Turning Red

Grade: A

Pixar’s new film Turning Red, now out on Disney+, sizzles and dances through its hour and 47 minutes with as much heart, humor, wisdom, insight, and entertainment as I’ve ever seen in one of their movies. I liked it better than Soul, Onward, and even Inside Out. I chuckled often, and when I wasn’t laughing, I was smiling. I hope it’s not forgotten about by the time the Oscar 2023 conversations start to happen.

You could compare it to Teen Wolf, the 1985 film where Michael J. Fox’s awkward teenager discovers the family pattern where all the men turn into werewolves. Turning Red takes place in 2002, in Toronto, where our heroine is thoughtful 13-year-old Meilin, who does well in school and tries desperately hard to overachieve, respect family traditions, and measure up to her quirky but well-meaning parents. One morning, she discovers that any display of a strong emotion transforms her into a large fluffy red panda. Apparently this runs in the family. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

One of the most tired cliches of sitcommy writing – the dialogue between two characters who think they’re talking about the same thing but they’re not – is put to inventive and effective use here. On her first red morning, Mei’s harried, overbearing, overprotective mother misunderstands everything and thinks she got her first period. A bit odd that, with this hereditary tic, she’d leap to the menstruation conclusion without considering for at least one second that maybe she just “got her first panda” – but never mind. When the mother barges into the bathroom with an arsenal of Tylenol and pads, Mei – cowering in the shower – tells her “you don’t understand. I’m a gross red monster.”

The movie has a keen way of extrapolating a situation into its nightmarish worst possible scenario, much like in Meet the Parents. Poor Gaylord Focker just couldn’t catch a break. Everything he did and said got misconstrued in the worst ways, and all his good intentions backfired and blew up in his face. Mei’s mother discovers romantic drawings in Mei’s homework notebook of the local teenage convenience store clerk she has a crush on, and without hearing any explanations, assumes the artwork depicted what was happening in real life – so she high-tails it down to the store in seconds, with Mei in tow, and interrogates the boy, accusing him of being 30 years old, on alcohol and drugs all day. He can barely sheepishly croak out “I’m 17, ma’am.” And of course, many kids from the school are there to witness the scene and laugh at Mei. And there’s the bit where Mom stakes out Mei’s classroom from the schoolyard to remind her in front of everybody that she forgot her feminine hygiene products.

One of Turning Red’s numerous miracles is the plethora of laughs to be had. One girl in Mei’s quartet of friends is the token deadpan one, who reads a young adult novel about vampires and werewolves called Nightfall. They are obsessed with a boy band called 4*TOWN, which has lyrics about making paperless origami. The movie is predominantly female characters, and the majority of the time we see the dad, he is a bumbling, mostly silent house husband. Just when I thought he would be strictly reduced to this one note, he ends up providing Mei and the movie with a heartfelt display of touching profound wisdom.

In the end, relationships are repaired, loose ends are tied up, and all logistical questions I had were answered. Turning Red is a fun, beautiful emotional whirlwind, and another glorious step forward for Pixar. I hear you never forget your first panda.

Grade: A