Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Turning Red’ on Disney+, Pixar’s Red Panda Party

Curious, how Disney chose to release the latest Pixar animated gem Turning Red exclusively on Disney+. Movie theaters have been making slow, steady progress out of crippling pandemic doldrums, and you’d think a movie like this might A) help further lift the business out of a depression, and B) beg for a biggest-screen-possible presentation. This action almost seems like a vote of no-confidence on Disney’s part, as if Turning Red – a (gasp) original concept from Pixar’s first-ever female director, Domee Shi – lacks the familiarity audiences allegedly need to draw people out of their homes to the local popcorn house. (The Mouse House appears to show no hesitation about releasing Toy Story spinoff Lightyear to theaters later this year.) Maybe Disney just doesn’t realize that what they have on their hands here is pretty damn delightful.

TURNING RED: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Mei (voice of Rosalie Chiang) is coming of age biologically (read: slamming headfirst into puberty at about 150 km/hr) at the worst possible time: the height of the boy-band craze. It’s 2002. Mei is 13. Lives in urban Toronto. In grade eight, as they say in Canada (and that’s why I used “km” above). Overachiever: Math, flute, more math, spelling, even more math. Three besties: Miriam (Ava Morse), Abby (Hyein Park) and Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). The band: 4*Town, and if it confuses you that there are five members, you’re not alone, and you’re also probably not a teenage girl.

This sounds like a pretty good life, until you factor in Mei’s mother. Ming (Sandra Oh) is a loving, caring dictatorial matriarch who makes Mei adhere to strict schedules and wouldn’t let her come within 150 km of a 4*Town concert, because that’s drivel and Mei should be doing something constructively proactively educational, or at least something right by her mother’s side. They and the local dad of the family, Jin (Orion Lee) – who’s a sweet, quiet man, possibly with some Ming tire tracks on his back – run a Chinese temple, giving tours and selling souvenirs. The temple honors a goddess named Sun Yee, an ancestor of Ming’s family, and the red panda spirit; two red panda statues flank the temple entrance, and if Mei hasn’t endeared herself to us enough already, she named them Bart and Lisa.

Mei and her friends crush on an older boy, prompting our protagonist to – oh jeez – compulsively sketch him as a merman in her notebook. Ming does not take this well, and Mei isn’t so sure about it herself. To say Ming embarrasses her daughter over this development is to call a tsunami a ripple in a rain puddle. Intense mortification plus the onset of chemical hormonal processes inspires a monster to emerge from Mei: She transforms into a red panda so big, she bumps her head on the ceiling and busts her bed. Hearing a commotion coming from the bathroom, Ming inquires, “Did the red peony bloom?” and, let’s face it, this is all barely even a metaphor. Mei’s emotions go kapow, and she transforms into a large, very cute and very furry animal. No explanations of menstruation needed; maybe just a couple perfectly calibrated jokes about feminine hygiene. Funny thing is, when Ming realizes this is happening to Mei, Ming doesn’t flip out. She sighs and explains that the same thing happened to her. It’s a family curse, and Mei initially struggles to come to grips with it. But she will. And it’s funny how generational perspectives can differ, because maybe it’s not a curse at all, but a blessing.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Time for a crossover: It’s red pandas vs. tanuki in a battle for Far East cuteness supremacy in Turning Red vs. Pom Poko: Dawn of Justice. Notably, Shi was a storyboard artist for Pixar classic Inside Out, which also addressed a girl’s adolescent emotional development; considering its drama unfolds literally inside the protagonist’s mind, Inside Out is pretty much yin to Turning Red’s yang.

Performance Worth Watching Hearing: Rosalie Chiang’s voice work perfectly captures the joy and exasperation of post-tween young womandom.

Memorable Dialogue: “What the HECK is TOLEDO?” – Abby gets in a dig at Ohio, as any reasonable person would

You’ll also cheer Mei’s defiant proclamation: “I like boys, I like loud music, I like gyrating! I’m 13! Deal with it!”

Sex and Skin: None, although I think Panda Mei twerks a little bit during the “gyrating” scene.

Our Take: Loving Mei is easy; disliking her mother, less so. Ming is never the cut-and-dried villain of Turning Red – sure, her parenting can be characterized as clueless blundering, as she doesn’t understand that tightening her grip on her daughter is only making the situation worse. Once Ming’s own mother arrives on the scene to exert some grandmotherly influence (or force?), we understand that rigidity is being passed down like a family heirloom. The generation gap is at play here, the war waged between self-denial and self-acceptance, and the more you ponder it, the more you realize both are an act of discipline. This is where the film comes to life thematically, becoming a story about not just the inevitable conflicts inherent in raising children, in the dynamics of motherhood and womanhood. It’s also about the value of breaking tradition, especially as people understand the science of themselves better, as emotional, biological beings.

That’s Turning Red as an intellectual exercise and upper-tier Pixar outing. Neither will you be shocked to learn that it’s chock-full of panda antics, musical parody and broad plot conflicts – a rare opportunity to alter Mei’s fate falls on the same date as (gasp) the big 4*Town concert, which is utter tragedy for a 13-year-old – that inspire several big laughs. It’s enjoyable, as they say, for the whole fam damily, and rife with the type of specificity of Mei’s culture that makes us feel immersed in her world. This is a smart, entertaining movie for two acts and a perfectly OK one for the third, when the metaphor for feminine maturation becomes hyperbolic, and introduces a potential new ally for Godzilla. And silly and overwrought as that might be, you’ll find it hard to dislike that, too.

Our Call: To STREAM IT is to love it. Watch it together. Let your kids be and become themselves. Allow yourself some room for change. And pray someday for a Turning Red/Bob’s Burgers crossover so 4*Town and Boyz4Now can bless us with sugary duets and co-headlining tours.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.