Film Review: Turning Red (2022)
by Emily Nagle
[usr 5]
Yesterday, Pixar’s 25th animated feature, “Turning Red“, released exclusively on Disney+. Set in 2002 Toronto, the film follows 13-year-old Meilin “Mei” Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), who discovers that she transforms into a giant red panda when experiencing strong emotions.
“Turning Red” broke several barriers upon its release, most notably for being the first Pixar film to be directed solely by a woman (“Brave” featured Brenda Chapman as co-director, alongside Mark Andrews). It’s also the first to feature an Asian protagonist; director Domee Shi has been known to drawn inspiration from her experiences growing up as a child of Chinese immigrants for her projects, as shown in her short film “Bao”.
I could write for hours praising the incredible representation in this film – which features strong, well-developed female characters, talks about puberty like it’s no big deal, and includes several background characters with diabetes (another first for Pixar) – but for simplicity’s sake, I’ll discuss the bigger picture, like the story and animation.
As per usual, Pixar didn’t disappoint in the visuals department. I enjoyed the color palette for the film, which bright and youthful, just like Mei herself. Many of the scenes had a glow to them that felt almost dreamlike. I think the first part of the film where the animation really made me go “WOW!” was the cooking sequence at the beginning, when Mei’s father is chopping and stir-frying vegetables and steaming dumplings for the family’s dinner. I loved the attention to detail; the sparkling juice droplets that came squirting out with each slice were pure magic!
Something else I liked about the animation was that it didn’t have the usual 3D Pixar style for the entire film. What comes to mind is when Mei’s mother Ming (Sandra Oh) explains the origins of her mystical powers, and we discover that they were gifted from the gods to her ancestors. The visual style shifts to resemble a traditional Chinese art style that has a unique storybook feel to it. There’s also a brief moment at the beginning of the film on the day before Mei’s transformation, when she draws a picture of cute convenience store clerk Devon, and it winks at her, adding a cartoonish layer to a fairly human situation.
That’s another part of the movie I loved: the characters all feel so real. The close bond between Mei and her friends Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), Miriam (Ava Morse), and Abby (Hyein Park) reminded me a lot of my own childhood. They actually ended up playing a big role in the movie as Mei discovers they calm her down enough to neutralize her powers. The stakes get even higher when Mei, who’s been obedient to her mother’s strict rules for her whole life, must decide between keeping her powers to make her friends and herself happy, or following her family’s wishes by undergoing a painful ritual to get rid of the panda.
Everything in this movie felt like it was adequately explained; I remember in Pixar’s previous film “Luca” (which blew up on TikTok last summer), there were so many aspects of the film that I felt could have been explained better, such as why Luca’s grandmother covered for him when he would sneak out to the surface. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in “Turning Red”. Mei’s father Jin (Orion Lee) doesn’t seem to be as bothered by her powers as her mother, and it is later revealed why: he witnessed Ming’s highly destructive panda in the past. While Ming has since abandoned her panda, Jin didn’t see anything wrong with Mei’s, having discovered videos of her and her classmates having fun with her fluffy alternate form.
Even with characters that feel so human and relatable, there were a lot of fantasy parallels in this movie. The parts where Mei went into the bamboo forest during the ritual and met her ancestors felt like something out of a Studio Ghibli movie. There’s also the part when Ming’s panda gets unleashed, and it’s revealed that Jin wasn’t exaggerating about its dangers: she transforms into a kaiju-like being that nearly takes out an entire stadium. In order to stop Ming from destroying the city, Mei’s relatives spring into action, unleashing their pandas in an anime-esque sequence that reminded me of shows like Sailor Moon and Miraculous Ladybug.
I watched this movie last night, and I already want to rewatch it (preferably multiple times)! I think I’d go so far as to say this is Pixar’s best film in years. I’d recommend “Turning Red” to anyone who’s suffered through the awkwardness of middle school, fans of mythology and fantasy stories, or loves the idea of a fluffy, 8-foot-tall red panda!