Turning Red — Review Thread

Dude, just 12 hours ago I was at my computer doing work.  I saw an ad for Turning Red and wasn't sure what it was.  I watched the clip and saw 'Pixar...Disney+...NOW STREAMING.'  Within 2 minutes that thing was playing on my TV and for the next 30 beautiful, sweet minutes I was given a reprieve from Encanto.  God bless you, Turning Red.

Clint Eastwood has already cast his longtime co-star, Chair, in a movie about the Canadian truckers.

So Doomsday & SnoBorderZero, check out the Making-Of. It’s crazy to see people our age writing-directing Pixar movies. Our time has arrived. But it also makes me sad cause I feel I haven’t accomplished anything. At least Doomsday gets to make Deadpool 3. That fucker.

This was just downright delightful.

Mei

I'll ask

It’s acknowledged but it’s not discussed directly. They also wanted to make a movie about a tiger mom (derogatory term for Asian mom).

Turning Red(5/7/2022)
As I’ve said a number of times recently I’m a bit of a defender of latter day Pixar, which I think gets held to a bit of an unfair standard by critics, so it’s interesting that their latest film Turning Red is their first film in a while where I’m actually less enthused than the critical consensus. That isn’t to say that there isn’t a lot here to like. The film looks at a thirteen year old girl from a Chinese immigrant family who suddenly turns into a human sized red panda one morning and learns that this is a family curse and that she needs to just endure for a month before it can be exorcised through a ritual when the moon is in a specific alignment. The film’s director, Domee Shi, has been very vocal about the fact that the film (minus the whole red panda thing) is drawing from her own childhood memories and the conflicts she had with her mother, who I think would qualify as what they call a “Tiger Mom.” The film does a good job or really putting you in this protagonist’s perspective and you can definitely see why her mother’s behavior would seem rather mortifying to her. The problem though is that I don’t think the red panda part holds together even a little as a metaphor. Many have viewed these transformations as being about anxiety over puberty, which makes sense initially but with very few exceptions puberty isn’t something you can decide to stop or not stop at a certain point and it’s also not something that’s exclusive to any one family. I suppose this could be more of a statement about the Chinese traditionalist family demanding people like this character repress their sexual urges, which is a much less comfortable thing to try to talk about critically for a variety of reasons and is kind of a weird thing to make a Pixar movie about. There’s probably something there but I don’t think it works cleanly and I can’t say I was terribly impressed by the film’s chaotic kaiju inspired ending. In general I think I would have liked it better if it was a straight coming of age story with no red panda hijinks but at that point why are you making a Pixar animation? There’s enough in the film to make it worth a watch but I think it’s kind of a confused movie in a lot of ways.

*** out of Five