I and my wife (especially) have been very excited to seen Disney/Pixar’s Turning Red. We would have seen it in theaters, but Disney’s change of mind to show it on Disney+ allowed us to kick back and watch it at home.
Taking place in 2002 in Toronto, 13-year-old Mei Lee is a (stereo-) typical child of Asian descent, balancing her social life with friends at school with a demanding home life where her mother expects straight A’s as well as a helping hand with the family business. “Balancing” is sort of a strong word here, because Mei doesn’t even tell her parents about her friends, even though she isn’t really getting into trouble or anything, but she is into boy bands and boys in general, as any teen girl is, but her mother would not understand.
If you’ve seen any preview, you know the twist: one morning, Mei is hit with the family curse and turns into a giant red panda. Until now, unbeknownst to Mei, the women in the family have this ability going back generations, but a ceremony during a red moon will “trap” the panda spirit, allowing her to live a normal life. Until that ceremony in a couple weeks though, Mei has to try to not get too excited, or the panda comes out. Rather than try to lock it away, Mei and her friends hatch a plan to market the panda to kids at school, selling meet-and-greets and memorabilia, in an effort to raise enough money to see their favorite boy band at an upcoming concert. But can they get away with it before Mei’s mom finds out?
In typical Pixar fashion, Turning Red is gorgeously colored, though instead of going for Pixar’s usual realism approach, they instead chose to mix in some anime-style character reactions, in keeping with the whole Asian theme. The film tackles themes such as puberty and youth independence, and while on the whole I did really like the movie, some parts struck me as odd. The movie really promotes choosing fun over responsibility, and there’s no argument here that Mei’s mother is overbearing, but still, the message seems clear to just ignore your parents and do what you want. Also, when Mei and her friends are cashing in panda’s appearances, it is apparent that consumerism trumps all. Those two being the biggest messages of the film didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth, but I still think that it is a fun movie for teens and pre-teens, with nothing too objectionable for that age group. Should be another big hit for the studio. ★★★½
Jons Movie Takes 