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2022
PG
Director: Domee Shi
Starring: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen etc.
Mei Lee is a confident, dorky 13 year old torn between staying her mothers dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Changes to her interests, relationships and body are beginning to happen plus whenever she gets too excited she transforms into a giant red panda. I absolutely loved this and Pixar further cements themselves as the greatest animation studio out there.
The animation was incredible and very impressive to look at. The Asian representation was great and handled with a lot of depth and respect. The film had a unique, fun and charming tone. The pacing was great and flowed very smoothly. The voice work was great. Particularly from Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan. This film had some amazing and insightful themes on finding yourself, balancing friends and family, and the fear of not being perfect for your family. Really diving deep into what it is to be a mother and what is considered overprotective, also the more adult themes and metaphors for growing up and hitting puberty were great. The worldbuilding was fun, with some really interesting moments, plus the movie was hilarious. The characters were likeable, and the character design for the red pandas was adorable.
The character background was great with some good stakes to the plot. There was great chemistry between the characters and voice cast and some good plot development between all the different characters relationships. The character and the film managing to find the balance between Mei's relationship with her family and friends was great. With a fun final act with just the right amount of emotional weight.
My only slight criticism was that the set up for Mei becoming the Panda felt rushed and could of been executed in a more interesting way.
Overall, Turning Red is beautifully animated, fun and charming. With some very insightful and important messages about growing up, and for me is one of Pixar's strongest films.
Overall Score: 97/100.
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Wow, Disney and Pixar hit the ball out of the park yet again with their new Turning Red movie, now streaming on Disney+. I found this movie to be an absolute blast from start to finish. I know so many people like the girls depicted in this movie and it’s so great to see people that act like my real friends in a movie. And it helps that there is a Tyler in this movie. Rosalie Chiang is a true delight, bringing so much character and personality to Mei. Sandra Oh plays such a great overbearing mother that I’m sure a lot of people can relate to. Ava Morse, Hyein Park, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan play some of the best movie friends I’ve seen, they are all so fun and unique. Tristan Allerick Chen’s Tyler gets a lot more to do than you’ll be expecting but I think you’ll like what they do with him. Orion Lee is really good as Mei’s Dad, coming in clutch with multiple important scenes. I never thought that I’d see pads in a Pixar movie or so many outright period allusions, nor did I think I’d hear the word “stripper” but these are all things that are in this movie. That’s right, Turning Red is a metaphor for periods, get over it. I can’t imagine how important this movie could be for a little girl going through her first period and puberty. There’s even some very subtle LGBTQ+ nods, but of course, never outright when it comes to Disney. Which sucks because our community has given this company so much money. This movie has so much personality and full of great characters representing a great culture. The representation here is pretty great, from random background characters being from cultures not normally represented to a little girl having a diabetes patch. Now, I was 2 years old when it was 2002 so I can’t claim to be super nostalgic for the setting of the movie but it was really nice the work they did to make you believe it was 2002. The Toronto setting is really great, the animation makes not just the city but everything look good. There are some really great images in this that I want screen grabbed and made into wallpapers. There is so much about Turning Red to like, make sure if you’re watching with a younger kid that you’ve had the puberty talk. 9/10. -Tyler.
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