Turning Red Review: Emotionally Resonant, Ambitious Animation Is A Pixar Best
Domee Shi's feature film debut as a director — she also won an Oscar for Pixar's Bao — is also a list of firsts. Turning Red is the first animated film to be helmed by a woman of color (Shi is Chinese-Canadian) and perhaps the first to be helmed by a woman from beginning to end. (Read Brenda Chapman’s statement regarding being replaced on Brave here.) Turning Red has a lively expression in its animation style and storytelling that comes from an immensely personal place. The connection that one feels for the characters and world-building are sourced from Shi and her creative team, including co-writer Julia Cho, sharing parts of their formative years with the audience. While many Pixar films have strong thematic messaging and narratives that resonate, Turning Red is perhaps the most personal of projects as it depicts a deeply intimate familial relationship — the bond between mother and daughter.
Turning Red is significant for several reasons that inform the characters, narrative, and themes of the film. In the opening scenes, audiences are not only introduced to Meilin «Mei» Lee’s playful world, but they're also welcomed into Shi’s own past. The film follows Mei (Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between remaining her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother Ming (Sandra Oh) is never far from her daughter. The usual shenanigans that come with growing up are hard enough, but whenever Mei gets too emotional, she “poofs” into a giant red panda, and turning into a fluffy red panda (something which has a connection to her family) was certainly not something Mei factored into her adolescence.
Related: Domee Shi & Lindsey Collins Interview:
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