TURNING RED

US, 22, 100 minutes, Colour.

Voices of: Rosalie Jiang, Sandra Oh.

Directed by Domee Shi.

Unfortunately, this reviewer has very few qualifications for reviewing Turning Red. Yes, seen many films, but watched all the Pixar films. But he has never been a 13-year-old girl, a 13-year-old North American girl with Chinese background, never had a 13-year-old sister or niece, never been a mother trying to cope with a 13-year-old daughter, so has to accept at face value that Meilin, a perfectionist 13-year-old who normally gets 100% for every school project, who always measures up to her perfectionist demanding mother, is real. Of course, she is an animated character, short, bespectacled, smart-mouthed at times, but the film is inviting us to identify with her, the beginning of puberty, a motley trio of girlfriends at school, the burgeoning attraction to boys, the intense desire to go to a concert of boy-singers.

Where the identification is challenged is in our discovery that when Meilin gets really upset, something inside wanting to burst out of her – it does. And, it is a large red panda, big ears, fluffy tail. At first, Meiliin is dismayed, and we can empathise with her alarm, trying to conceal it, looking in the mirror, trying to hide.

Actually, interest is a bit aroused as to how this could possibly be. The family owns a shrine in Toronto, a family shrine, respecting the elders, with mythological stories handed down, especially about a female warrior who in battle, transforms into a red panda. Ultimately, we discover that this is prevalent in all the female generations, Meilin’s mother (a rather ferocious panda when it is released) and grandmother, along with quite a number of aunts. There is a ritual, when the moon is red, and a circle is drawn, and the panda is fixed in the circle, the women singing and chanting, an elder performing a ceremony for the exorcism of the panda.

But, should this be the case? Is there a value in having an inner panda? Of acknowledging the truth within oneself and setting it free? Not subservient to perfectionism and obedience which dominate at  times, especially when mother and daughter sweep the shrine clean, almost obsessive-compulsive disorder.

There are some comedy episodes with the three friends. There are some comedy episodes with some of the boys, especially one who wants the panda to perform at his birthday party – and, ultimately, gets far more than he paid for.

Which means, probably, that this is a film for girls 13 plus or minus who can identify, presumably, with Meilin and her large red panda experiences. Not sure that 13 plus or minus boys will want to go along for the ride. There is a very nice father in the picture, rather quiet, but supportive, and, right at the end of the credits, revealing himself as a fan of the boy singers. The other principal demographic for Turning Red is probably mothers and grandmothers, hoping to understand their daughters and their respective pandas, remembering their past and however their panda, at age 13, troubled them – and made them assertive!

1. The popularity of Pixar films? Animation? Themes? Audience identification? Serious and comic?
2. Toronto locations, homes, school, the shrine, the concert? The character styles? The voices? Music, songs – and Billy Eilish?
3. Meilin and her story, the family, traditions, the Chinese heritage, young girls in Canada, at home, a strict mother, her easy-going father? At school, perfectionist, 100%? The three girlfriends and the bonding? Discovering boys, at the Daisy Mart – and her mother going in and verbally assaulting the young man? Boys at school? The poster for the concert, the 4+ boys when really five?
4. The routines, at home, with the girls, her compulsion for cleaning, going to the shrine, working with her mother? The tours of the shrine? The background story, the warrior?
5. Meilin at 13, beginning of puberty, her moods, some in a rebellion against her strict mother, the first manifestation of the red panda, her alarm, the mirror, fluffing her ears, her tail? Moving in and out of panda situation? Causing mayhem and disturbance in the house?
6. The appearance of the red panda, appearing and disappearing? At school, her escape, leaping over the roofs in the city? The effect on her girlfriends? The different characters, manners, ways of speaking, enthusiasms?
7. The boys, the reactions?
8. Her mother’s concern, the shrine, the elder, the rituals? Her mother’s confession about her past?
9. The arrival of the grandmother and the aunts? Dominating, in the house?
10. The issue of the boy singers, the concert, getting the wrong date, the booking for the party, Meilin confined to the house, her getting away, arriving just in time, the raucous celebrations and everybody enjoying the party? Her mother’s arrival, scattering everyone? The issue of going to the concert, her denying her friends?
11. The rituals, the red moon, the circles, everybody chanting, the elder and the ceremony?
12. The mother, her panda, fears, her relationship with her mother? Meilin and the ceremony, her change of heart, wanting her panda? Her imagination, lost in the woods, the other pandas?
13. The concert, the girls buying the tickets, Meilin arriving, the enjoyment, her mother, gigantic, the attack on the stadium, mayhem?
14. The final ritual in the stadium, everybody becoming pandas, dragging the mother into the circle, the fading moon, everybody singing, including the boys from the concert? The ritual, all the pandas going through the barrier, the release?
15. The setting of the situation? Accepting the panda within, release for a balanced life rather than to perfectionism?