Turning Red review: An ultra-cute coming-of-age comedy

Turning Red, Disney-Pixar’s latest animated film hasn’t arrived without controversy. First there was the movie’s “straight to streaming” relegation, skipping cinemas due to pandemic fears. This despite Turning Red, which features a lesser-spotted (for Pixar) female protagonist, also being the first-ever production from the studio to be directed solo by a woman – Domee Shi, whose Bao won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Then, in the week before release, a review of Turning Red by CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell attracted criticism for claims that the film is too niche for mainstream audiences because of, among other things, its focus on Chinese Canadian experience. The review has since been pulled, and an apology made.

If that wasn’t enough, Turning Red started screening around the same time that Pixar employees made a public statement about their thwarted attempts to include more LGBT+ content in their films. This, in an attempt to spotlight the hypocrisy in Disney’s stance on the “Don’t say Gay” bill in Florida.

So, there have been a lot of distractions from Turning Red itself. Which is unfair because the film is a delightful coming-of-age comedy, and something refreshing for Pixar.

Set in Toronto in the early Noughties, Turning Red centres on Mei Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) an overachieving 13 year old, who is starting to feel the tension between what she wants to do – namely moon over boyband 4*Town with her friends – and what is expected of her by her strict, overprotective mother Ming (Sandra Oh). What delicate balance Mei has been able to find is destroyed when she starts turning into a giant red panda every time she experiences intense emotions. It turns out the panda transformation is an ability unique to all the women in her family, but as Mei waits until the next red moon for a ritual that will suppress her panda, she begins to question whether it’s something she desires… or just another case of bowing to her mom’s will.

Granted it has supernatural elements, and a blockbuster finale, but Turning Red feels more intimate, constrained and grounded than a lot of previous Pixar movies. With its tight focus and setting, at times you get the sense it could have been made as a live-action Disney afternoon series. It certainly has the energy to match, at least in its opening third, as it captures the fragmented mental focus and perpetual bounce of pubescent girls.

As for the criticism that Turning Red is too alienating and inaccessible, forget that right now. Sure there’s manic pacing at times, which may not be to everyone’s taste. And, admittedly, the movie delivers a powerful message about the dangers of pleasing others at the expense of yourself, resulting in toxic guilt, anger and resentment. This is a lived experience with special relevance to women (of all cultures), who are typically raised to be ever-accommodating and selfless good girls.

However, a large part of Turning Red is about the pressures of parental expectation, and how it starts to chafe especially hard from the onset of adolescence. This is a universally relevant and relatable theme – whether you have an Asian Tiger Mom, or parents with, at least on the surface, a more hands-off, accepting attitude.

Turning Red has several overlaps with Pixar’s first female-led adventure Brave. While we don’t want to pit one heroine against another, the new film does a more resonant job of exploring the tension between individuality and familial responsibility. It might be the more recognisable setting – a multicultural city painted with two-decades-old nostalgia, as opposed to medieval Scotland – but Turning Red could easily emerge as one of the animated greats for getting families to face, and explore, its core issue.

Importantly, Turning Red speaks as much to parents as kids. Mei is the movie’s star but Ming’s story is just as important, treated with surprising sensitivity as it reflects how easy it is for parents to view their offspring as just that: extensions of themselves, and a chance to vicariously sidestep their own past mistakes. It’s when love is expressed more as control than acceptance that things go horribly wrong.

It’s from Pixar, so the animation of Turning Red is top notch, of course, but the movie breaks ground in other ways. Mei’s monstrous transformation draws obvious parallels with physical puberty and the stress it causes, and while the film isn’t about that, the topic isn’t sidestepped either. Ming’s first assumption about her daughter’s new behaviour is that she’s started to menstruate, and Turning Red goes so far as to matter-of-factly reference period pain, and even show pads.

As for matters of representation, Turning Red features one of the most loveable and diverse bands of besties captured on screen in a long time. Mei’s squad ranges from tomboy Miriam, to diminutive but feisty Abby, and deadpan, goth-leaning Priya. And for those now squinting for evidence of LGBT+ representation, Turning Red includes a few inferences that certain characters could possibly head down a queer path as they grow up, and grow more comfortable in their skin.

Like its transformed heroine, Turning Red is cute and fluffy. However, it’s also more than that. The film offers a special experience for viewers of all ages, sitting in the same band of Pixar releases as Inside Out and Soul for the way it spotlights deep internal concerns about personal fulfilment and living with messy authenticity, and explores them with heartwarming nuance.

Turning Red is in cinemas now in certain markets (including South Africa), as well as screening on Disney+.