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Just three years ago, director Domee Shi won an Oscar for Best Animated Short for Bao, an emotional film about a mother struggling with empty nest syndrome. Now, in her full-length follow-up, Pixar’s latest Disney+ release, Turning Red, the director once again mixes culture and family to tell a quirky story about the difficult parts of growing up.
Turning Red tells the story of Meilin Lee (Rosalie Chaing), a spunky 13-year-old from Toronto. Her Chinese culture has taught her the importance of honoring her parents, so she races home every day to help at the Lee family temple. But Mei also likes hanging out with her three best friends—and she loves the boy band 4*Town. One day, Mei gets caught up in some big emotions and discovers that, whenever she gets too excited, she turns into a giant red panda. And she struggles to figure out how to navigate these strange and embarrassing changes.
As Mei tries to deal with this inconvenient new development, so much about her story is uncomfortable—both for Mei and for viewers. The middle school years are incredibly awkward for some very big, generally unpleasant reasons. Puberty is completely taboo—which means that we don’t talk about it, and we certainly don’t make mainstream movies about it. So Turning Red’s unapologetic openness (and unexpected waving of sanitary products) might come as a surprise. Mei and her friends are going through changes—and they’re suddenly boy crazy in a way that can be a little disconcerting.
At the same time, though, so much about this film is so real. The emotions here, the challenges, the situations are all so authentic. Mei struggles with all of these strange new feelings—feelings that aren’t unique to her (apart from the part about turning into a red panda, that is). Her body, her mind, and even her relationships with her parents are changing, and that’s not easy for anyone to navigate. Not everything here will apply to all viewers, but there are parts that everyone will understand. And for those who are experiencing these confusing times—as well as those who are bracing themselves for them—it’s refreshing to see a film that handles it all with honesty, humor, and even playfulness.
Turning Red isn’t just a cute, fluffy, brainless film—but cute, fluffy, and brainless has never really been Pixar’s style. Pixar is known for refusing to talk down to kids or gloss over the hard parts of life—as anyone who’s watched the opening scene of Up can tell you. This might very well be the studio’s most awkward and uncomfortable and challenging and daring release. Some might be shocked by parts of the content. It will probably necessitate some conversations with young viewers, too. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It handles topics that need to be explored in a way that makes it less scary and intimidating for kids.
Pixar’s Turning Red comes to Disney+ on March 11, 2022.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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