Alright! Today I’m reviewing Pixar’s latest Disney+ premier, the 25th film in their catalog - Turning Red, a story about a 13-year-old Chinese Canadian lass who turns into a giant red panda every time she gets anxious - which, if you’ve dealt with middle school or puberty before, is just about all the time for a 13-year-old.
The story is full of fun and for the most part a really relatable adventure. The stakes are relatively light, but your attention never strays from the movie for a moment. It is, for the most part, a fairly fun movie with enough entertainment value to be watched and enjoyed. And that's the most baseline of a compliment you can say, but that's what feels applicable here.
Turning Red joins the ranks of Pixar's recent "Yes. This is a movie that I watched" movies. But while I can laud Soul for at least trying to touch on a deep existential crisis and Luca's nostalgic feel, Turning Red doesn't have too much going on. In many ways, it feels like the Pixar equivalent of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It's consistently funny and distinct enough to be memorable, but it's not going to be anyone's favorite Pixar movie.
The animation is refreshingly distinct. For yet another compare/contrast, it does not have the Wallace and Gromit look that Luca had. Turning Red feels like a Peanuts comic but with a giant red panda. It looks good and fits the tone of the film while not being too reminiscent of other movies from the company. That's a win in my book.
The movie is also a fun twist on the overdone "I've got a secret I have to hide to create the movie's conflict" trope that I despise so vehemently. By creating a message of unwavering acceptance and understanding (And profiting from said extremities), a far more interesting and unique movie is made. It helps too that Mei, despite being the 25th protagonist from Pixar and, like, 85th protagonist from animated Disney in general, feels completely new. She's excessively bubbly and boy-crazy in a way no movie has dared to depict.
Turning Red is admirably adamant about the themes of family and acceptance, and it's a rather heartwarming message for the relatively small film. However, the stakes are so large to the characters you end up caring greatly about what happens to them. If I had thought the restaurant scene in Incredibles II would be the most embarrassing thing Pixar snuck into a movie, well, I was wrong. Turning Red features a great balance of physical and cringe comedy, and is likely to be the last time menstruation is hinted at in a kid's movie.
But what really derails the movie for me is the finale. The movie had been so focused on a "grounded" story with a red panda that the sudden shift to a Kaiju-inspired action finale where twerking saves the day is such a jarring shift that the movie lost me. My attention was there for an hour, but the last half hour of the movie becomes predictable.
Although it attempts to stick the landing in typical Pixar fashion via a heartfelt conversation with parents, the hard-hitting dialogue is lost after such a bloated finale. Had the damage been represented in a more emotional way than a physical-destroy-the-stadium way, yeah. The audience would be bawling. But as it stands, it's a perfectly okay movie that gets a bit too big for the story.
Overall, I give Turning Red a 7/10. “Fun and fancy-free, Turning Red is an amiable adventure of heartfelt familial bonds.”
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| #19 on my list of Pixar movies. |
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