Based on director Domee Shi’s background in Canada during her childhood, “Turning Red” captures the time right before teens were dependent on the internet. You really go back to that time in middle school with flip phones, trying to pass notes in class, and boy bands. However, what’s amazing, besides from finally having more coming-of-age films that does not occur in the 80s, is how relatable the sudden change from childhood to teenager.
Everyone had to go through that time their parent found out they aren’t a child anymore, and it’s always a nightmare. Sabina Graves said in her review, “There’s a moment in Turning Red’s first act where you get Ratatouille’d back to that nightmare core memory.” You’ll be awed at the screen thinking the film’s protagonist Mei (Rosalie Chiang) is just having a nightmare when her mother (Sandra Oh) finds out what she hides under her bed. Graves said, “It’s the most stressful case of sympathetic secondhand embarrassment that’s too real.” That’s before Med turns into a giant red panda.
Graves said, “Shi, along with co-writer Julia Cho, give us an endearingly comical exploration of a teen girl’s journey navigating every messy bit of entering adolescence. At a cultural level through Mei’s Asian-Canadian family, the movie speaks to the societal molds that women have been expected to fall in step with that don’t entirely change even when East meets West. Whether through cotillions, bat mitzvahs, or quinceañeras, womanhood usually comes with an expectation of making sure the proverbial Pandora’s Box comes delivered wrapped with a bow keeping the true nature of it tucked away.” For Mei, that true nature just happens to be a family trait where sometimes female members can transform into a giant red panda when their emotions take over them.
Mei genuinely represents the generation that began to break away when she immediately accepts her panda. Her mother has other plans, trying to prepare Mei for a traditional ceremony to rid of it. Graves notes, “Her mother’s fierce overprotectiveness isn’t played to enable domineering parent tropes, but deconstructs them. The teen angst jumps out and Mei rebelliously pushes back in secret.” Instead, she depends on her friends Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park) to accept her changes she finds herself going through – even when Mei beings to see living her truth dangerously to see her favorite boy band might unleash a household anger like she’s never seen. Graves said, “On her hilarious journey to utilize her panda powers to get herself and her friends to a 4*Town concert (a perfect pastiche of the boyband hearthrobs of the era), Mei lets herself stumble through awkwardness with boys and clashing emotions between who she is with her friends versus the perfect daughter she is at home. In spite of the fantastical bent, it touches on feelings that are all too real.”
Life among the teens in “Turning Red” is shown with complete relatability, even when it deals with the sickening part of growth, like what girls go through during that time. Graves asked, “Is a girl’s metaphorical sexual awakening really shocking compared to, say, movie scenes where parents find their son’s crusty socks, or the countless films that center boys’ coming of age through their virginity bets? Women have long had to extend themselves to empathize with depictions of youth in global cinema that centered the male gaze.” A teen turning into a giant red panda while she is figuring out who she is shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to understand in comparison. Graves noted, “Spiritually, Turning Red has more in common with A Goofy Movie, dealing with parent-child relationships while they grow up, get their first crushes and just have to make it to the concert, OK?” (The 4*Town song created for the film by Billie Eilish and Finneas, the latter of whom voices one of the band members, is an earworm.)
Graves noted, “Turning Red is a stellar accomplishment from Pixar that enriches and diversifies the kind of coming-of-age stories so often depicted in movies and other mediums. Despite constraints put upon its creatives when it came to tackling certain subjects, Shi still manages to deliver a deeply personal picture.” The music, the clothing choices, the split between school and home life…everything is there, like opening your diary with memories from a box somewhere in the attic. Through Mei, her friends, and her family, we get to see how supporting love can be so permitting, especially when breaking generational traditions together – and how we really need both our real and made-up families to honor ourselves in ways our ancestors weren’t able to.
If you have a Disney+, check this out, it’s a good one. I think out of all the Pixar movies they have made, this one is probably one of the most, if not the most, relatable film they ever made. Seeing how it is based on a part of childhood we all had to go through and don’t have fond memories of, I think everyone will like it. Especially since it hints at the parts of adolescence but bases it on transforming into a red panda. Check it out and see the growth that is made during the runtime of the film.
Thank you for joining in on tonight’s review. Stay tuned next Friday for the continuation of “Matt Damon Month.”
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