H. T. Davey Reviews

Review by H. T. Davey

Turning Red (2022)

★★★

Director: Domee Shi

Turning Red is a new Disney/Pixar animated film about a young 13-year-old girl, named Meilin, who discovers whenever she gets uncontrollably emotional, she turns into a giant red panda. Very relatable. The film is meant to be an analogy for growing up and puberty, where our bodies change physically and, we develop and change emotionally in the process. The film also explores the role families have in our lives and how at times parental and school pressure can become emotionally draining when we are trying to understand ourselves and grow individually.

Directed by Domee Shi, the film explores a Chinese Canadian family in 2002, the year with Tamagotchi’s and school kids’ obsession with boy bands and fluffy things. We see Meilin grow as a young girl with her friends and family as she begins to understand her red panda and her growing pains.

Meilin hides a lot from her mother to not disappoint her in anyway, which begins to distance herself from her family as she begins to lie and hide her true self. This concept becomes explored deeper near the end of the film where Meilin decides to accept who she is, including her red panda, and strives to not hide herself from the world anymore. Later we witness Meilin and her mother share a deeper bond of acceptance where they both accept each other, as they are.

This film is appropriate viewing for the whole family with its fun and light-hearted themes, while also tugging at the heart strings with its emotional story line. A film all about accepting ourselves and also accepting others proves to be a well-done Disney film the family can enjoy.