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Turning Red Movie Review

Turning Red is a 2022 animated teen fantasy film directed by Domee Shi. It is Pixar’s fifth movie. It is limited in appeal, but undeniably very strongly executed.

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“I’m a gross red monster!“

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Mei Lee is a 13-year-old girl who is torn between being her mother’s obedient daughter and the chaos of her youth. To top all of that, when she gets too excited, she turns into a big red panda. Now obviously, this red panda is a clear metaphor for getting a period and puberty as a whole. It is very obvious to adults, but I do wonder if the intended audience would get it, again leading to questionable choices from Pixar when it comes to targeting their audiences.

The movie is honestly very much intended for teenage girls in particular. This is why, no matter how well crafted it is, I could not relate to it as much as I could to, say, something like ‘Luca’. The film must be a fantastic watch for female viewers, but for male ones not so much given that the boys in the film are non-existent and the husband is reduced to a horribly submissive, spineless figure that frustrated me endlessly.

But despite those typically modern toxic Hollywood choices, Turning Red is still very strong, particularly for how seamlessly it blends the coming-of-age drama with the fantastical elements. We even get a full-on red panda fight at the end, which brought a smile to my face. That entire sequence was beautifully cartoony while still fitting the narrative and themes of the movie. It’s a type of ending that I wanted from the anti-climactic ‘Encanto’, but I never got.

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Mei Lee is a wonderful protagonist. She wears glasses and is not pretty, resulting in a different kind of heroine for Pixar. Her relationship with her mother is something that we’ve seen in movies before, but the whole fantastical red panda element gave fresh life to the narrative. Her mother is a typical Asian mom – overly ambitious and demanding too much from her daughter. This resulted in a lot of friction between the two that ended with that great climactic sequence that even went full circle and included the granny’s point of view.

This familial drama was superbly realized here, making the movie a must see for any teenage girl, but also any mother too. But I wish the supporting characters got more to do as her three friends aren’t all that memorable unfortunately. I loved their friendship and their shared love for boy bands, but apart from that, their personalities weren’t particularly strong. Abby is probably the most memorable of the three, but all three needed more screen time.

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Turning Red is set in this very specific time and place, making it obvious that this was a semi-autobiographical movie for the director Domee Shi. She previously directed the great Pixar short ‘Bao’ and now she got promoted to a feature movie that she directed with a lot of style and authenticity. Toronto looks very cool and the early 2000s time frame led to that very entertaining boy band hobby for the girls. The fake songs that they made up for this fictional band were so good that they emulated the musical output from Backstreet Boys effortlessly.

The animation is also fantastic. The character designs are quite unique with the characters feeling realistic in their looks. The red panda looked adorable. The movie is polished in its look and very well scored while also being superbly edited and paced. The emotional third act was expected from Pixar, but still executed with a lot of care and craftsmanship. The same goes for the main character’s emotional turmoil that perfectly encapsulated growing up and the troubles of puberty. The Chinese mythology elements also were a wonderful touch. I just wondered if the movie went too far into all the puberty talk, making it somewhat questionable if kids should be watching it.

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