Walking out of the theater, I felt like a renewed person after watching Turning Red. Just kidding, there was no theater to walk out of because as usual, animation got shafted and Turning Red went straight to streaming services. I wasn’t lying about the second part though, and unfortunately this movie made me think some things about identity and self-acceptance. And it's really corny I guess.
Quick disclaimer: this is less of a review and more of a reflection, just spitting out what thoughts came to me upon viewing. So don't expect much in the way of critical evaluation.
Pixar movies are kids movies. Most of the time at least. There's nothing wrong with this, I just wish it was a point that people were more honest about it. Just off the top of my head, things quickly fell apart leading into Wall-E. Wall-E was a bit of a broken film, with brilliant ideas in both the first and second act but I'm skeptical of how well they work together. Still, it set the precedent of prioritizing the "wacky adventure" over more mature ideas. Up leaned into this specific problem pretty hard. The first ten minutes are phenomenal, I can't really say anything new on that front. Beyond that is wacky adventure with some compelling themes along the way. This was followed by a half-baked mother-daughter story in Brave, a cash grab with Cars 2 and another cash grab with Toy Story 3. Now there's a whole other decade of films to go through, but frankly any hardly stuck with me beyond this point. Until Turning Red.
On the surface level, there’s plenty about this film that stood out to me. The music was actually my first exposure to the film, and immediately had me hooked when the main theme sounded like a spin on classic Sonic music, something I’d never heard outside the franchise itself. The animation felt like a true adaptation of anime onto 3D. This is apparent in the character’s Japanese family history, the music, and most of all the character animation work in how they emote.
This manifests itself in sweat beads dripping at a rapid pace, starry eyes, and looks of disgust and shock exaggerated to a perfection. Girls gushing of the Red Panda, Mei hitting her head causing a burst of sweat beads, Tyler laughing at Mei, all these scenes have so much love put into how they look that I almost don’t care about the content.
Luckily, the content is absolutely there though. My favorite Pixar movie, by far, The Incredibles is a black sheep among its peers. It’s significantly more adult than them. How many Pixar movies have there been where an old lady who just got robbed pleads with her insurance company? Turning Red is less a progression of this and more of a step to the side, exploring topics while not as dark but similarly considered taboo in children's film making. Despite coming-of-age being a pretty big deal in Disney-Pixar, puberty has largely been ignored as a concept. Which is wild, because it's something every adult has gone through if they've lived long enough to be adults. And it's something millions of kids in America are always going through and can relate to. The film is boldly comedic with a topic like menstruation, which at least usually a solid way to normalize taboo topics. Despite this sense of humor, with writers also express a degree of emotional maturity on the subject that I simply did not expect from the studio's modern incarnation. I digress though, while I felt all this context is necessary this next bit is what really made me want to write this piece. Spoilers for the halfway point of the movie onward.
The scene in this movie that elevates it pretty far by itself is when Mei's father comes to her with the video of her in her panda form messing around with her friends. What the writers nailed is the fact that Mei, at the time of filming, had a lot of fun doing these things. The shame only came after her mom separated her from and criticized her friends. External pressure, in other words, to feel bad about a trait she was born with. The juxtaposition of course being, her classmates adore the panda. She's even able to make money off it.
What came to mind immediately for a plot thread along these lines is sexuality. The U.S has come a long way no doubt, but depending on where you live you might as well be living in the fifties. That's what it's like down the road from me in Bryn Athyn, where the schools have decided the best way to deal with LGBT folks is to simply pretend they don't exist. This is of course in spite of the fact that "trans" is a among the highest ranking search terms on porn sites (https://www.feministcurrent.com/2020/11/29/why-isnt-anyone-talking-about-the-influence-of-porn-on-the-trans-trend/). Girls are called whores for cashing in on a market with Onlyfans by the same people how view the market as the ultimate moral authority. BDSM is often rejected purely on an icky feeling. The list could go on for a very long time to say the least.
Anyway, when Mei is approached by her father she is ashamed. She expects him to tell her to get rid of the panda like her matriarchs want her to. He does not. He tells her this side of her made him laugh, and that she should not be so quick to throw away what is another dimension to her self. For someone like me, who has struggled with identity and been fearful of the future, this raises some tough and personal questions. This is a bit of a liberal interpretation to the scene, but I also like to think Mei's father’s statement also included one’s past and memories, and whether they’d like to cherish or reject them. I frequently have asked myself, would I have been born I cis girl if I could have chosen
? This one’s a bit unfair cause like, everything would be different? How could I even tell what would change and say for sure? So here’s the real kicker, if I could alter my body to that of a cis woman irreversibly right now would I do it?
On paper, the answer is easy. My dysphoria evaporates, I don’t have to prove my gender to people, I am included in all cis female conversations. Much like Mei has last second doubts in the film, I can’t shake the feeling that I’d be losing something if I were to say yes to such an offer. What exactly? That part’s harder to articulate. Extrinsically, most of my life will be harder as a trans woman. Still, even if I don’t feel this all the way right now, and I can’t say for sure what I would do if I was presented with the ability to change my sex, I want to be happy about this part of me, not ashamed. I don’t think I would have realized that this early into my transition if it wasn’t for Turning Red, and that has made me very happy.
I am on the same page as you, I love pixar movies and I believe they are underrated now, and I believe as well that more older people love pixar movies just as much as younger, but because they go right to streaming services, they are a lot easier to view quicker!