| My rating | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critics | Audience | Critics | Audience | |
| 8/10 | 83/100 | 7.1/10 | 95% | 72% |
Pixar is known for “what ifs:” “what if the toys in the playroom came alive at night?,” “what if a rat could cook better than a chef?,” “What if there were five emotions in your head which controlled your every move?,” etc.
Those premises always lead to different and engaging stories that often appeal to both children and adults, since they deal with universal emotions.
Its latest film, Turning Red, has a similar question: what if puberty would take the form of a giant red panda? More specifically, girls’ puberty. And this is where Turning Red starts to follow a different path than previous Pixar movies: all of its department heads, including the director, are women. That might seem like a behind the scenes detail, but it clearly makes a difference not only in terms of the storyline, but also in the tone of the film.
Set in Toronto, in 2002, we meet Mei (Rosalie Chiang), a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who is a dedicated student and an obedient daughter. She has a group of three loyal friends and they are obsessed with a boy band called 4* TOWN. Mei’s mother Ming (Sandra Oh), however, doesn’t want Mei going to concerts or being interested in anything else that would lead her stray from her path.
After the most humiliating event in Mei’s life, thanks to her mother, she starts having problems coping with all of her multiple and intense feelings, all at once. That’s when she wakes up and finds out she’s been transformed into a giant red panda.
And that’s when the movie becomes one of the edgiest ones made by Disney/Pixar so far: it openly talks about periods and it shows Mei’s growing attraction towards boys, fantasying about them in her room.
You don’t need to be a Chinese-Canadian girl to have gone through the situations depicted in the movie. In fact, it has a broad appeal precisely because it talks about things that either affected or will affect half of the population. The other half might not be comfortable with it, but it should be interested in hearing about at least.
Another point that catches our attention is the animation itself, with clear inspiration from anime, especially with the characters’ eyes when they get excited about something.
The story itself has some pacing problems towards the end, but it’s still entertaining, with some catchy songs performed by 4*TOWN written by Billie Eillish and Finneas O’Connell.Turning Red is a sweet movie with a great message, typical of Pixar stories, and it’s worth watching, even if it makes you turn red at times.
