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Turning Red review: 'Hilarious, life-affirming' new Pixar

(Image credit:

Pixar/ Disney+

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Five stars for a 'buoyant coming-of-age comedy', starring Rosalie Chiang and Sandra Oh. It is funnier, cleverer and more honest than you might expect, says Nicholas Barber.

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In Pixar's latest animation, a 13-year-old girl wakes up one morning to find that she has metamorphosed into a giant red panda. Understandably, she is upset by this sudden change, so she hides in the bathroom, revolted by her new body hair and the smell wafting from her armpits. Can you spot the subtext? As soon as you hear the premise of Turning Red, it seems obvious that it's making a veiled, Disney-approved allusion to puberty, and that it will go on to hint at this subject in subtle, ambiguous ways. But that's not what happens. Moments after the heroine cries out in distress, her mother asks, "Did the red peony bloom," and then bursts into the bathroom with a stack of sanitary pads and painkillers. Yes, this is the first Disney cartoon to talk openly about periods. Parents who watch it with young children may do some turning red of their own, but it's a startlingly brave approach – and it's just one of the ways in which Turning Red keeps being funnier, cleverer, more honest, and more progressive than you might expect.

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Another example is that the film's heroine, Meilin Lee (voiced with sassy gusto by Rosalie Chiang), is a Chinese-Canadian schoolgirl in early 2000s Toronto, but she doesn't have the insecurities or frustrated dreams of Moana, Anna, Elsa, Rapunzel, Katie Mitchell and almost every other young woman in a 21st-Century cartoon. She isn't being bullied, and she has no trouble fitting in. Yes, there is a boy in her class who annoys her, and her touchingly loyal gang of friends would rather she spent more time at karaoke, and less time sweeping out the family's temple. But Meilin is a bright, sociable bundle of energy, who is proud to have posters that say "work", "listen", and "study" above her desk, and who gets on well with her happily married parents. The director and co-writer, Domee Shi (who made the Oscar-winning short film Bao), and her co-writer, playwright Julia Cho, have drawn from their own childhoods to create a recognisable yet original heroine. And, like Meilin, the film itself is beamingly confident in its own identity. Turning Red recalls everything from Teen Wolf to The Incredible Hulk, from My Neighbour Totoro to Céline Sciamma's Petite Maman, but it is still refreshingly new – in its rounded characters, its multi-cultural urban setting, its pastel colouring, its speedy pacing, and its exuberant tone. Even before the panda-monium begins, the film is a hilarious, life-affirming treat.

Another of its surprises is that when Meilin does transmogrify into a huge, furry animal with claws and a tail, her parents aren't too bothered. Her mother (voiced by Sandra Oh) explains that the women in her family have had the same blessing / curse for generations: whenever their emotions get the better of them, they change into humongous red pandas in a puff of pink smoke, and whenever they calm down they change back again. The good news is that all Meilin has to do is to wait until the next "blood moon" in a month's time, and they can perform a magical ritual which will lock her panda identity away in an amulet where it belongs.

Again, it's easy to assume that you know what's coming: at this point, the film promises to be about Meilin's struggle to control the beast within her, and to keep her strange ability hidden from her schoolmates. But again, Turning Red does things its own, more positive way. Meilin is soon in control of the transformations, and her favourite party trick is to show off her supernaturally strong, adorably fluffy alter ego. Even the annoying boy in her class is impressed. All she has to worry about is whether her parents will let her go to a concert featuring a five-piece boy band called 4*Town (whose horribly catchy songs are written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell).

Turning Red is part of a wave of animations inspired by Chinese culture and mythology, along with Abominable, Over the Moon and Wish Dragon, but it feels less calculating and contrived than all of them. Similarly, it isn't as overwrought as some of Pixar's other recent films. Watching Inside Out and Soul, you can picture the committee of writers sweating over the complicated concepts and intricate plots. Turning Red is different. Although it's jammed with twists and ideas, it's more like those early Pixar films – Toy Story, Monsters Inc – that appear to flow along effortlessly, however much effort went into them behind the scenes. Whether it's joking about hormonal teenage lust, family ties, the power of friendship or ancient Chinese gods, Shi's buoyant coming-of-age comedy always seems to be coming straight from the heart.

What a shame, then, that it has gone straight to streaming on Disney+, rather than getting a cinema release. And what a shame that it didn't come out in time to be nominated for best animated feature at this year's Oscars. Turning Red deserves to win that award, and plenty more besides.

★★★★★

Turning Red is on Disney+ from 11 March.

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Source: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220307-turning-red-review-hilarious-life-affirming-new-pixar

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