What a positively fascinating film from Disney and Pixar. Turning Red is an interesting study on the transformation from childhood to teenagehood, and how the public shies away from mentioning the process. Can you believe that people got bent out of shape about this? Sheesh, me neither.
Let’s get into it.
Official Synopsis
In Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red, confident, dorky 13-year-old Mei must balance being a dutiful daughter with the chaos of adolescence. Her slightly overbearing mom is never far from her daughter. And, as if changes to Mei’s interests, relationships, and body aren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited, she “poofs” into a giant red panda!
The first act of Turning Red starts out by introducing us to Mei, a 13-year-old girl who is typical of any girl of her age. She is obedient to her parents, respectful in every way to the crowd around her, someone who is on track to become a successful grown-up in every possible way, and someone that is withholding a LOT of emotion that is getting ready to burst at the seams. After an incident with her mom at a convenience store in front of people she knows, Mei finally breaks and ends up spilling her emotions over into the form of a red panda. Mei is a furry red giant, and clumsy to boot, which makes the emotional girl even more off track with her life. Her simple and straightforward life now becomes complicated, as she not only changes on the outside but is also experiencing changes on the inside. This form is driven by her emotions and can come and go as it pleases…well, depending on how well she controls her emotions.
The development of the first act is simple. We meet Mei, we get the gist of her life and how it is structured thanks to a helicopter mom, and we can see the transition into a giant red panda coming a mile away. The journey to get through act one is easily set up by the writing. You get that she is slowly going off track from her mother’s plan, especially when Mei begins to see her mother’s obsessive and controlling behavior. She is strictly forbidden from going outside the lines that her mother laid down for her and she must deal with it. The slow build from calm to emotional wreck is quite brilliant and emulates a kid going through changes in real life. I have four daughters and one son. I have seen this pattern before and it’s abrupt as it is powerful, especially when your child goes from little darling to oh-my-GOD. Of course, that is life, but it’s emulated so very well on screen. The first act is amazingly accurate in its journey and one that I commend director Domee Shi for capturing so brilliantly.
Once that first act is in motion and Mei begins to accept her life as a red panda, she then begins to let go of the stress and anxiety. Mei begins to accept her new life as a red panda and what that popularity adds. She also begins to understand that she can control her emotions and dictate when she wants to turn into the red panda thanks to the help of her best friends. In addition, she realizes she wants to break free of her mom’s rule and decides that she wants to go see a boy band concert with her friends before they must deal with the rest of her life. Sadly, her mother doesn’t agree with that path and is afraid her emotions will get the best of her, thus showing the world her true beastly form. Defiant, Mei schemes a plan to make money to afford the concert for her friends (merch and branding with the red panda) and plans to deceive her mother in the process. This act also shows the family side of Mei’s family, where there is a ritual to contain the red panda curse they have obtained, a ritual that all her aunts, grandmother, and mother have performed. As expected, act two ends with a terrible conundrum, where the night of the concert falls on the night of the ritual, so Mei must decide the priority.
The second act is a fun-filled laugh attack that shows not only the growing personality of a sheltered child, but the true nature of a kid coming of age that has new emotions, a new sense of independence, and who’s beginning to turn into a young adult. While the red panda form personifies quite a bit (the changing of a young girl’s life through her period (yeah, it’s okay to say this – it’s a natural part of life), the birth of the butterfly who is finding her own form, and pure adolescent defiance), it’s beautifully done on so many levels that you can’t help but appreciate the art of the journey for Mei. The second act is a work of art and one that shouldn’t be looked down on for any reason. Plus, it’s a great multi-narrative display where you’re not only looking at Mei’s journey but also her family’s own trials and tribulations with handling the red panda curse. In short, it’s an act that emulates real life, where it is messy but manageable.
As act three begins and ultimately clashes together into a final battle between Mei and her mother’s belief on how Mei should run her life, the dust gets kicked up hard before it finally settles into a satisfying and lovely conclusion. I’ll stop there because I don’t want to give the rest away.
How Disney and Pixar broached the subject of adolescent changes is not only appropriate but creative as heck. Turning Red is a wonderful film that explains the shift from child to young adult in the simplest of fashions but in the bravest and most endearing way.
