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20th Century has released a new behind-the-scenes featurette for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes about creating a "torn apart and beautiful world."
Posted in: Disney, Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Pixar | Tagged: disney, movies, pixar, turning red
Turning Red Review: Perfectly Captures How Horrid Being Thirteen Is
Turning Red is yet another Pixar homerun that truly captures what it feels like to be a thirteen-year-old girl while also remaining empathetic to overprotective parents and not leaning into teen girl cliches.
Director: Domee Shi
Summary: A 13-year-old girl named Mei Lee turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets too excited.
Being thirteen is just the worst, and Turning Red is one of those movies that doesn't shy away from the fact that it is kind of the worst. Yet another Pixar movie that has been unfortunately relegated to Disney+ which is a real shame because just like Soul and Luca, this movie is beautiful and deserves to be on the biggest screen possible. That isn't the case right now, but also like Soul and Luca, this is still top-tier Pixar. One of the things that made Pixar different from Disney when they first came on the scene is that they approached their movies from a very male perspective. Animation and Disney specifically were very focused on fairy tales and princesses, but Pixar made movies about masculine archetypes in toys and bugs rising up against their oppressors. It was a different point of view, and Pixar movies have remained very unisex over the years. Turning Red, however, has its eyes squarely focused not only on girls but also on teenage girls, doing so without being cruel.
So many times, when adults are writing about teenage girls, they lean into stereotypes. They make the girls very vapid, materialistic, catty, with a level of disdain for the things that they are into. The hatred toward things like boybands and Twilight is proof that society generally does not like teenage girls and hates the things they love even more. Turning Red does not subscribe to that newsletter. This movie might be poking a little fun at teenage girls but in an empathetic way. The most obvious way this becomes apparent is the friendship between our four lead girls. In a less honest movie, these friendships would be mired with infighting and backstabbing, but that is not the case here. Meilin's friends are her ride or dies; they are there for her no matter what, and they embrace her even when she is turning into a giant red panda. This is the age when you are likely forming friendships that will follow you for the rest of your life, and this movie embraces the absolute importance of friendship.
However, one of the things that happen when you are this age is the relationship with your parents changes, and Turning Red also doesn't shy away from that. It's not an easy transition for anyone, but the story does an excellent job of making sure that no one is wholly demonized on both sides. Both Meilin and her mother Ming make mistakes here, and they are both at fault for the many things that go wrong. The blame isn't put on one or the other, which is a highly realistic depiction of this transition. The best comedy also comes from Ming as we see her do some of the things that will make your inner 13-year-old wish for the ground to swallow you up. Writer and director Domee Shi has said that a lot of the things that happen in this movie, mins turning into a giant red panda, are based on something that happened in her real life, and that seems true because some of these things are so ridiculous that they have to have really happened.
As always, the art in this film is lovely and is bringing in some things that we haven't seen before. Shi has detailed that she, much like Meilin in the movie, had and has a real love for anime. We see a lot of that coming out in smaller details throughout Turning Red. Any anime fan will recognize those nervous sweat drips or the big anime eyes. They give the movie a look that we haven't seen in a Pixar film before. That on top of the way that Meilin's panda looks, which is just so insanely cute while also being large and awkward, makes everything so entertaining to watch. The music also helps with the filmmakers going so far as to record three original songs from the fictional boyband from the movie 4*Town, that sound right out of the early 2000s.
In terms of negatives, there really aren't any aside from the fact that the story might be a little more niche than Pixar films usually are. It might be a little harder for boys or fathers to get a handle on the nuance [the title is "Turning Red," do you get it?] which might limit the scope a little. However, it also does an outstanding job of presenting puberty in a very stark way that everyone should be able to understand. It's honest about how awkward this time of your life is and how you feel like an adult when you are still a kid—the conflict between wanting to please your parents and wanting to be your own person. The moments when you realize that your friendships might be the thing that will get you through the hard times and not your parents, these are universal; it's just the barrier to entry might be a little harder for everyone to get into.
Turning Red is yet another excellent film from one of the most consistent studios out there. Pixar has routinely put out some of the best-animated films of whatever year they are releasing in, and it really is a shame that these works of art can't be seen on the big screen. We can hope that Disney will give Soul, Luca, and Turning Red some sort of limited theatrical release because they deserve it. This film refuses to lean into the cliches or derision that is so often placed on teenage girls and the things they are into. If the movie makes fun of something, it's with love and not malice. The bar for animated films is already high this early in the game, and it'll be interesting to see what other studios and Pixar themselves do to try and top Turning Red.
Turning Red
9.5/10
Turning Red is yet another Pixar homerun that truly captures what it feels like to be a thirteen-year-old girl while also remaining empathetic to overprotective parents and not leaning into teen girl cliches.
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