OnScreen Review: "Turning Red"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
Released direct to Disney+, Turning Red is the latest animated feature from Pixar. Even if they have been a bit more uneven as they have ramped up their output in the last few years, they are still one of the most consistent studios in the film industry. Their films are often layered with humor and pathos as well as content that appeals to children and adults. Turning Red is no different, creating an enjoyable coming-of-age story.
Set in Toronto in 2002, the story centers around 13-year-old Meilin “Mei” Lee (Rosalie Chiang), a Chinese-Canadian girl who is hyper-focused in school and helps out her overprotective and overbearing mother Ming (Sandra oh) in her family’s temple, dedicated to their ancestor, Sun Yee. When she is not trying to please her mother, Mei is spending time with Miriam (Ava Morse), Abby (Hyein Park), and Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), her three closest friends, obsessing over the (five-member) boy band 4*Town. When her mom’s domineering ways lead to public embarrassment, Mei wakes up the next day to discover that she has changed into a giant red panda, the spirit animal associated with her ancestor, Sun Yee. Mei soon finds out that this is a condition that impacts every female member of the family and can only be dealt with in a ritual during a red moon.
Pixar has tackled mother-daughter (Brave) and parent-child relationships (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Brave, Inside Out) several times in the past, but Turning Red is almost specifically about the changing dynamic of that relationship due to the onset of puberty, that wonderful time we all go through when our bodies and hormones and voices change and somehow directly impacts our interactions with the parental units. Being a Pixar movie distributed through Disney, all of this is tastefully done. Also, since it needs to be said as apparently there is some backlash to the movie, there is a cultural value-added aspect to this movie by making the character Chinese-Canadian and getting a glimpse of that perspective, experience, and worldview. Regardless of who you are, going through puberty is pretty much a universal experience that everyone can relate to on at least some level, even if your experience is not exactly the same as Mei’s.
Mei is not exactly a rebellious child by any means, she loves her parents and is eager to please them, and enjoys their company. But invariably, there are things she is going to keep from her parents, like crushes on boys and obsessions over boy bands. While none of this is unique to 2002, when the film is set, 2002 was during the time of one of those specific periods of boy band proliferation. A lot of teen girls go through a boy band phase, and there were plenty to choose from in 2002. Mei hides her obsession from her parents for fear of judgment. While I personally kind of loathe boy bands, I found it quite entertaining that the obsession over 4*Town by these four “Townies” was so central to the plot of the movie.
Sandra Oh is the only real voice talent of note in this film (unless you are a James Hong fan like I am), but this is an animated film that sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. Rosalie Chiang is a relative unknown but is very expressive as Mei. All three of Mei’s friends have distinct personalities and funny quirks to them, with Abby being a personal favorite of mine because of her intensity (she’s described on Wikipedia as “an energetic girl” and that is an understatement.
The animation is also the typically stellar work that we are used to seeing from Pixar. It’s a fantasy story set in the “real” world, and just as was the case in Soul, there were one or two mundane shots in the film, not of the characters, that I really thought looked life-like. The animation of the characters is influenced by several types of anime, but have that distinct Pixar look and feel. There is almost an excess of the Cal Arts Bean Face facial expressions, the big, giant “OMG” eyes; I say “almost” because they are funny every time.
One thing I genuinely loved is that there was no real “villain” of the story; most of this is just creating a fantasy story out of the routine lives of teens living their lives, because when you are that age, everything seems like life and death in its own way. But when the friends find out about Mei’s secret, they’re supportive of her and try to cheer her up. Even the building tension and eventually conflict between Mei and her mother is a typical mother-daughter fight that plays out on a comically large scale that is typically reserved for monster movies. Pixar takes great care with the emotional content of the stories they tell and are very deliberate in getting that stuff right. The mother-daughter dynamic is handled with humor but it’s also heartfelt.
First-time feature film director Domee Shi has crafted a film that is specific to a time and place for her but is relatable to all. Turning Red is firmly in the middle of my personal Pixar rankings. That is not damning with faint praise. It takes a lot to crack the Top 10 of Pixar movies. They have made 25 feature films, and about 20-21 of those I find quite enjoyable or downright special. Turning Red is another high-quality addition to the Pixar catalog. It’s also a lot of fun. Enjoy it on Disney+. And hopefully, their next feature can be enjoyed in the movie theater.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Turning Red is streaming exlusively on Disney+.