That “Turning Red” pivots this way - with Mei, as panda, cowering in the bathroom with her mother knocking outside - is a fairly radical move in the typically sanitized world of studio animation. Then one morning, Mei awakens to find the transformation that's been occurring within her has manifested itself: She turns into a big, fluffy red panda - and a walking metaphor for menstruation and other developments of young womanhood. Her mother finds a notebook under her bed with swooning drawings of 4-Town, and immediately irrationally blames an older teen boy for being a bad influence. If some of Pixar's greatest movies have used high concepts to illustrate existential quandaries, “Turning Red” (which like the previous two Pixar releases is streaming only it debuts Friday on Disney+) is one of the studio's most specifically drawn films.īut it's getting harder to keep some of those feelings inside for Mei.
The best thing about “Turning Red" is how it broadens the horizons of the 36-year-old animation powerhouse with a refreshing vantage point and some new moves. And it's the first - history take note - to feature twerking. This is the first film by the studio in which, for example, a sanitary pad is offered.
Knocking pixars inside out the movie movie#
Not only is the movie deeply rooted in a female and Asian-North American perspective, it wades into a chapter of life unfrequented by Pixar. And its protagonist, 13-year-old Meilin Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), is a Chinese-Canadian eighth-grader in the throes of puberty.įor Pixar, a factory of childhood whimsy designed to make adults cry, “Turning Red" fills in more than a few blind spots. Its leadership team, including producers and art departments, is entirely female. The film, directed by Domee Shi, who made the lovely Oscar-winning short “Bao,” is the first Pixar movie directly solely by a woman. For better and worse, “Turning Red” is like no Pixar film before it.