Turning Red Review
Growing up is never easy, and this is an aspect of life that has been covered countless times in film and television. Animated movies, in particular, often mine this theme for story potential. Pixar's latest project, Turning Red, is no exception to this rule, but the movie manages to put a fresh spin on the trope, while couching it in some truly wonderful animation that takes inspiration from a number of different sources.
Directed and co-written by Domee Shi, who previously won an Academy Award for the excellent animated short Bao, Turning Red tells the story of Meilin Lee, a 13-year-old girl living in Toronto in the early 2000s, whose life is suddenly changed when she discovers that intense emotions make her turn into a giant red panda. It's a fairly simple premise, but the script and direction take this story so much deeper.
Pixar's Turning Red Headed Straight To Disney Plus Instead Of Theaters
It would be fairly easy to say that Meilin's affliction is a metaphor for puberty, considering that her first transformation follows a whirlwind of sketching the cute boy who works at the local convenience store in the margins of her math homework, but Turning Red refuses such simplification of its themes. This is a story that is as much about a girl going through major life changes as it is about family legacy, living up to parental expectations, and Meilin forging a path of her own.
As a protagonist, Meilin is a breath of fresh air. She is both an overachiever and compellingly confident. She is proud of her many academic and extracurricular achievements, allowing those to bolster her already strong personality. This isn't always the case for this type of main character. Screenwriters have a tendency to make their intelligent
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