Turning Red

To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a red panda is just a red panda. And sometimes it’s a metaphor for that inner spark of creativity, the flame of originality that is to be cherished, not extinguished. With “Turning Red,” Shi demonstrates that she’s got it, in spades.

Effervescent and ridiculous and grounded in a pastel-shaded Toronto and the nearby throwback details of 2002, it has texture and specificity to spare, and the only person it cares to speak on behalf of is its 13-year-old heroine, Meilin Lee (Rosalie Chiang).

Turning Red is a wonder in the way 13-year-old girls can be: monstrous one moment, heart-melting the next.

The humor is infectious, the pop-culture nerd affinity relatable, and the familial struggles resonant. And it’s messy because so is life. Its happy ending is about learning to listen. That’s how everyone wins.

Helter-skelter, a bit mad and full of heart, it bounces along with the out-of-control energy of the early adolescence its depicts. When it pauses, it also offers a seriously touching snapshot of mums and their daughters, as well as a smart critique of why the burden of family expectations and the inevitability of teenage boundary-pushing usually results in carnage.

As a whole, Turning Red succeeds in hitting all the right emotional notes — and its real magic lies in its unabashed celebration of the joyful chaos of girlhood within a proud Asian immigrant family.

The journey is slick and diverting, and at times incisive, but Turning Red is yet another Pixar film that coasts rather than glides. Hopefully its next offering can turn into something more.

Pixar did a really good job making a movie about red pandas and puberty. Too bad many people review-bombed it on social media. I hope the sequel will be better. I hope the sequel will have less controversy than the original.

An outgoing Chinese-American girl transitions into early adulthood, triggering an inherited blessing/curse that transforms her into a giant red panda when stressed out. Which, given the competing pressures of schoolwork, steep family expectations and a busy social life, is pretty much all the time. After a brief period of panicked self-isolation, she learns to control the ability and embraces her new lifestyle, but Mom is less tolerant and insists upon a time-honored ritual that will seal the panda away for good. As message-heavy family films go, this isn't half bad, but it falls short when compared to the lofty standards of Pixar's catalog. Mostly because so many of its essential beats have already been struck. Brave hit the mother-daughter dynamic, complete with waves of shiny red hair. Inside Out taught us to have self-confidence and love ourselves. Coco dealt with the weight of family secrets and traditions. I could probably name a dozen more that involve the trials and tribulations of growing up. The fresh cultural flavor is a plus, and lively extroverts aren't usually the focus of this studio's films, but those perks aren't enough to save this from feeling like a big-time retread. On a positive note, it looks incredible. Oodles of color, rich textures and quaint dashes of character fill out a vibrant, energetic city setting, with a super-duper cute lead character (whether she's a human or an animal) dominating most every scene. It's not a miss, it’s just very safe.

Turning Red wasn't a popular film and for good reasons. The story is yet again, another woke take on the world. It present the men and boys has stupid, weak, and the women like the only strong characters. On top of that, the way the title reference to puberty, the film to menstruation is just downright awkward (to not use other words). It lack good humour and menstrual jokes are not funny (just imagine ejaculation jokes as comparison). The animation is good, but I though the character designs were not that great. Especially the facial animation was kind of stiff. The music was fine. I really like that they use Toronto for the location, but sadly, the family didn't have any Canadian speaking/expressions (even though they suppose to be there from a long time). I give the movie 58%. Sorry Pixar, but I don't think Ghibli made movies for the woke peoples. They made movies for everyone to enjoy.

Red Pandas Are So Cute And I Think Turning Red Is A Bad Movie And So Now I'm Not Going To Watch This

Somehow worse than Encanto. I will say that the music is better than Encanto even though Turning Red is not a musical. I will say that it pretty accurately depicts the chaos that is middle school. The story is cliche and the entire movie feels like if TikTok was a movie.