Like Encanto that came before it, Turning Red has turned Twitter and Instagram into a haven for people who create fan art and post fan theories about this movie. Since the film premiered on Disney+ on March 11th, I have seen more than my fair share of think-pieces surrounding what Turning Red means to people, and the reception around it.
Well- if only to feel included- I thought I would give you my take on the movie.
Currently (as of March 2022) Turning Red has a 72% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is noticeably less than some of its other Pixar counterparts, like Soul, for example. (Which, I mean, come on. *rolls eyes*)
And my verdict was…
I loved it. I think Turning Red was pretty great, actually. It wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely a good movie. Dare I say, I even liked it better than Encanto.
My feelings about this movie are complicated, which is why I felt the need to break them down. I have to explain why this movie is undeserving of its outrageously low Rotten Tomatoes score and the wave of backlash that it’s gotten from some critics.
Rotten Tomatoes score for Turning Red (2022)
Rotten Tomatoes score for Soul (2020)
I find this unacceptable (and not just because I didn’t like Soul). Because of this, I think it’s about time we dive into Turning Red to see what all the fuss is about.
Let’s start with the basics:
Category 1: Plot- B
To start, Turning Red is about a Chinese Canadian thirteen-year-old girl named Meilin "Mei" Lee. She is essentially her mother’s pride and joy: she excels in school and participates in her family’s Chinese temple when she’s home. Most of all, she always listens and respects her mother.
Only… Meilin is growing up, which complicates things.
The real Meilin likes hanging out with her friends and obsessing about boybands and crushing on boys. That doesn’t mean that she doesn’t love her mother, it just means that she may not be the person that her mother wanted her to be.
To further complicate things, Meilin has hit puberty, which means that she transforms into a giant red panda when she’s emotional.
Literally.
Now, I can’t help but point out the obvious panda in the room. This movie, like many other Disney movies before it, features a main character of color turning into an animal for a large portion of the movie in order to learn a lesson. Although, unlike some other films that have done this (*cough, cough* Soul), Turning Red uses Mei’s transformation as more than just a plot device. In this movie, her transformation into a red panda also serves as a metaphor for growing up (which I’ll touch on later).
Also, unlike other animated movies of this type (because as I’ve stated before, there is a list of movies where POC are turned into animals in cinema), Turning Red treats Mei’s transformation like a cultural touchstone that makes sense in-universe. Turning into a red panda has been passed down through her mother’s family for generations. There is no arbitrary magic spell or potion that turns the characters into animals like in The Princess and the Frog, or The Emperor’s New Groove, which was a nice change of pace.
Overall, the plot itself is about Meilin growing up, and trying to find herself when faced with the rising awkwardness of puberty.
Which leads me into my next category-
Category 2: Themes- B
This movie explores all of the awkward moments associated with growing up, but chief among them is the theme that you can choose to be who you really are when you're going through puberty. Throughout this movie, Meilin is torn between being the person that her mother wants her to be and being the person that she really is around her friends at school. Turning into the red panda complicates this even further, as her mother attempts to help Meilin control this part of her, while her friends are more supportive of it, encouraging her to embrace her transformation. This inevitably leads to Meilin coming out of her shell and learning who she truly is as a person outside of her mom's shadow.
This movie also explores the lesson that embracing your quirks is nothing be ashamed of. For example, there is a really beautiful moment early into the movie where Meilin’s mom catches her drawing a boy that she has a crush on. This leads to Meilin experiencing immense shame and scolding herself for being “weird,” or “awkward” for doing so. I loved that part of the movie because it was delightfully real, and also telling of how sometimes we tell ourselves that we're not allowed to be as weird or awkward as we actually are. By the end of the film, Meilin comes to fully come to accept herself, and learns that it's normal to be awkward at her age. Truly, there's nothing wrong with it.
In addition to all of this, there are also themes surrounding Mei’s transformation into the red panda. Outside of the obvious metaphor of Mei “changing” being a stand-in for “growing up,” the red panda can be seen as a metaphor for having your period and developing as a young woman. If you interpret the title this way, then “turning red” is a clever double-entendre for the beginnings of quote-unquote “womanhood.”
Overall, the themes of this movie are not very subtle, and yet they're very universal (despite anyone who would argue the contrary), which is one of the reasons why I think this movie is so good.
Category 3: Characters- B+
This movie is very interesting to me, because like Encanto that came before it, all of the characters in this movie have developed a cult following on Twitter and TikTok, despite the fact that most of the characters are secondary to the actual plot of the film.
In Encanto, a movie about a magical family living in an enchanted house, this was seen in the cosplays and fan art of fan-favorite characters, Dolores and Camilo.
Dolores and Camilo (brother and sister) from Encanto
In this movie, the fan community has come to really rally behind Meilin's friends: Miriam, Abby, and Priya. I have seen so many Twitter posts about the love that these girls have for each other and for Meilin as she goes through her transformation. Specifically, people online really love Miriam and Priya for their perceived role in the LGBTQ+ community (which I will touch on later).
Miriam, Abby, and Priya (from left to right)
Me, personally, I love Meilin's friends. I love that they're supportive of her when she is going through her struggles with her family, and they are nerdy and dorky in the same way that me and my friends were at that age. They don't pretend to be cool, and they lean into the awkward parts of themselves- like the fact that their favorite band is 4*Town. They look and act like awkward teens, and I’m here for every second of it. I get why fandom culture has adopted them as one of their own.
#squadgoals, honestly.
Another strong character in this movie that I feel doesn't get enough love is Mei's mom, Ming. Ming is honestly one of the most compelling mother figures that I have ever seen in a Disney movie (and yes, I am including Mother Gothel from Tangled). She's complex in a way that never makes you feel like she doesn't love and care for Ming, and she's realized in a way that makes me feel empathy for everything that she's going through. It’s very clear that she is not the villain of this movie, even though she is one of Mei's main antagonists.
Ming also struggles with Mei’s transformation, as she tries to understand that her daughter is coming into her own. She’s a little controlling, but she means well, and that’s what makes her realistic to me. I feel like I’ve definitely met people like Ming.
Personally, I love Ming so much, and I think more people should be talking about her. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention my absolute favorite character in the movie, Mei’s dad, Jin. Jin is the epitome of a supportive father figure, and we love that for him. He’s quiet and encouraging of Mei and supportive of his wife, all while cooking the most delicious food…
Overall, all of the characters in this movie felt real in a way that made this movie better. I could see my friends in Mei’s friends, and I could understand where Ming was coming from when she was attempting to help Mei out.
Strangely, out of all the characters in this movie, I feel like I have the least to say about Mei. As the protagonist of the film, she was relatable in her journey of self-discovery, and her awkward puberty experiences were traumatizing for someone who also experienced puberty, but beside the other characters in this movie, she can seem a little flat, unfortunately.
That said, though, no one in this movie was one-dimensional, which was great to see. All of the characters shined through in some way or another.
Category 4: Animation- A
It's pretty much a given at this point that the animation in this movie is going to be impeccable. In fact, Disney & Pixar is known for its fantastic animation in all of their movies, but something about the animation in Turning Red feels... different.
Most of this can be attributed to this movie's very clear anime influences. Since this movie takes place in the early 90s, there are several nods to popular anime like Pokemon and Sailor Moon throughout this movie. This is clever because these shows were incredibly popular at the time that the movie was set, while also expressing Mei's Asian background visually. This can be seen in everything to very clear setting parallels, to the over-exaggerated anime eyes that Mei and her friends get when they're listening to their favorite boy band.
Panda Mei and her friends sitting in front of a Sailor Moon inspired Toronto.
To top it off, there is also an iconic scene where Mei's dad is cooking dinner, and all of the food looks amazing, like it came straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie. It is clear that the creator of this movie, Domee Shi, wanted to pull from as many anime sources as she could to give this Pixar movie its own unique style.
If you ask me, she succeeded, because I've definitely never seen anything like it, and I felt like this new animation style really injected some life into the standard Pixar animation style. This film really shines, and the animation really makes this movie that much more memorable.
Category 5: Diversity- C
One of the things that immediately stand out about this movie is that it's about a Chinese Canadian girl, which is a demographic that is not well represented in mainstream animated films, let alone films produced by Pixar.
This choice, however, can lead to less than sensitive (or even outright racist) reviews of the movie that consider this demographic to be too narrow, and thus the entire movie is "exhausting" to watch.
This is not only insulting to the demographic that this film actively represents, but it is also incredibly telling of the stories that people are used to getting in movies, animated or otherwise. Asian girls are not usually depicted in such a humanizing way, especially not in animated children's movies. That said, most movie reviewers who post their opinions of films on the internet are white men. The fact that multiple reviewers have claimed that Turning Red is unrelatable to them due to the demographic is indicative of the fact that they're used to white stories.
As a black woman, I can't tell you how many movies that I've sat through that centered a white man doing something that I would never have done in a million years. And yet, I wouldn't call any of those movies unrelatable because most of the time, the stories displayed in those films are meant to show you a window into something deeper than the characters themselves.
The fact that this movie centers an Asian girl going through puberty has everyone up in arms, and it makes me sad, because it proves that we have a long way to go in terms of representation in media, especially in children's media.
Speaking of having a long way to go in children's media, while this movie does feature prominent Asian representation in the main cast, there is another minority group that is definitely lacking in representation in this movie: the queer community.
For those of you who aren't aware, Disney is in the middle of a series of controversies surrounding LGBTQ+ issues at the moment. If it isn't them outright funding supporters of Governor Ron DeSantis' "Don't Say Gay" Bill in the state of Florida, then its them nixing any potential queer plotlines from their Pixar properties. This is, unsurprisingly, in no small part because of Disney's support of the "Don't Say Gay" Bill.
This brings us back to Priya, Mei's Indian Canadian friend who was often depicted as a wannabe goth girl. Throughout the movie, Priya is seen holding Twilight inspired vampire novels, and obsessing with her friends about their favorite boyband, 4*Town. However, about midway through the film, it is revealed that perhaps Priya may have a crush on an actual goth girl when they meet at a party and begin dancing together very closely.
Priya dancing with her goth girlfriend.
Priya's feelings are never stated explicitly and remain subtext in the movie, however, it is definitely some sort of indication that Priya was meant to be coded as something other than straight. This has led to fans believing that Priya could be bisexual and interested in both boys and girls.
This bisexual theory has also been applied to Miriam and Mei, as some of their scenes together are slightly queer coded and intimate, even though the two are best friends. Once more, there is never an overt queer love story between the two, and anything that may be perceived as queer is only subtext.
Perhaps the most telling of this incident is the character Tyler, who bullies Mei and her friends up until the third act of the movie, when the girls discover that he likes 4*Town, too. Apparently, Tyler had a storyline in the movie that had to be cut out of the final version of the film. It was never revealed what this storyline entailed, but many fans have speculated that Tyler was secretly gay and that's why his storyline had to be reduced.
Overall, it is disappointing that Disney likely cut any or all storylines regarding overt queer characters due to their support of the "Don't Say Gay" Bill. I know that a lot of people were and continue to be hurt by this, and I just wish that Disney would stand by the people that just want to love the people they love.
While this movie shines in its Asian representation, Disney does not get a pass on its poor treatment of the LGBTQ+ community.
Category 6: Kid Friendliness -B+
Here's the thing about this movie: it's controversial.
But honestly... it really shouldn't be.
The people that believe that this movie isn't appropriate for kids are fooling themselves into thinking that teenaged girls are much purer than they actually are. These people are often misguided parents or puritanical adults who believe that young women should be chaste and obedient, no matter the personal and social cost. It's the same mentality that pretends that teenagers shouldn't have access to decent sex education classes, and the same mentality that ignores the growing number of teenaged girls who are experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts.
These people are not paying attention.
Teenaged girls are people too, and frankly, Turning Red just treats them like they are. Instead of presenting them in the standard kid's movie teen-girl archetypes of "boy crazy," or "nerd," Turning Red allows the girls in this movie to be weird and earnest and awkward. More to the point, there are never any inappropriate mentions of sex or adult themes in the film that would make this movie inappropriate for children. The closest that this movie comes to discussing anything remotely related to sex (and I can't stress enough that this is unrelated) is the mention of Meilin getting her period.
But I suppose just mentioning a young woman's period in an animated movie is too much for some people...
After watching Turning Red, it becomes very clear that this controversy is not about the movie at all, but it's about how much society hates teenaged girls. (Especially when they look like teenaged girls.)
As proof, here's a review that I found on Rotten Tomatoes without even having to look that hard:
This movie is focused on the issues surrounding a teenaged girl becoming a woman and developing through puberty. This is the sticking point for most critics that claim that this movie is inappropriate for children. I would argue that the people who think that blatantly believe that women’s issues shouldn’t be commonly discussed in any capacity, let alone children's media.
This movie is made with the intent for teen girls to normalize their changing bodies. That makes some critics uncomfortable. However, their discomfort at seeing this is due to the misogyny that is rampant in our culture.
(A Turning Red hot take from a "misguided parent or puritanical adult")
The implication above is very clear: Somehow this Pixar film featuring a main female-teenaged protagonist cannot be a "family favorite" along the lines of Ratatouille or Cars (presumably because the author relates to rats and motorized vehicles more than Chinese Canadian teens, but what can I say). The author of the post criticizes the very notion that teenaged girls can't "find themselves," and should listen to their parents, as if this would make a better movie (as if Nemo from Finding Nemo didn't literally swim into open ocean to get away from his smothering father). And- once more- the edgiest, most progressive thing about this movie is that it mentions periods and shows what a pad looks like. If we're going by that standard, every Always commercial has been promoting progressive adult themes since the mid 20th century.
It’s the Twilight problem again, in which people are forced to confront the fact that the thing they don’t like is widely hated just because teenaged girls like it or see themselves in it. As soon as teenaged girls stop liking it, it becomes more socially acceptable to enjoy the media that was so popular many years ago (take the Twilight Renaissance, for example). This can impact both women and men, and it runs deep in our society.
To put it simply, our society hates teenaged girls. (That is to say, despite teenaged girls being the biggest driver of economic trends) We can appeal to them only so much before we start making fun of the things they enjoy or the things they think, because ultimately our culture cares more about the ideas of middle-aged men than a new generation of women.
Rachel Shukert, the showrunner of the recently canceled Netflix show, The Baby-Sitter’s Club, essentially confirmed this in her Variety exit-interview:
Shukert’s whole interview was incredibly interesting, and several good points were made throughout about children’s media for young girls. I highly recommend reading the whole thing.
I still argue that Turning Red is an important movie for everyone to watch, not just teenaged girls. I think if more people watched it and learned about the difficulties associated with growing up as a teenaged girl, they would have more empathy for them, even if they don’t (quote-unquote) “relate.”
You don’t have to menstruate to relate, everybody. We’ve all been teenagers before. Adolescence is awkward no matter if you’re a boy, a girl, or a nonbinary teenager. Middle school was rough for all of us.
Growing up can be awkward and terrible and really embarrassing, but Turning Red explores this in a way that is both kid and preteen friendly.
Hell, I’m an adult and this movie made me cry.
I really had a good time with Turning Red, and as someone who watches a lot of kid’s movies, I would say that this movie is definitely appropriate for people of all ages.
Overall, I really liked this movie. I laughed, I cried, I thought about all of the insane crushes I had when I was thirteen…
Even though I wasn’t a teenager in the early 2000s, Mei and her friends felt real in a way that was so close to home. I really liked this film and how it represented growth and maturity, without forcing anyone to grow up too fast or completely turn their back on their true identity.
I enjoyed Turning Red. If nothing else, I was thoroughly amazed at how this movie accurately captured how it felt to be an awkward teenager. Because of that, I would give this movie a B+.
Thank you for reading everyone!
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Ming was one of the most compelling characters, especially being the "villain" of the movie. I love how it shows a young girl getting into an argument with her mom and still finding a compromise that makes the both of them bond. I think the last time we saw a major mother/daughter relationship in a Disney film was Brave, which isn't that memorable of a film. You're totally right, society hates teenage girls despite the fact that teenage girls are major consumers and have a lot of stuff marketed towards them.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great review of Turning Red - I agree, the magic of stories is that you get to empathize with people that aren't you, and hopefully you walk away from the experience as a more thoughtful person. It's a shame that so many people were grossed out or turned away by how female-centric this story is.
As a queer person myself, I wasn't too offended by the lack of queer presentation in this story - I've given up on Disney films having gay characters, but Disney TV shows seem to be picking up the slack on that. It's easier to censor TV shows than films, and Disney doesn't want to loose money from audiences that are more hateful of queer people.
What I do hope though is that many young girls got to see themselves in Turning Red, as it covered the awkwardness and joy that you experience at that age.