Review: Turning Red

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.

It has long been posited that Pixar movies are essentially made with children in mind as the target audience, but contain enough to keep adults interested. Often, they sneak themes that are more adult-oriented into their stories, and "Turning Red," the latest Pixar film, is no outlier. This funny, charming and surprisingly weighty film is about nothing less than the horrors of and embarrassments of puberty.

Also, the film is among the best examples of Pixar striving toward better representation - its lead character, Meilin (the voice of Rosalie Chiang), and her family are Chinese, while her best friends include girls who are Indian, Korean and white. Set in Toronto, the story follows Meilin, a straight-A student who is dorky but confident, as she strives to live up to the gargantuan task of pleasing her mother (Sandra Oh), who is overprotective to an embarrassing degree.

Meilin is just starting to go through puberty and, in the tradition of the women in her family, she turns into an adorable, giant red panda - there's a long backstory involving her family's history with the animal - whenever she gets excited. The film relays the message that raging teenage hormones and a change into womanhood aren't something to be ashamed of or hidden away, and that young women should embrace these changes, rather than being led by society to believe that being emotional is unbecoming.

Although her friends love her - and provide her with the support she needs during these changes - Meilin is not one who is known to let loose. In fact, doing something so innocent as doodling a picture of a boy she thinks is cute in her notebook leads to a mortifying situation during which her mother - the ultimate helicopter parent - actually confronts the boy and accuses him of leading her innocent daughter astray.

When Meilin begins changing into the gigantic fluffy panda, her mother, grandmother and aunties believe that she should hide away these changes until the time comes in a month when she is to perform a ritual that will enable her to keep her "panda spirit" locked away in a necklace around her neck for the rest of her life.

However, Meilin finds that her panda self leads to others at school being more receptive toward her. While her friends already cared for her, others - including a boy who taunts her mercilessly and the usual mean girls - poke fun at her dorkiness and overprotective mother. When she becomes the panda, she is enabled to be her more true self. So, it's tempting for Meilin to not want to go through with the ritual to banish this other side of her.

This is a fun movie with a lot of heart, and something meaningful to say about adolescence's rites of passage and the trials and tribulations of puberty. It's refreshing to see a movie - especially a Pixar one, which will likely reach millions of people - tackle the subject matter in a such a way that takes its characters and their problems seriously. 

Just as previous Pixar films have done - I'm thinking of "Up" confronting old age and death, or "Wall-E" making dire predictions about the future of our wasteful society - "Turning Red" takes subject matter that can be difficult to navigate when discussing it with children and makes it user friendly in such an entertaining, often moving and charming manner. I'd imagine that most young people - and adults alike - will find something to love about it.