Growing up has its problems. Screenshot: Disney/Pixar
Based on director Domi Shi’s upbringing in Canada in the early 2000s, Pixar’s Turning Red epitomizes an era when teenagers lived entirely online. It’s a real nostalgic high school hit with flip phones, hidden note passing and boy bands. But what’s most remarkable, aside from finally having more content about growing up happening outside of the ’80s, is how timeless the sudden transitions from baby to puberty are.
Everyone has had to go through the moment when their parent or guardian realizes that he is no longer a child, and this is always unpleasant. There is a moment in the first act of Turning Red where you bring Ratatouille back to that nightmare memory. You’ll be yelling at the screen, hoping that the movie’s protagonist May (Rosalie Chan) is just having a bad dream when her mother Ming (Sandra Oh) discovers what she’s hiding under her bed. This is the most intense case of sympathetic second-hand embarrassment that is all too real. And that’s before Mei transforms into a giant red panda.
Shea, along with co-writer Julia Cho, give us a charmingly comedic exploration of the journey of a teenage girl through every confusing moment of entering adolescence. On a cultural level, through May’s Asian-Canadian family, the film speaks to societal patterns that women must conform to that don’t completely change even when East meets West. Whether it’s cotillions, bat mitzvahs, or quinceaneras, femininity usually comes with the expectation that the proverbial Pandora’s box will be delivered with a bow that hides its true nature. For Mei, this true nature is simply part of her family history and is that sometimes female offspring can transform into a giant red panda when they get emotional.
Screenshot: Disney/Pixar
Mei faithfully represents the generation that began to separate when she immediately embraced her inner panda with pride. Her mother has other plans, trying to prepare Mei for the traditional act of suppressing him. Her mother’s furious overprotection is not played out to turn on powerful parental images, but to destroy them. Teenage anxiety breaks out, and Mei secretly rebelliously resists. Instead, she leans on her friends Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreii Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyun Pak) to embrace the changes she’s going through, even as Mei begins to realize she’s recklessly living her truth to see it. her favorite boy band can spark family rage like she’s never seen before. On her hilarious journey to use her panda powers to get to a 4*Town concert with her friends (a perfect pastiche of the era’s boy band heartthrobs), Mei allows herself to stumble over the awkwardness of boys and the clash of emotions between who she’s with. her friends against the ideal daughter, she is at home. Although fantastical in direction, it touches on feelings that are all too real.
Life among teenagers in “Blushing” is portrayed with genuine realism, even when it comes to the “rough” things of puberty like menstrual pads or arousal. Is a girl’s metaphorical sexual awakening really shocking compared to, say, movie scenes where parents find their son’s crispy socks, or countless movies where boys’ coming-of-age focuses on their virginity bets? Women have long had to empathize with the portrayals of youth in global cinema that have focused on the male gaze. A teenager who turns into a big red hormonal energy clot on the way to self-discovery should not cause sympathy compared to him. Spiritually, “Blushing” has more in common with “Stupid Movie,” which is about the relationship between parents and children as they grow up, fall in love, and just have to go to a concert, okay? (The song 4*Town, created for the film by Billie Eilish and Finneas, the latter of whom provides the voice of one of the teenage heartthrobs, is definitely an earworm.)
Screenshot: Disney/Pixar
Turning Red is Pixar’s outstanding achievement, enriching and diversifying the coming-of-age stories so often depicted in movies and other media. Despite the restrictions placed on his creatives, when it comes to tackling certain themes, Shi still manages to create a deeply personal painting. Music, fashion choices, the gap between school and family life… it’s all here, like opening a memory pad with a gel pen out of a box somewhere in a warehouse. Through Mei, her friends, and her family, we see how affirming love can be so inspiring, especially when we break generational rituals together, and how we really need our real and found families to honor themselves the way our ancestors did. t is able.
Red Transformation is now streaming on Disney+.
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