The beast within as a storytelling device has been a tale as old as time. When it comes to using animal transformation as a puberty allegory, we’ve gotten mostly male versions: the creepy Teen Wolf, and this more accessible Boy Meets World episode. This leaves half of the population without their version of that ubiquitous journey every 11-15 year olds must take. Well, Domee Shi and the Pixar machine fill that storytelling void with Turning Red; not only does Shi give us an amazing female puberty story, she closes any door into that storytelling, because there’s no need for other female puberty stories because of how good this one is.
Shi transports us to 2002 Toronto. There, 13 year old Mei (Rosalie Chiang) has been the daughter of Ming (Sandra Oh) and Jin Lee’s (Orion Lee) dreams. She’s amazing in school, stays away from boys and bad influences, and is a willing and obedient daughter taking care of the family temple. However, “danger” looms for Ming and Jin in many forms. Tempting Mei are her best friends Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park), who draw Mei’s eye to the local boy candy. Temptation also arrives in the form of boy band 4 Town, who is coming to Toronto to swoon Mei and her friends. All of these new feelings start welling up inside Mei, who learns, when she gets, um, VERY excited, she transforms into a giant red panda: not exactly great when trying to fit in in junior high school.
How the HELL do you make a movie about periods, menstruation, and sexuality inside of a Pixar movie?? Well the director who turned a dumpling into 3 minutes of tears says challenge accepted! The red panda is a stroke of genius: it gets the point across without being graphic and makes the story accessible to everyone. Puberty turns tweens into emotional animals. Mei’s panda is also amorphous by design; she can be scary yes, but she can also be more cuddly, more fun, and more grown up too, just…different than before. Also, this change isn’t spontaneous all the time: Mei learns quickly what turns her into a monster, and more importantly, how she can control it. This allows Shi to show the power of friendship, as Miriam, Priya, and Abby, despite their oogling, are inherently good, and help their friend through these difficult changes, causing me a few tears.
With the worries about graphic storytelling now out of the way, Domee Shi can focus on the meat of her story: the relationship between parents/kids, specifically girls and their mothers. Though Ming can come dangerously close to being a caricature of an Asian mother, Turning Red shows how she ended up the way she did. Mei’s transformation causes her to thrive and be excited; Ming’s animal scared her so much it ruined Ming’s relationship with Mei’s grandmother Wu (Wai Ching Ho), so Ming buried the monster deep inside of her. This caused Ming great fear of the same loss of the relationship she currently loves with Mei. Mei obviously doesn’t understand where her mom’s suffocating love comes from, causing the pattern to drift toward repeating itself. Domee Shi combines elements of Chinese mythology, 2002 time specific humor, and her well crafted characters to find a satisfying conclusion to Turning Red on every level, and will make every daughter in the audience think about giving their mom a call to catch up.
Turning Red is a loving reminder of many things. It’s time travel back to our coming of age. It’s a beautiful tale of a parent/child relationship. And it’s further proof that 1995-2004 set coming of age movies are the best coming of age movies. Seriously, what’s better than Turning Red, Our Ladies, Almost Famous, Yes God Yes, 10 Things I Hate About You, Mean Girls, Napoleon Dynamite, American Pie, 13 Going on 30, Clueless, Spirited Away, and Before Sunrise? Tread lightly, or my red monster will have something to say…