Plot: Mei Le is, a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming, is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda!
Review: Pixar has proven, time and again, to be the benchmark for quality animated films. Up until they relied on sequels, Pixar offered a fresh and original story each year albeit with a consistent animation style from project to project. With their award-winning short films yielding the next generation of filmmakers, Pixar has turned to director Domee Shi for their first film of 2022. Turning Red is a wonderful coming-of-age story that blends elements of Chinese mythology with a quirky retro tale set in the early 2000s. The result is a funny and heartfelt story about growing up that will please all ages. While many are making a big deal about this being Pixar’s first film directed solely by a woman, the first to wholly take place in Canada, and the second to feature an Asian lead character, I am content to report that none of those elements change the fact that this is a really good movie.
Set in Toronto in 2003, Turning Red immediately sets itself apart from any other Pixar animated film. With a pixie-ish animation style that features anime-inspired reaction faces and exaggerated emotional expression, Domee Shi makes this story feel intimately familiar to anyone who grew up in the early 21st century. As an elder Millennial myself, the fashion choices (bucket hats, people!) brought back a lot of memories while simultaneously making me wonder why this film would be set twenty years in the past. A lot of the period-specific references will likely fly right over the heads of younger viewers but any parents my age will appreciate them quite a bit. The time period does not play an integral part in the story outside of Mei Lee and her friends sharing an obsession with the boy band 4*Town, a group reminiscent of bands like 98 Degrees, NSync, and the Backstreet Boys.
What works wonderfully about Turning Red is the lack of celebrity names providing voices. While having an A-list name attached would certainly boost box office, the biggest name in this cast is Sandra Oh who plays Ming Lee, Mei’s overprotective mother. We also have the legendary James Hong portraying Mr. Gao, but the rest are all relative newcomers. Mei Lee is voiced by Rosalie Chiang who instantly gives her character a unique and daring personality that all viewers will be able to relate to. Surrounded by her friends Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park), Mei and her crew are a believable quartet who could be kids you or I went to school with. Everyone comes across as realistic and quirky which helps balance the completely off-the-wall story that follows.
The story of Turning Red is not much more complicated than what you see in the trailers: Mei Lee awakens one morning to find herself turned into a giant Red Panda. Discovering it is a curse on her family, Mei must learn how to cope with this sudden change in her physical appearance. When you couple the physical changes with Mei’s age, you can quickly surmise that this story is far from being a subtle metaphor for puberty. In fact, this movie is raging with teen hormones. At the very least, this movie works as an easy conversation starter to discuss the changes that any child goes through on their path to adulthood without all of the biological or scatological details. Domee Shi and her co-writer Julia Cho don’t shy away from subjects typically not looked at in movies for kids including teen romance, bullying, helicopter parenting, and more. While Mei’s panda form is cute and perfect for Disney to sell plush toys, it also represents an intriguing mix of cultural dynamics and the blending of traditions with modern society.
The film also features yet another excellent score, continuing Pixar’s uninterrupted trend of quality music. The score, composed by Ludwig Goransson (Black Panther, The Mandalorian) blends Chinese elements with contemporary pop for a soundtrack that is as sweeping as it is fun. It is impressive for Goransson’s first animated score and supplemented by three all-new songs written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. Eilish and O’Connell’s tracks are the songs of the fictional 4*Town and work both as an homage to boy bands of the Aughts as well as catchy tunes all their own.
Because Turning Red deals with what it is like for a young girl to grow into a teenager, the plot may disinterest younger male viewers but I guarantee that if they get past those reservations they will find this to be a movie with enough action and humor to entertain them. Turning Red works because it never panders to the audience and creates teens who seem real and relatable despite the supernatural proceedings. Like the recent Luca and Encanto, Turning Red is not as much about fighting a villain or a bad guy but instead about discovering oneself. Before Pixar returns to the Toy Story franchise with Lightyear, Turning Red represents a reminder as to the wonderful originality they are capable of when not designing films to sell toys.
Turning Red premieres on March 11th on Disney+.
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