Turning Red – Review
Set in Toronto Canada, Turning Red is the latest film to come out of Pixar. The film tells the tale of Mei Lee (voiced by newcomer Rosalie Chiang), a young, booksmart, eager to please tween on the cusp of puberty who lives for three things, for her close set of friends, for the dashing boyband 4*town and for the good graces of her parents, particularly her mother Ming (Sandra Oh). Puberty and pushy parents are hard enough for anyone, but Mei’s additional problem of turning into a giant red panda whenever her emotions flare up adds the additional spark to proceedings.
From the moment the film begins the audience is welcomed into the world by the main character, breaking the fourth wall to set things up for us all. Those who grew up in a world where Tamagochi’s, boy bands and CD players where an unavoidable part of being a kid, you’ll be taken away by a rush of nostalgia that will last throughout the movie.
Mei’s friendship group are a bedrock for this film, without such well developed and recognisable characters this film be quite flat. In Miriam you have the laid back friend who you can rely on, in Priya you have the cool deadpan friend and in Abby you have the fist throwing maniac. You’ll either recognise your own school friends in amongst them and if you don’t you were one of them. Her friendship group propel Mei through a storyline that keeps outdoing itself with embarrassing encounters, school day dramas, fundraising frolics, mother-daughter mayhem right the way through to the family sized epic ending.
Whilst there are no overt antagonists in this film, the mother-daughter relationship serves to add pressure and obstacles to Mei who is simultaneously keen to please her power suit wearing parent and have the time of her life at a 4*town concert with her friends. The misplaced love creates the much needed drama and heart of the story and whilst her mother is well meaning, her nature leads to some toe curling moments for Mei. Mei’s mother is also a link to the mystical side of this film, which sees an ancient family curse turn Mei into a giant red panda.
Turning Red (Image © 2022 Disney/Pixar)
The conceit of turning into a giant red panda is brilliant, it’s original and hilarious but of course the first thing people will point out is that this is a film about a girl getting her period. It didn’t take the hilarious scene where Mei’s mother rushes to the bathroom with armfuls of tampons to make that one clear. This is something I had never thought I would see in a film like this, but why not? 50% of the planet go through it, so we shouldn’t be surprised when real life becomes a platform for such grounded comedy and storytelling as it does in this film. The intense relationship between Mei and Ming is clearly rooted in reality and with that we get a film that delivers something genuine and true to itself from Director Domee Shi.
If we can hope for anything from this true representation of what it is to be a young woman it is that future producers and studio heads recognise that this is a film that could only have been made by a woman. Having female leads is nothing new – The Mitchells vs the Machines was a hugely successful film with a female lead too, however at it’s core Katie was playing the role of a creative outcast, a role which Director Michael Rainda poured his empathic experiences into, but one which ultimately could have been performed by a male character and so the role of a daughter mined to drive the story like it is in Turning Red, though that was not what Mitchells was striving for. With this in mind Turning Red picks up the refreshing work started by Mitchells and breaks new ground and will hopefully give Hollywood an excuse to allow more stories that can only be told by women to be told.
Turning Red (Image © 2022 Disney/Pixar)
Turning Red doesn’t just break new ground in storytelling, but also aesthetically. The way that the film borrows from 2D in it’s bold action and the characters facial expressions provides a limitless way of ensuring that the characters are enjoyable to watch. The use of 2D in the film is complimentary to the films east/west influences, ramping up to the monster-sized finale. The lighting and colour language is also noteworthy, with a pastel hue to the entire film that evokes tweenage nostalgia or clashes of red and green that show the split between Mei and her mother. There are a couple of moments where both the facial animation and lighting come together to create some outstanding quick zooms into the characters face to push an embarrassing encounter or an angry stand off, and these moments showcase the brilliant engineering behind the storytelling. The designers and animators have clearly been given as much freedom as needed to get this story told properly.
It’s been a while since Pixar have managed to capture a spark as wild as this in their filmmaking. Onward didn’t really take Pixar in any new direction and many thought Soul seemed to lack what the title promised. Whilst the recent Pixar features have been amongst the more original offerings in the sequel filled, celeb voiced and dance number laden genre of American CG family features, they have not been hitting the same mark that productions Sony have been. This is down to one thing – personality, something that a lot of animated films today think can be easily delivered by a celebrity or a wacky sidekick character. Turning Red realises this and is packed with the right type of personality and this enchanting blend of epic fantasy, heartwarming friendship and characterful family drama deserves to put the name Pixar back on the lips of film fans everywhere.
Turning Red is available on Disney + from the 11 March 2022