Movie Thoughts: Turning Red (2022)

• Released: 11 March 2022
• Directed by: Domee Shi
• Running time: 1 h 40 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A thirteen-year old girl in Toronto has a complicated relationship with her mother and must now choose whether to defy or obey her. Also, she turns into a red panda.

My Thoughts

This movie had so much hubbub around it before it even came out, and also after it. Before people were complaining about the art style due to the "bean mouth" (grow up, people). After the movie came out, people started whining about this movie briefly touching on stuff like periods. You know, a 100% normal natural thing all people who menstruate will have to face. Seriously, just get over yourselves. Talking about this stuff should be normal.

Anyways, onto the movie itself. I myself had absolutely 0 expectations due to me avoiding trailers and promotional material as much as possible. All I literally knew going in was that the protagonist Meilin turns into a red panda. And that's certainly a big part of the movie.

The story is really about Meilin growing up and deciding what she wants to do with her life. She loves her mother (and her mother loves her), but Ming can be very demanding, and Meilin herself is going through puberty. She's growing more and more interested in going out with her friends, having crushes on boys and all that stuff, which Ming of course disapproves of. 

An interesting conflict, and one I can relate a lot to due to my own complicated relationship with my mother. The red panda certainly isn't a thing for me, but it's a great way to illustrate Meilin's puberty. 

Speaking or relatability, that's another major complaint this movie is getting. It supposedly being unrelatable because it's dealing with a tween/teenager going through puberty and interpersonal conflict with her family. This complaint is honestly just really odd to me. Pixar has for years been making us relate to anything. People, elves, soul blobs, monsters and rats. Heck, even fucking cars. But somehow relating to a young girl is too much? Okay then.

But in all seriousness, going back to the movie itself. It's good. Not fantastic, but I genuinely had more fun watching this than I have with a newly-released movie for a while. The animation is great. I like the character designs (though I do agree that they look slightly better when in motion rather than in stills). I like the whole panda-concept. I like how this movie isn't afraid to touch on certain topics (not just periods, but stuff like drugs are also briefly mentioned). I liked the characters a whole lot, especially Meilin and her friends. 

It's not a perfect movie but it's still really strong and I absolutely recommend you check it out.