Turning Red

Voices of: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Sherry Cola
Directed by: Domee Shi
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2022

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A 13 year-old girl transforms into a giant red panda and learns about her family's secret history.

Review:

Tim: I have to say, I truly disliked Turning Red. Pixar has never been immune to missteps, but this movie breaks a fairly long winning streak for them. It's easily the worst movie since Cars 2, over a decade ago. This is a film that had an interesting premise, but it totally fails on the execution. I honestly believe this is such an overrated movie- I fundamentally don't believe nearly every critic liked this movie. I'm really surprised it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Are you kidding me?

I think people got caught up in Pixar breaking outside of the bonds of conventionality. The movie starts out by telling this story that's a thinly veiled analogy to a girl experiencing puberty. Some of this will make parents uncomfortable, but there's value in it, too. The movie also pushes representation, which is a great thing. We need more films to depict cultures and people who have too long been relegated to the sidelines and the margins in motion pictures. Yes, those are all great attributes and I'm glad the movie embraced them. But that doesn't make this a good movie. Critics couldn't or wouldn't see past the outer layer to realize the movie is surprisingly shallow.

More than anything, I'm surprised by the lack of entertainment in this. I was so bored, so uninterested in the characters and most of the story. It's like Domee Shi spent all her time and energy focusing on the ways this film would be unique and different in the Pixar world and forgot to tell an interesting and enjoyable story at the foundational level. The film starts to pull together a bit towards the end, but it's far too little, too late.

The film treats its characters in an odd way. There's this weird combination of the characters having a cliched lack of substance, paired with a deeper exploration of Chinese-Canadian culture. I loved the focus from a representation standpoint, but I disliked how it was executed in the film. First up, I just had a bunch of problems with the ways the group of girls were portrayed. It felt like the movie painted them as cliched teenage girls- not a ton of thoughts in their heads, but man, were they obsessed with this boy band. I couldn't tell you any of their names- I vaguely know what they looked like, but they were ultimately faceless and interchangeable. I thought these characters (especially the supporting ones) deserved better. If they were the protagonist's main friends, they deserved more personality and care. They should have been treated as more than "dumb girl friends", which they often ended up being. I mostly disliked the depiction of the younger characters. It felt like teenage girls told through the eyes of an adult who hadn't completely come to terms with their own teenage years, while callously forgetting what it was like to be at that age. All apologies to Domee Shi, but that's the truth.

I also hated the depiction of the Chinese-Canadian culture. This really frustrated me because we so rarely ever get to see this culture on screen. When underrepresented cultures are shown to wide audiences, they deserve better than this. Much of it is fine- I loved the exposure for younger audiences to a culture that may be different from their own. What I hated was the depiction of the mother. Yes, it feels stereotypical of the "overbearing Chinese mother", but what I hated were the extremes. The overprotectedness here was ludicrous. I'm not suggesting no one would behave this way, but Shi wants to capture the awkwardness of teenage years, especially towards feelings about their family. But, the mother here engages in absurd levels of being overprotective. She's clueless, borderline abusive in some ways. But, it's mostly okay, because she learns something by the end. I just strongly disliked the entire characterization of the mother and how she treated her daughter. I admit some of my frustration comes from the slightly higher level of maturity in this film- it was a lot for my kids to take in. But, outside of that, I would have disliked this approach even had I watched the movie alone.

I also thought the depiction of the Red Panda never fully capitalized on this strength. The idea of a girl turning into a red panda as a period/puberty analogy is really interesting. But, it's never really fully leveraged here. She uses this newfound power to make some money and perform at a birthday party? I'm not sure the analogy made sense after a certain point. I was frankly shocked at how uninteresting I found a girl who could turn into a giant red panda because of her emotions! Come on, this should have been so compelling!

Look, I recognize that a lot of people around the world disliked this movie for not-good reasons. Anything that feels "woke" will certain groups of cretins fired up. It almost feels like critics fell into this trap- I don't want to be included in that group, this movie does offer underrepresented people a chance to shine, Domee Shi is the first woman to direct a Pixar film solo- that has to mean it's good! I love those things for this movie, but Turning Red isn't good. That's the bottom line. It never should have been nominated for an Academy Award. It's the worst Pixar movie in a decade. I love the premise and the idea, but the execution just ruined this film.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Cars 2, Lightyear, The Good Dinosaur, Bao