Mei helps her mother heal from trauma and they become closer. Don’t let the naysayers dissuade you: this is a family film.
I think this film will make more sense to your kids who are older than 6 or 7, but that’s just my guess. It’s deeply focused on the tween/teen era and what it means to live in that identity.
Conclusions
Go watch Turning Red if you haven’t yet. I found it to be refreshing, intimate, and fun. It engaged me throughout, had a great script, funny characters, and real feel-good moments.
My Rating: ★★★★