To be honest, I’m not sure what I first thought when I saw the title Turning Red. It sounded like an interesting movie (without reading the summary), but I also thought it was just another regular release as part of Pixar’s production cycle. Then again, my impressions are always weird without reading the summary. 

Speaking of the summary, let’s mention that before going any further.

What is Turning Red? Turning Red centers on 13-year-old Meilin Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), who is in the early stages of adolescence. Coming from a Chinese Canadian family, familism is strong, as Meilin is expected to make her parents and ancestors proud. Her mother, Ming Lee (Sandra Oh), tries to ensure Meilin makes all A’s and works in the family temple every day after school. Even so, Meilin attempts to explore her individuality and spend more time with her friends Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park), which conflict with her mother’s interests. Then one day while in class, Meilin turns into a red panda, which serves as an allegory of bodily changes. She turns into a red panda when showing strong emotions, which discourages her from leaving the house at first. However, her three friends stand beside her and embrace Meilin’s right to explore life away from her family.

That’s the summary. Now what are the 50 thoughts I had during an hour and 39 minutes of watch time? Why did I have 50 thoughts? Did I aim for 50 thoughts? No. There were no set amount of thoughts, but I think the whole list speaks for itself. Let it serve as Turning Red’s movie review.

TW: Contains spoilers. If you have not watched the movie and are planning on it, read at your own risk.

1. At first glance, I thought the animation style was quite stereotypical due to being reminiscent of racist caricatures. However, after doing a little bit of background research, the director did that on purpose. Then again, Pixar was already starting to go into this direction with Luca (I love that movie, by the way)
2. Those family photos are so cute but also LOL-worthy, because what’s wrong with laughing at random moments? Also recognized that the photos spanning from 1994-2002 is an incredibly clever idea.
3. “Honoring your parents sounds great, but if you take it too far, well, you might forget to honor yourself.” MOOD. I felt that.
4. Meilin really trying so hard to be hip. Girl, you’re still a minor. Pipe down and stop tryna grow up so fast.

5. What Mei and her friends up to on the ground? Why they thirsting over boys? Lol, do they not have anything better to do than to look at an ordinary boy in the store?
6. Okay, I get that Mei wants to be the golden child of her family. It’s rad that she works at a temple while juggling school responsibilities, but why not spend time with friends more often? Then again, her parents probably have high expectations for her.
7. Oof, I knew it. Her mother expects high grades from her and wants to have a very prestigious position. Literally peak tiger parenting.
8. Mei’s mother just said they live in Toronto. I thought that the movie took place in Canada just because her bookbag had a Canadian flag button.
9. Ahh, cooking visuals. The ingredient-by-ingredient visuals… love!

10. Why Mei draw better than me? I wouldn’t have drawn a boy as good as she did. Shoot, I need to take a drawing class. I am fine at sketching, but still. I wish I could make art that’s as pristine as hers.
11. Ming being nosy and looking at Mei’s diary.. the worse of toxic perfectionism and tiger parenting is still to come. Oh lord.
12. Ming really set her daughter up for embarrassment. SMH. What kind of parent allows that to happen? The kids laughed at Mei for her drawings and still kept laughing after Ming’s seriousness? No, my friend, parents are not always right.
13. Growing pains. Poor Mei. Her mama set her up for failure even though her mama thought she did something.
14. Those growing pains turned her into a red panda. Wow. I’m as shook as she is.

15. Oof the mention of feminine hygiene. Honestly, I love the metaphor of red pandas to puberty. Especially as it relates to body changes and growing up.
16. I’m already worried for Mei as her school day begins. Turning into a red panda in front of everybody would make the kids cruel.
17. Why is her mother stalking Mei just because she forgot her menstrual pads? This is part of what I meant by tiger parenting. It’s shameful that Ming thinks she’s protecting their kid when she’s really just embarrassing her and not considering her feelings. Not a flex at all.
18. I feel secondhand embarrassment. Imagine turning into an animal when you least expect it. The ancestral story Ming gives about turning into a red panda confirms the correlation with puberty.
19. “I thought I had more time.” I think this is a thought many parents have had when it comes to preparing their daughters to grow up. My mother didn’t tell me about my hormonal changes until I was 10, and I didn’t know about puberty nor was prepared for it beforehand.
20. Ugh, I would hate to be a red panda everytime I showed intense emotions. I’m sure a month is going to feel like eons for Mei. I wouldn’t want to be outcast for even a day.
21. On the more positive side, it’s nice that her three friends Priya, Miriam, and Abby stand by her. The way they started singing to cheer her up is super sweet and an awe-worthy moment.

22. How amazing is it that Mei manages to calm herself so easily? Gosh, I wish it were that simple. Though I can’t believe (or maybe I can believe) she lied to her parents saying that she imagines them as a way to calm down. That’s her friends that make her calm down, not her tiger parents.
23. Mei’s grandma saw her on the news in China? Mamma mia.
24. Mei and her friends aren’t even trying with dodgeball. Well, Mei didn’t try until a foolish boy laughed at her and she got defensive. Although, why are they discussing the concert in the bathroom? Lol, I can’t.
25. And right when they were talking about raising money for the concert, three girls randomly fawned over Mei as a red panda. And then after several other girls did the same, there was their money making strategy. It was as simple as that!
26. Omg they have old fashioned phones in the movie. Based on the beginning, it looks like the movie takes place in 2002. Yeah, they had those super basic phones back then, virtually unimaginable now 20 years later…
27. Those kids are fawning over Mei as a red panda now, but they’ll stop caring once she loses her transformation ability. They’ll stop flaunting red panda merch too, as it is just one among many fads they’ll take part of during their lifetime.

28. Oh I love how Mei’s friends put her in check when she wanted to hustle, hustle, hustle as they made the keychains. I know Mei’s parents have ingrained that behavior into her, but really, she should know when to take a break.
29. Ming need to stop trying to follow her daughter everywhere. Parents naturally worry, but there’s a fine line between healthy worry and obsessive worry, no? She falls into the latter and it’s easy to see her as quite unlikable.
30. LMFAO none of the kids are doing the Cha Cha Slide without Mei as a red panda. Oh well, is she missing anything anyway? She probably didn’t want to go anyway. But then she’s probably annoyed about her grandma and other family members pampering as they visit.
31. And just as she is about to go to a birthday party that she’s virtually an hour late for, her grandmother has to lecture her how she might stay a red panda forever if she keeps up her with her schtick. *sigh* the curse. 
32. And after she arrives as a fake red panda, the kids are unimpressed. Of course. Didn’t I tell you they’d stop caring after she loses her ability? She hasn’t lost it yet, but peeps, this is the prelude.
33. Okay, I’m laughing at Mei turning into a panda and the kids being turnt on by it. They weren’t interested in dancing or doing anything a few minutes ago. Now they’re cheering, screaming, dancing, and riding on top of Mei as the red panda. This is the only time they’ll cherish her.

34. Mei and her gang celebrate their job well done, meanwhile Ming is worried about her falling grades and failing to uphold family expectations. I’m happy that Mei is having fun outside of work, but then her Bs and Cs are a “yikes” considering that she’s normally an all-A student.
35. Thanks to Abby mixing up the dates and location, the concert is on the day Mei is supposed to suppress the curse. And then on top of that, trouble starts after Mei becomes a panda and attacks Tyler. Of course, her mother shows up like the over analytical parent she is.
36. The disappointment Mei feels about betraying her friends. It’s soul-crushing. And the fact her mother keeps calling the group 4-Town a bunch of delinquents shows that she has unchecked implicit biases that need to be checked.
37. Oh right. 4 is considered an unlucky number in East Asia. No wonder. Courtesy to Mei’s grandma for mentioning that, because I did not think about that until she mentioned it.
38. Watching her dad be vulnerable is powerful. Her mom fought her grandma over him, because there’s always expectations over ideal partners. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and her mother gets her parenting style from her mother.
39. The red moon ritual looks like a sacrifice. It’s interesting to see, and I wonder what will happen after this. Will this have the desired effect or what?
40. Looks like Mei is struggling to let go of the red panda spirit. And right at the last minute, she becomes okay with being a red panda. Her family can’t deal, but my oh my does it raise a conversation about the cons of over controlling parenting.
41. The cool thing is that Mei feels more liberated with the red panda spirit. This would make for great analysis about breaking traditionalism and deciding to make something that’s deemed a hindrance a superpower.
42. Okay, but 4-Town is seriously reminiscent of The Backstreet Boys. Perhaps they were the inspiration for the characters, but the white suits are a giveaway. Also, weird that they’re named 4-Town despite having 5 members. Shouldn’t they be 5-Town instead?

43. Of course her mother has to intrude into the fun and ruin the concert. The tiger parenting doesn’t stop despite Ming becoming a red panda. When will she realize that trying to instill tradition on her daughter will not work in the long run?
44. The brawl between Mei and Ming has caused grandma and the rest of the family to turn into red pandas too. Although when you least expect it, Mei’s friends and 4-Town help out in saving Ming. All of that’s so sweet.
45. But then, her mother becomes young again. Wow, she looks so different with red hair and as an adolescent. Mei and young Ming encountering each other is so powerful, because they’ve struggled with battling perfectionism. The toxic perfectionism has been instilled for generations, and there comes a breaking point as times change

46. Her mother vanishes and now she’s on her own. Well, until her ancestor appeared. And now it seems like she’s become a legend in her own right, flying to the moon. Ugh, that part seriously tugged on my heartstrings.
47. “Panda Apocalypse 2002” hahahaha the year the story takes place is confirmed. Doing the math, Meilin Lee was born in 1989.
48. “Mom and I just call it growing pains” I said it at the beginning of the movie. You know you’re a talented analyst when your perspectives end up matching those of a piece of work.
49. Wow, the temple is doing more business than ever with Mei as a red panda. Even Tyler has become friends with her and the gang. Seems like deciding to keep the red panda power was a smart choice after all.
50. Ming was really trying to find an excuse to keep her daughter inside the temple. But hey, eventually she was like “Whatever” and allowed her to go karaoke with her friends. And then her friends could have dinner with them afterwards. Karaoke and dinner night? Yes please!
51. Bonus thought: Priya was the most relatable character of the whole movie. For the whole time, she mainly keeps a straight face and tunes into things her whole way. Classic.

Closing thoughts: Interesting thing about Turning Red is that it faced controversy for its references to feminine hygiene. I have some mixed feelings about that. I understand not wanting to explain puberty to kids too early. I also understand not wanting kids to think about love & relationships too early. Though on the flipside, isn’t it okay to have an animated movie dedicated to exploring adolescence? This is Disney Pixar we’re speaking about, but I don’t see the problem with them starting to slowly make more mature movies. Although, it might be a hard pill to swallow given the gems they’ve made for kids, such as Cars, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. Still, their odds of making a movie as risqué as Sausage Party are virtually zero at this time.

For what it’s worth, Turning Red uniquely allegorizes red pandas with adolescence. It also makes for a valuable discussion about breaking traditional familial roles. Why does Mei accept the red panda despite what her family told her? How do the familial dynamics in the Lee family mirror real life? What aspects of individuality and collectivity do Mei embrace? How is the generational gap at play here? One could write a multi-page report about the matter for a class. And a great one at that. 

Although the characterization relies on some stereotypical tropes, it is very creative, well-casted (Sandra Oh deserves more voice-acting gigs), and nicely executed. Thus, I recommend watching Turning Red. And bonus points since the movie is set in Canada rather than the U.S. While the U.S contains the world’s highest immigrant population, the experiences of Chinese Canadians and other Asian Canadians are not highlighted enough. There are some famous ones as we speak (read here), including Sandra Oh and the movie’s director, Domee Shi.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10