Yesterday I watched the new Pixar-movie “Turning Red”. I was very excited about this one because I really liked its trailer which I had seen back in 2021. It is a Family/Comdey/Fantasy animation movie. It starrs Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Lori Tan Chinn – just to name a few. It was directed by Domee Shi. It was released on March 11th 2022 onto Disney+. It is the first Disney movie which was direct by a woman of color.
Onto its premise: Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang) is a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh), is never far from her daughter – an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda.
The movie is set in 2002. In Toronto, Canada. Our lead character Maeilin, a 23-year-old girl whose quirky and does everything in her power for her mother’s approval! They are working at Chinese temple honoring their ancestors who turned into a red panda to protect their families once the men were at war… In her family all the women turn into red pandas once they hit 13 years of age and when they can’t control their emotions… so did Maeilin and her mother.. which I will tell you more about her later.
One morning, Mae finds herself transformed into a red panda and her parents starting freaking out because they think that she got her period. But it’s later revealed to us that her mom used to not control her panda as well therefore had to learn to tame it by turning it into a red piece of jewelry.
I really liked the nostalgia I felt when I watched this movie like the boy bands, Tanagocghis (don’t know how it’s spelled…) the iPods etc. it’s loveable somewhat anime-like characters and those homages and Easter eggs towards old Pixar movies such as Toy Story or Monsters Inc.
The characters feel very authentic and relatable. All the supernatural stuff aside, this is really a story about a girl trying to find her place in this world and THAT is very relatable to me and I’m sure to you as well.
I really liked the ending and the climax of this movie and also it’s script and certain scenes like how those were visually appealing and the atmosphere changes when Mae goes from emotion to emotion..
I was so excited to hear a small voice cameo or the singer Anne-Marie as I’m a huge fan of hers. She did great. So did the rest of the cast.
I could recognize myself in it a lot as my teenage years were very similar to hers (Maeilin) and my family dynamics as well. I learned something new about my experiences back then it it was a trip down memory lane for me. Since the 2002’s were my tween years…
They’re not a lot of movies, which normalize significant parts of puberty as much as this one does, which is a bonus point to me.
If you like Pixar movies, this will be a great one for you! Therefore it is “worth a watch” in my opinion!
For more information visit-> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8097030/
Movie reviews with ceren 