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Nov 17, 2021 · US Release Date: March 11, 2022 Starring: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh Directed By: Domee Shi Synopsis: In "Turning Red", Mei Lee is a confident, dorky thirteen-year-old torn between staying her...
- 2 min
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- Rotten Tomatoes Family
Nov 17, 2021 · Check out the new trailer and poster showcasing the upcoming all-new original feature film “Turning Red” from Pixar Animation Studios’ director Domee Shi, who won an Oscar® for her 2018...
- 2 min
- 9M
- Disney UK
Apr 15, 2022 · Domee Shi, director for Disney and Pixar's 2022 film "Turning Red," admitted to The Washington Post video game team that she actively games, playing games like Pokemon, Red Dead Redemption...
- 28 min
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- Washington Post Gaming
- A hilarious, visually inspired knockout.
- What's your favorite recent Pixar movie?
- Disney+ Spotlight: March 2022
- Verdict
By Siddhant Adlakha
Posted: Mar 7, 2022 2:00 pm
Turning Red will debut on Disney+ and on limited theaters on March 11, 2022.
It’s a shame that Turning Red won’t have a wide theatrical release, given its wealth of laugh- and/or cheer-out-loud moments. While Pixar’s recent output has welcomed adults with open arms — people who likely grew up watching the studio’s original films — their latest feels unapologetically in-tune with younger audiences, both narratively and aesthetically, without compromising the heart and humor that makes these movies shine. Directed by Domee Shi, whose short film Bao preceded Incredibles 2, it’s a mile-a-minute romp set in Toronto in the early aughts, about a young Chinese Canadian teenager whose puberty brings about complications that are equal parts personal, cultural, and magical. They also result in an endearing and enjoyable story about family and friendship, with parables for growing up that are extremely on the nose (as they should be for a kids’ movie), but which arrive in the kind of inspired creative packaging that Pixar has needed for some time.
The year is 2002, and 13-year-old Meilin Lee (Rosalie Chang) has just about managed to find balance between excelling at school, spending time with her close-knit friend group, and helping her protective mother, Ming (Sandra Oh), oversee Toronto’s oldest Chinese temple. Even before we meet our spry young protagonist, her introductory voiceover comes steeped in a spunky attitude — a confidence that is tested when, one morning, she wakes up having transformed into a giant red panda. Feeling like a bloated monster, she tip-toes around Ming and her father, Jin (Orion Lee), drowning in anxious self-consciousness as she tries to navigate her changing body. However, what seems like an obvious menstruation metaphor grows delightfully complicated when Ming turns out to be less-than-surprised by Meilin’s transformations, which appear to be triggered by intense emotions. As it turns out, this particular problem runs in the family.
The stakes of Turning Red are both smaller and more personal than you might expect. Meilin’s predicament no doubt drives the familial conflict, as her mother tries to help her keep it under wraps (and keep her feelings bottled up, lest she Hulk out). However, this tension soon becomes entwined with a story of Meilin and her three best friends trying to see their favorite boy band live in concert, a scenario that both clashes with Meilin’s unpredictable changes, and ties a neat bow on themes that get rightfully messy, between the lofty expectations of an immigrant family, navigating a mother-daughter relationship (at a time when it’s sure to become more fraught), being conditioned to keep your emotions in check as a teenage girl, and growing up alongside pals who are just as confused and hormonal as you are.
Every dramatic transition has its own zippy lighting cue, which makes the film a joke-filled ride, but its visual gags always enhance the tension and emotions rather than undercutting them. A group of Meilin’s aunties, who enter the story at a pivotal time, arrive like Hollywood movie stars drenched in floodlights, while the attractive boy band sensation 4-Town — a reflection of early 2000s pop, but with a Korean member to place them in today’s zeitgeist — are practically angels accompanied by divine sunlight. Even Meilin’s outbursts warp the entire fabric of the film around her, since she begins to see herself as a beastly inconvenience, unworthy of taking up space, until her friends and family convince her otherwise.
Most of all, it’s a movie that’s frank about the most awkward moments of puberty, from embarrassment over burgeoning sexuality, to inexplicable anger, to dealing with bodily insecurity, which it turns into lively and imaginative scenes at every turn. There’s never a dull moment in Turning Red, both because Shi and co-writer Julia Cho lace each beat and interaction with layers of meaning, and because the whole thing comes wrapped in cartoon influences that value expression above realism, which is something modern Hollywood animation occasionally forgets.
A story of magical transformation as a metaphor for personal and cultural change, Turning Red (from Bao director Domee Shi) is Pixar’s funniest and most imaginative film in years. It captures the wild energy of adolescence, uses pop stars as a timeless window into puberty, and tells a tale of friendship and family in the most delightfully kid-frien...
- Siddhant Adlakha
Turning Red Review. 9. EDITORS' CHOICE. Review scoring. amazing. Turning Red is Pixar’s funniest and most artistically imaginative film in years. Siddhant Adlakha. Read Review. Summary. A...
Nov 17, 2021 · Disney and Pixar's Turning Red introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother's dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence.
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Mar 7, 2022 · Pixar’s Turning Red, from Bao director Domee Shi, is a great film that embraces quirkiness, Asian-American life, and big action. The movie releases on Disney Plus on March 11.
