Turning Red

 

Release Date: March 11, 2022

Watch Date: April 29 - April 30, 2023

"Disney and Pixar's 'Turning Red' introduces Mei Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), a confident dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother's dutiful daughter and t he chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voiced by Sandra Oh), 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 suddenly turns into a giant red panda!"

    The biggest complaint that I heard about this film, when it first came out, was that you could only enjoy if you were part of a highly specific group of people. Canadian. A girl. Someone who was a teenager or pre-teen in the early 2000's. I fall into most of these categories. So I'm pretty much the ideal target for this film.

    All that said, I still can see why people didn't like it. This is an extremely stylized film, with a lot of tributes to anime and early 2000 culture, which makes sense, given that boy bands and anime of a certain style were hugely popular and influential in that era. It kind of rubs off on me, and here's why...at least, as far as I can explain.

    This movie doesn't feel like a Pixar film. It is a really, really strong film. It has a fantastic message for young girls. It explains many of the feelings associated with growing up when you're a woman. It demonstrates a complicated mother/daughter relationship that I think quite a lot of women would find that they relate to, and some men as well. But it doesn't feel like a Pixar film. It's too irreverent. There's too many 'anime' or 'cartoon' elements to it. It's not until the last third of the movie that it starts to balance out and feel a little bit more like a traditional Pixar film.

    But here's the thing, Pixar should be taking risks like this. Tradition is a good thing, but someone needs to create the tradition. If every Pixar film feels like every other Pixar film, eventually people will find them boring and the audience will stop investing their time into them. So you need to shake things up. You need try something different, you need to shake things up, and if it makes some people uncomfortable then oh well. Girl's get periods. Girls obsess over their crushes. It's just true. It happens. It's real.

    The best part, really, is that the girls in the movie are not nervous, shy, or uncomfortable with the fact that they're outcasts in their school. They're a group. They have each other. They're good at things. They have talents and interests and people they rely on and it's really healthy, extremely healthy. They make wonderful role-models for girls, and serve as wonderful examples for healthy friendships amongst girls, which don't get shown all that often.

    Bob enjoyed this film, but the moment we turned it off he said "I couldn't relate to it." Which, no, of course he couldn't. How would he? He was never a pre-teen girl. But he didn't turn around and say it was a terrible film because of it. He just said he couldn't relate to it on the level that he was sure other people could. Look at that, a man who doesn't make it all about himself. Aren't I lucky?

    If you've ever been a teenage girl. If you've ever had an over protective parent. If you've ever been the child of immigrants. If you've ever had a crush on a performer. You'll relate to this film. You'll see yourself in at least part of it. And if you can't relate on any level, you'll still enjoy it, because it's still a solid Pixar film.